With the parliamentary party in government, Liberal Democrats often get asked why are they in a coalition with the Tories. Have “we” given up our principles for power? Do we agree with what the coalition government is doing? All kinds of different questions, especially in light of recent entrapment exercises with the press which showed […]

A recent committee meeting looked at the wants and needs of the community around leisure based on responses from a focus group. Whilst it was a small sample size it was great to see that the councils current efforts are in the direction that people wanted. A few examples are given below: Cycling. Suggested improvements: […]

Late last week OFSTED published its judgements following the inspection of Hertfordshire Children’s Services. The judgement on the council’s department was found to be “adequate”. This, as the report states, means the council is reaching the minimum standards. The detailed report sets out some immediate changes that the council must make. These include: Hertfordshire NHS […]

Sorry if this seems a bit techie, but below is the official response as to what happened with the Bernards Heath playing field which was dug up recently. The short story is that they found actually that there were two different problems on the field.  There will potentially always be a danger of holes appearing.  […]

It’s not the headline we want to read, but the local councils, police, fire service and others have been involved in an Emergency Planning event, Operation Orion.  The simulation has been designed to make sure that if we did have a major incident, as we saw with Buncefield, the emergency services and others would be […]

Popular local club, St Albans Judo Club has achieved Clubmark status from Sport England due to their positive work locally. The award recognises clubs which have developed high quality and welcoming environments for young people. It aims to encourage clubs to foster sporting talent and leadership development to support the future sporting infrastructure in England. […]

Dear all, Many thanks to everyone who turned out to vote on Thursday, regardless of who you voted for. The turn out was up- and we even had queueing at the polling stations (although thankfully I’m not aware of anyone being unable to vote, unlike other parts of the country!). There was good news and […]

Cllr Allan Witherick has used some of his Locality Budget to help support St Albans Credit Union (http://www.stadcu.org/) so that it can carry on its work supporting local people. Allan said “The work that groups like St Albans Credit Union and others do to support local families can be invaluable during this recession.  Many will […]

When it comes to cycle routes which we should be using to encourage people to both exercise and support green travel- the Tory Council is silent. You can search for “Cycle routes”, “Cycle maps”, “Bike routes”, “cycle paths” and you get sent to leaflets you can download from other sites if you get lucky. You […]

This week Cllr Allan Witherick was pleased to inform a number of local organisations of the grants he had awarded from his locality budget. “With just £10,000 to distribute I waited a while to make sure I got in a number of bids before I made any decision. Having this community money is a responsibility […]