Chris White

TEMPORARY CLOSING OF Selby Avenue, St Albans during a ‘Big Lunch Street Party’

NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 16(A) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using that length of Selby Avenue, St Albans from its junction with Britton Avenue northwards to its junction with Upton Avenue, a distance of approximately 97 metres, except for access.

The length of road will be closed between the hours of 11.00am and 5.00pm on Sunday 2 June 2013, when signs are in place. An alternative signed route will be provided for traffic whilst the road closure is in place.

The purpose of the Order is to ensure public safety and prevent accidents for the duration of the ‘Big Lunch Street Party’.

Chris has called upon the county council to restore the badly faded white lines in the area. He said:

‘I am getting increasing numbers of complaints. The lines are there for a reason – to mark out lanes and protect the public, both motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

‘Yet time and time again the county council just neglects them – and in some cases they have faded away entirely.’

Illustrated: white lines almost totally gone on Victoria Street.

From the county council:

Temporary closing of Alexandra Road and The service road fronting Nos 22-46 St Peters Street, St Albans

NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using the following lengths of roads, except for access:-

1. that length of Alexandra Road, St Albans from its junction with B6424 Alma Road north westwards for its entire length.

2. that length of Alexandra Road, St Albans from its junction with Lattimore Road south eastwards for its entire length.

3. the service road fronting Nos 22-46 St Peters Street, St Albans from its northernmost junstion with A1081 St Peters Street south eastwards, south westwards and north westwards to its southernmost junstion with A1081 St Peters Street, a distance of approximately 121 metres.

The purpose of the Order is to enable highway maintenance works to take place.

The sections of roads will each be closed for approximately 7 days, sometime during the period 8 June 2013 and 8 December 2013, when signs are in place. Alternative signed routes will be provided for traffic whilst the road closures are in place.

If you have any queries about the highway maintenance works or the temporary road closures, please contact James Vine tel. 0300 123 4047 at Ringway on behalf of HCC.

Note from the county council

My apologies … for the lack of notice to yourself and local residents in advance of these works

This work was part of the highways winter recovery programme which has had a swift turn round process from survey to works and has resulted in the term “emergency” being used. In this case, the works were identified on 23/4/13 and work commenced on 25/4/13.

Mistakenly, our delivery team (Ringway), interpreted the status of “emergency” as meaning that all processes could be cut out of the system. Whilst this can be acceptable for road space booking purposes, it is not acceptable to miss out on the communication processes, both to local members and local residents.

We have clarified our requirements to Ringway that if disruption (eg impact on traffic, noise for residents) is likely as a result of works, it is essential that information is given to local members and residents.

We have received this email which is the first positive news we have had in writing for a while:

Dear Cllr White,

Thank you for your email regarding the resurfacing of Alexandra Road, St Albans.

We are currently waiting on the approval of the TTRO to close Alexandra Road.  Once this has been obtained we are looking to undertake the works this financial year.  As soon as we have a start date for these works, [we] will update you accordingly.

Chris’s locality budget will (in part) be used to fund footway repairs in Avenue Road.

The map below shows (in red) the areas which will be dealt with:

Avenue Road footway repairs

Chris says: ‘My thanks to everyone who supported me and helped in my re-election. I am of course elected to serve all the residents of St Albans Central, so please get in touch if I can be of assistance.’

The full results are set out below:

Chris White has slammed Herts County Council contractor Ringway over their cavalier attitude to local residents over night time roadworks that took place late last week and over the weekend.

Neither councillors nor residents were notified and Chris was told by an official working for Ringway, contracted to the County Council, that this was because they were an emergency: if anyone had been told about them they would be ‘planned’ works – no doubt from a different budget. The official in question was unable to tell him the nature of the emergency.

But he has written with a fuller ‘explanation’, set out below:

Further to our telephone conversation this morning, I have looked into the issue and can provide you with the explanation below:

We have been undertaking large scale patching works on London Road as part of the countywide Asset Recovery Programme. This programme has been put together to carry out urgent repairs on the A and B roads across the county. The works themselves are carried out under immediate/urgent permits. These permits are generally only agreed on the day the works are due to take place. Unfortunately this leaves very little time for notification to affected parties and there is no specific requirement to do so.

