The Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire greeted His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester to Bedfordshire on Friday 28th February 2025.
The Duke toured three sites across Central Bedfordshire, Bedford Borough and Luton, with all three sites offering brand new resources to students and community users.
Community groups, alongside local school children and distinguished guests joined together to showcase the latest asset to the Central Bedfordshire village of Potton. Potton Hall for All has been designed in consultation with residents and user groups to ensure it was fit for purpose across numerous user groups for the community.
The Lord Lieutenant commented that the hall is a lovely facility and will provide the growing community of the town with greater opportunities to organise events and activities and come together.
The tour followed on to join students, teachers and support staff at the official opening of Bedford Greenacre Independent School (BGI). The Duke of Gloucester was greeted by The Lord Lieutenant as well as children from the school lining the school car park, all waving Union Jack flags. The Duke of Gloucester was later introduced to Mr Ian Daniel, Principal of BGI as well as distinguished guests for a tour of the school and facilities.
Architects (Lungfish Architects) and Builders (Pellikaan Construction Limited) of the BGI project were able to discuss the merits of the design process in creating a building with influences of the surrounding rural setting and encompassing the 'Forest School' ethos.
Moving across the county, The Duke of Gloucester visited the newly opened Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, 'SIM Street' facility at The University of Bedfordshire.
The Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire introduced His Royal Highness to Professor Andrew Church, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, and Simon Yun-Farmborough, Chair of the University's Board of Governors.
The space, which is a specially designed immersive facility designed to replicate real-world scenarios that give students an insight into their future careers in health and social care, allowed His Royal Highness to meet students and health care professionals who have already benefitted from the state of the art health simulation areas.
The Lord Lieutenant said: 'It was a great pleasure to join His Royal Highness at this outstanding addition to the teaching facilities at our University. They are quite spectacular and will provide state of the art opportunities to train the health and social care professionals of the future'.