Bedford Borough’s Mayor has been slammed for overseeing a ‘culture of secrecy’ after a proposal to ‘relocate’ the Council’s Travel and Tourism Centre was scrapped.
At its meeting on the 7th September 2016, Mayor Hodgson’s Executive agreed to consult on a proposal to close the Council’s Travel and Tourism Centre, currently located in the Bus Station. The Council would subsequently ‘relocate the service to the library / other Council property’.
The plan was considered by the Council’s Corporate Services Committee on the 13th October 2016, with councillors expressing their views on the relocation. The public consultation on the proposal received 451 responses, with 66% arguing against the closure.
The final proposal agreed by the Mayor’s Executive at its meeting on the 18th January 2017 was, however, entirely different. Executive members agreed that travel and tourism advice will be ‘self-service’ while leaflets and posters will be placed in the Central Library. This means that there will be no dedicated Travel and Tourism Centre and no staffing resource to provide advice.
Cllr Roger Rigby has hit out at the Mayor’s administration, stating that the public were ‘misled’. He said:
‘We were told that the Travel and Tourism Service would ‘relocate’ but this has been ditched in favour of a vague ‘self-service’ model and a rack of leaflets in the Central Library. This is a lazy option that has overridden alternatives which could have maintained a similar service at little or no extra cost, such as utilising library staff or volunteers to provide tourism advice.
‘The final proposal completely disregards the views expressed by councillors and the public during the consultation process. We have been misled.
‘This saga is a damning indictment of Mayor Hodgson’s administration and its culture of secrecy where lip-service is paid to the democratic process but decisions are rubber stamped behind closed doors.’