Spotted an interesting comment made by the Mayor of Bedford, Tom Wootton, who told the Transport Select Committee in the House of Commons on 6 March 2024:
"...I have these Americans [Universal Studios] coming in wanting to invest in our area, the Government really have stepped up to the mark. We did months of work with them [Universal] and then handed it over to the Government. I thought that was it, but within a few days they had put a special taskforce together to encourage them. That is something exciting. That is central Government saying, “Come on, we want this.” They can do it when they want to."
This comment was in the context of how effective the processes are for national and local government to work together for major transport infrastructure, in this particular case talking about the East West Rail development which should mean a second rail station being built to serve USGB. It's yet another indication of just how much work has gone on behind the scenes before we heard any suggestion of a Universal development in Bedford. It also confirms that national government is responding extremely positively to this potential investment from Universal - even the local mayor was surprised how quickly the national government set up a task force, within days, to respond to the work which had been undertaken by Universal and the local council.
"...I have these Americans [Universal Studios] coming in wanting to invest in our area, the Government really have stepped up to the mark. We did months of work with them [Universal] and then handed it over to the Government. I thought that was it, but within a few days they had put a special taskforce together to encourage them. That is something exciting. That is central Government saying, “Come on, we want this.” They can do it when they want to."
This comment was in the context of how effective the processes are for national and local government to work together for major transport infrastructure, in this particular case talking about the East West Rail development which should mean a second rail station being built to serve USGB. It's yet another indication of just how much work has gone on behind the scenes before we heard any suggestion of a Universal development in Bedford. It also confirms that national government is responding extremely positively to this potential investment from Universal - even the local mayor was surprised how quickly the national government set up a task force, within days, to respond to the work which had been undertaken by Universal and the local council.