Chris White

Yesterday the Government has released the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) which sets out the development plans for the next 13 years in the region. The plan calls for 508,000 houses to built and the creation of 452,000 jobs in the region and suggest the growth areas throughout the region including Chelmsford, Hemel Hempstead and Thurrock. However the plan does not cover the extend of infrastructure improvements that will be required for this kind of growth. Nor does it provide the financing for this.

Chris White, Liberal Democrat Leader in the East of England Regional Assembly said: ‘It has been a long wait for the publication of this document. It suggest major changes for growth areas but as usual has no money to implement the changes that are required in infrastructure. Not only do we need increased investment in roads and rail to cope with these increases in population but also schools and community facilities.

‘The launch and distribution of the document has also been a mess. Press have been informed and given details and data, but nobody seems to have told the councils who will have to implement these orders from government.’

At this week’s ‘Planning and External Relations’ Cabinet Panel, the members were unanimous in favour of rejecting the recommendatiojns from EERA on the grounds that they are arbitrary, ill-thought through and not in the interests of either the settled or the traveller communities. In particular the idea that every district regardless of size and greenbelt should take 15 pitches was dismissed as a nonsense. The Tory chair of the Panel has agreed to write a very strong letter. Which is interesting since he was the chair of the EERA Panel which originally came up with the proposals - and he refused to back me and my Lib Dem colleagues when we proposed that these crazy proposals be withdrawn.

 His letter to EERA will make interesting reading!

There are some serious safety issues at this junction which will only get worse when the lorry movements at the ‘Oaklands’ site start to get going. I have asked for Herts Highways to review the crossing - not least to see whether anything can be done about crossing on red.

I have managed to badger Herts Highways into:

- replacing the keep clear markings at the junction of Stanhope Road and Grimston Road

- Rstoring the give way markings at the bottom of Carlisle Avenue.

I am awaiting news as to:

the completion of the patching works on Beaumont Avenue

the restarting of the aborted patching works on Spencer Street.

One of the most noticeable facets of the local election campaign was the fury of local residents over roads and pavements. Many have noticed how much it gets better if you cross the border into another county. So it can’t just be Government underfunding (although that doesn’t help). The Herts Highways system isn’t working. And that is a political matter which will inevitably feature when people vote in the county council election next year.

I really think we are finally there. As far as I can tell the noise from the announcements has been turned down. So thanks to local residents who kept me informed, to the Herts Advertiser and the BBC for giving this publicity, and finally to the District Council who issued the all important noice abatement notice.

First Capital Connect is used to brickbats but the latest episode concerning St Albans City Station seems pointlessly trivial.

Their PA system has been annoying residents for some time and has recently been made even louder. I have now involved St Albans District Council, the Herts Advertiser and the BBC. Between us we are now at last hearing some concilatory noises from FCC. Today, certainly, the pointless stream of Sussex stations wasn’t there, nor the even more pointless warnings about smoking. And even the man on the tannoy was not shouting his head off.

We only wanted the volume turned down a bit. Now we have had to involve environmental health, two media outlets and the time and anxiety of the neighbours.

What is it about the word ‘customer’ that FCC don’t understand?

Liberal Democrats on the East of England Regional Assembly attempted on Friday to restore common sense to the controversial process for increasing the number of the gypsy and traveller pitches in the region.

A Liberal Democrat amendment tabled at EERA’s meeting in Norwich would have allowed district councils in Hertfordshire and elsewhere to resist their new pitch allocations if they were able to prove through their local planning process that the provision could not be met. This would have been of particular use to district councils in the green belt or which were largely urbanised.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat groups on both the regional assembly and Hertfordshire County Council Chris White said: ‘This was a measured response to a process which had quite frankly lost the plot. I am delighted that a number of Conservative led authorities like Southend supported us. I remain stunned, however, that the Conservative representative of Hertfordshire County Council broke away from his own colleagues and led the charge to defeat the amendment.

‘I am sure communities in many parts of Hertfordshire – already under enough pressure from the destruction of the green belt – will be wanting an explanation from him and from the County Council.’

The amendment was defeated as a result of Labour and Conservative votes.

Chris added: ‘Hertfordshire needs around 115 pitches, according to independent research accepted by EERA. As a result of this vote Hertfordshire will now have to find space for 176 pitches – it is difficult to imagine how anyone could regard this as proper process.

‘Councils which object will now have to invest resources in fighting this in the Examination in Public or through the courts.’

Chris is the chair of the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board.

One of the key roles of the Local Government Association is to stick up for local councils and therefore local communities. Currently I am working on:

• the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics
• the review of licensing laws
• developing our tourism industry
• making sure that Sport England don’t forget about the need to fund participation in sport as well as elite sport

But the overall theme is to remind policy makers that a society without culture is no society at all.

There has been a great deal of anxiety about the county council’s proposals to close the centre and transfer clients elsewhere. It did not help that the county council changed its policy without telling local councillors. In fact the proposals ought to be better for most current users - with either more choice of hours or better facilities. But readers who are anxious should get in touch.