The works on London Road took place on the nights of 25, 26 and 27 April and are now complete. Due to the traffic management required, this meant that the Alma Road roundabout works were completed in two phases on 25 and 27 April. The works were completed at night because the disruption caused on London Road would have been too great during the day.

I can only apologise for the disturbance to your constituents during this period but I assure you that we did and do our utmost to control the noise pollution on all our works. Unfortunately, on the first night of the works one piece of equipment broke down meaning that works did carry on until 3am.

Thank you for your comments about notifying Members (and residents if possible) in this type of situation in future. I will discuss this with the team here and put together process changes where possible.

Rest assured: we shall continue to pursue this matter to make sure that residents are never put in this position again.

Note from the District Council

The posters currently up in the park are to inform people that contractors are on site and currently developing those 2 specific areas; the older children’s activity area and the outdoor gym.

Through the consultation there were a number of areas that were raised. With regards to the Children’s Play Area there were a number of responses which talked about better maintenance, paint job and clean up as well as repair broken equipment.

I will be meeting with our Ground Maintenance Contractors, who have responsibility for the day to day maintenance of equipment, along with a member of the Parks Team to look at the Children’s Play Area. We will be assessing what needs to be fixed and repaired and getting confirmation of this. I will also be looking at what needs repainting and a bit of TLC in the area at this visit.

With regards to the equipment, through the consultation with residents there were suggestions for big swings, tyre/basket swings for older children. There were also comments that the teenage area is currently used by mainly under 12’s and there needs to be more for teenagers. The new equipment that is being installed has been specifically chosen to cater for a wide age range. The consultation was also conducted with 57 pupils from Fleetville Junior School along with a separate 9 young people feeding into the consultation from the residents’ questionnaire. We have tried to bear in mind that the current usage of the park is mainly from Fleetville Infant and Junior School each day. Therefore the feedback we received from Fleetville Junior School pupils has helped inform the types of equipment that have been chosen.

New equipment that is going into and around the “Teenage Area”:

Ø       IXO Multiplay Unit is recommended for 8-14 year olds

Ø       Cableway is recommended for 4-14 year olds

Ø       Hip Hop is recommended for 6-12 year olds

Ø       Pendulum Swing is recommended for 8-14 year olds

Ø       Goal End is recommended for all ages

The new Outdoor Gym Equipment will be suitable for anyone aged 12+

As part of the ongoing improvements there will also be additional work happening. 3 new picnic benches will be installed in the area in the next few weeks as work is being completed by the current contractors on site.

Yesterday I confirmed the date for a Community Involvement Day at the Recreation Ground and am about to start planning this event. The day will be held on Sunday 7^th July and residents, local groups and young people will be invited to come and get involved. People will be invited to help us paint the old equipment that remains on site, including the Children’s Play Area, paint the Community Centre Wall in the Children’s Play Area and help us with some planting. Local clubs will also be invited to come along and deliver some sport and physical activities so the day has plenty for children and families to do together. As I said, I am about to start planning this event so cannot currently give you much more detail on this.

Liberal Democrat County Councillors have been battling to make sure local people get the bus passes they are entitled to.

Local residents from across the County have faced long delays for bus pass renewals, with some facing lengthy waits and having to resubmit documents.

County Councillor Kareen Hastrick (Meriden Tudor) said, “I have had to intervene where local residents have had to wait so long their old passes have run out.  Fortunately bus companies have granted people a grace period, despite their passes having expired.

“I have raised this problem in County Hall repeatedly and asked why so many people are having to wait so long and not had a proper response.  This is yet another service at County Hall that the conservatives are mismanaging, although if people cannot get on buses at least they won’t be bounced around over the potholed roads that the Conservatives have also failed to deal with.”

“I have raised this with County Council staff several times now and have not had a satisfactory answer about what is going on, which I find all the more strange given how many of my fellow County Councillors have been helping local residents across the County with the same issue!”

No-one is safe from this problem, County Councillor Malcolm Cowan (Handside and Peartree) commented “I recently sent off my renewals for my passport and my bus pass, both on the same day.

“I was absolutely stunned when my passport returned first.  Are Herts County Council carrying out greater security checks on people who just want to get on a bus, than the government do for people flying, as I cannot think of why else it would quicker to renew a passport than a bus pass.  This is sheer madness and shows that the system is failing”