Wednesday morning myself and several members of the Executive met with Mr Hugh and Mr Gallagher from East West Rail where they were updating us on their latest round of consultation.
Sadly, they did not give us any information that we did not know already, save that all the plans were to be released at one minute past midnight last night.
They again asked for more meetings between them and officers of the Council. Again, I refused saying that all meetings had to be minuted and be properly recorded as I said during my election campaign.
By now, many of you will have seen the details of what they plan to do to Bedford. We are reaping what the previous Lib Dem Administration sowed, I am so sad that East West Rail chose to ignore all the work that the Council had done on alternative routes. Many of these routes were not properly considered in my view but they were significantly better than the present plan which requires massive land takes in Poets, Cauldwell, and the northern villages - most likely including a large number of people's homes being demolished.
The Consultation and its documents can be found here: https://eastwestrail.co.uk/consultation2024 - It is open from the 14th November till the 24th January 2025
