Sutton Road has been resurfaced out of my Local Highways Budget. It was one of my top priorities. It should have been done from central funds last year and I have been pressing for it to be resurfaced for a few years. Now, as I had the opportunity it has at last been completed.
Use this link to see what the Lib Dems have achieved so far
Danny Alexander
The Coalition Government has signalled that it intends to make the acquisition of new rolling stock easier, by offering official guarantees.
Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Treasury Chief Secretary, announced at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton last week that the first project to benefit from government help is set to be the new fleet for Crossrail. The Treasury is to guarantee funding for 60 new trains as part of the Coalition’s industrial reflation strategy, to ensure there will be no problems with timescales on construction or delivery.
The Coalition Government will contribute £240 million of the cost – about 30 per cent of the total. The remaining funding must still come from the private sector.
Danny Alexander said: “Difficulties raising the necessary private funding in the market could delay their delivery. The contract for Crossrail will be the very first project to be offered a new Government guarantee.
Whilst I was at the Lib Dem conference the County Council again notified residents that they were about to start work on the trees. The notification was on the Friday with work due to start on the Monday. The County Council had not as agreed consulted with residents and in particular the Friends of Birklands set up to aid communication and avoid exactly this sort of problem.
Rob contacted the County Council Chief executive and the work was stopped. It will not now take place until there has been the agreed consultation with the friends of Birklands.
County Council will just not learn that you cannot treat St Albans residents with contempt and get away with it.
On Thursday evening the council’s land agents distributed a letter to local residents saying that on Monday they would return to Birklands Meadow to clear the scrub and self seeded trees.
Now last year they agreed to have dialogue with the residents before going back to finish the work. After numerous phone calls and emails from both myself and Robert Donald the Monday start has once again been postponed until a meeting with local residents has been held.
All of this could have been avoided if they simply did what the agreed to in the first place.
Batford Springs nature reserve, Lyddekker Park and other assets are to be transferred by St Albans City and District Council to Harpenden Town Council subject to final contractual details being agreed.
At a meeting on Thursday, 19 January 2012, the District Council’s Cabinet agreed to transfer the ownership and management of the following assets to the Town Council:
• Batford Springs Local Nature Reserve
• Porters Hill Park, off Pickford Hill, Batford
• Park Hall Community Hall in Leyton Road, Harpenden
• Lydekker Park and car park, Harpenden (subject to agreement of terms).
The move follows a request by Harpenden Town Council to transfer the four assets listed above as well as Westfield Recreation Ground, which Cabinet agreed to in July last year. Most of the assets are already managed, but not owned by the Town Council.
Rob comments, ‘I support Localism and allowing local people to run local facilities. What the Conservatives have done is to go one step further. They have handed over valuable assets that have some revenue and capital value over to Harpeneden Town Council. They have not asked for anything in return or any undertakings that they won’t build on this land just as they have on Westfield allotments.’
Thanks to persistent campaigning by your local Lib Dem Councillors, Herts Highways have started the process of consulting with residents about a 20mph in your area.
‘Many residents have expressed concern about the speed of traffic locally, and especially in Castle Road.’ said Lib Dem District Cllr Andy Grant.
‘It will be important that residents respond to the letter being sent out by Herts Highways asking for their views. Responses should be sent to Mandar Salasteker at the Mid Herts Area Office: midherts.area@hertshighways.org.uk.
‘We know that residents are also rightly concerned by the poor state of the roads and footways. We are continuing to press for the much larger sums of money to be ear-marked for these improvements.’ added Andy.
After the initial consultation on the 20mph zone, Herts Highways will then move to the formal consultation stage required by law.
Lib Dem County Councillor Rob Prowse, who has been pressing Herts Highways to take action said ‘Again, this proves that Lib Dem Councillors actually get on and do things for local people. The other parties just make unfulfilled promises.’
‘Please get in touch with us about this or any other local issue. We are here to serve you.’ added Andy Grant.
Bus users in St Albans and surrounding areas will see a number of innovations being launched this month under the Network St Albans banner. Network St Albans is a partnership between bus and rail operators and local organisations including St Albans City & District Council and Hertfordshire County Council.
On Sunday 15 January the St Albans BUSnet ticket was introduced. This is a new multi-operator bus ticket that allows unlimited travel on any bus, regardless of operator, throughout the Network St Albans area. Daily or weekly tickets can be bought on the first bus used, and is valid on any other bus service within the zone(s) purchased.
To support the launch of the ticket, Network St Albans has produced a handy pocket-sized guide to all bus services in the area, with helpful maps, and includes information on the St Albans BUSnet ticket fares and a map of the three travel zones. This guide is now available from the Civic Centre, tourist information centres and libraries in St Albans and surrounding towns.
To coincide with the launch of St Albans BUSnet ticket, Hertfordshire County Council is introducing a new style of timetable display which is customised to each bus stop, initially in St Albans but will be rolled out across the county over the forthcoming months under the county-wide Intalink brand. Unlike traditional timetables, the new displays list all of the departures from each stop, providing succinct and clear information and will significantly reduce the amount of timetables displayed at bus stops.
Another county-wide development which bus users will see introduced during the early part of 2012 is ‘real-time’ information displayed on the many departure screens across the county. This information will also be available on the Intalink website and on mobile phones using the Intalink phone App.
Stephen Joseph, Chair of Network St Albans and Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport said: “St Albans and the area around it has very high levels of car use and congestion: these initiatives are the first stage in giving people real and attractive alternatives for some car journeys. Further measures, including more frequent city bus services and cycle paths, are on their way and will help people and the city to move around more easily and at lower cost.”
Members of the public are warmly invited to come along to the official launch afternoon of the new advice and information centre in the Civic Centre, St Albans, on the afternoon of Monday 30 January.
Advice, guidance and information from Oaklands College, the Citizens Advice Bureau, St Albans City & District Council and the Volunteer Centre are now available from one building.
The official launch open afternoon will be held between 1.30pm and 4.00pm on 30 January and all are welcome to drop in for a look around and an informal chat. The wide range of services are located within the Council’s main Civic Centre building in St Peter’s Street, St Albans.
Representatives from all four partner organisations will be on hand to show people around, showcase the services on offer and listen to feedback.
More information about the local services centre, including daily opening hours and which organisation is available on
Roof beams for Westminster Lodge
The massive wooden beams that will hold up the roof of the new Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre were installed earlier this week, in what is a landmark stage for the leisure centre development.
The Glulam beams were shipped over from Denmark where they took eight weeks to design and fourteen weeks to manufacture. The five main beams are each over 35m long and will support the roof structure over the main pool.
To get the main beams to St Albans, a Police and highways escort was required from Harwich port. Signage and railings had to be temporarily removed from a traffic island on Holywell Hill to enable the extended delivery trailers access to the Westminster Lodge construction site.
A 200 tonne crane was used to complete the installation of the beams. A crane of this size cannot travel as one unit and had to be constructed on site before the beams could be lifted onto site.