Update on Bedford Road pavements

Some residents were concerned that the height of the new kerbs would prevent parallel parking in an already narrow street. I have raised it with Herts Highways and got the following response:

Further to my last email, Chris and I have visited site, Chris has also had
a meeting with the works team supervisor.

The kerbs which have been installed to a standard height will not look high
once the final patching has been completed. We will continue to monitor
the situation but should you hear any comments please let me know, thank
you.

County Council still attempt to wriggle out of their promises on Lemsford Road

I have received this note from the county council. There are various reasons cited for the promised work not being done – the last and least acceptable is the state of play in relation to the development on the former Oaklands College site. If the developers decide not to proceed further because of economic conditions then Lemsford Road will remain unsurfaced indefinitely in direct breach of the commitment given to residents.

This shows that the County Council continues to be TOTALLY UNTRUSTWORTHY.

Note from Herts County Council

There are two phases of works required:

Phase 1 – Pre-patching works to correct the worst defects and reshape certain areas of road. These works should now be clear to proceed and are looking to programme them in Jan or Feb ’10. These works are not dependant on the utility connections to the site being completed and can therefore proceed.

Phase 2: Ralumac (heavy duty micro asphalt) surfacing to the whole road.

These works can only proceed once the utility connections are done to avoid the new surface being dug-up although the connections only affect the last section of the road (about 1/4).

There is a suitable programme of Ralumac provisionally planned for March 2010 in which this could be included although details and dates are still to be confirmed.

If the connections are complete by then we would complete the Phase 2 works on the whole site.

If there are still outstanding works to connect to the development we would surface the majority of the road in March and return to do the last section in the following FY once the utility works were out of the way.

There are, however, a number of circumstances beyond our immediate control that need to be flagged up as potential risks to this timetable:

Weather: Severe weather, such as snow or prolonged heavy rain, is always a risk in the last part of the year and may cause programmes to slip. In particular Ralumac is a weather sensitive process (although less so than some similar processes) which is one reason why this aspect is programmed for March rather than January to February. However an extended period of bad weather could cause the works to slip.

Furthermore Ralumac is a proprietary material meaning that we depend on the availability of the specialist contractor.

The development: while the above plan is based on our latest best information, the development has been on/off for a while as a result of economic conditions. It is possible that something further may change to complicate matters

Council spends £45 million it hasn’t got

The Tory-run County Council this week has bought the freehold to two
properties it currently rents for £45 million. As this was not in the
County’s budget the County Council has had to borrow the money over a
20 year term at a 4% interest rate. The County Council is limited on
how much it can borrow and because of this purchase has had to
increase its borrowing cap.

This purchase comes at a time that the County is consulting on what
services and budget it can cut for next year’s council tax increase.
In the County’s own documentation they suggest a mere £5m return in 20
years time.

Chris White, Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader, said: ‘This decision
was taken over a month ago in secret. We were surprised that at a time
when the council is talking about hard times and difficult budgets
that money can be so easily splashed around on buying property for a
possible, and by no means definite, financial saving a long way in the
future.

‘We have watched bankers splash around cash like this over the last
few years and look where that got us. It is a shame that this was not
borrowing for projects from which residents would see real, tangible
benefits – like improving the state of our roads.’

Note:

The two properties are Farnham House and Robertson House, Gunnells
Wood Road, Stevenage

£45m is the equivalent to £45 a head of population in Herts

The interest rate is variable so costs of borrowing may rise

Herts County announces improvements to winter communications

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There was great controversy earlier this year when the county’s systems broke down – not just in relation to gritting but also in terms of communications about school closures.

Updated winter communications for Hertfordshire now in place

With winter on its way, and following last year’s severe weather, Hertfordshire Highways’ fleet of 61 gritters has been on standby since the beginning of October.

A major part of recommendations of the Scrutiny Topic Group into Winter Maintenance concerned communications, notably with partners such as transport operators, other councils and public services, and especially schools. All the actions from the topic group due for this winter season are now complete, with communication links having been tested in dry run exercises.

Another key element of the recommendations has been to improve access to online winter service information to the general public. The winter service section of Hertsdirect has been updated and reorganised to provide better access to information such as winter driving tips and advice, salt bin locations and salting routes, details of salting “decisions” (notification of when gritters will be sent out) and a variety of other information. The link to the updated website is: http://www.hertsdirect.org/envroads/roadstrans/highways/hhonlineservices/saltingroutes/

Children Schools and Families will also introduce a new text-based system this winter enabling schools to text information on whether they are open directly to the front page of Hertsdirect, which will run alongside the current “drive time” announcements run by local radio stations.

Snow clearing from pavements

To counter inaccurate reports last winter that people who cleared snow from their pavement could be sued if someone subsequently injured themselves, Hertfordshire Highways has taken legal advice which states that you can clear the pathway in front of your home if you wish to do so. If anyone injures themselves, then liability rests with Hertfordshire County Council as the statutory highways authority.

However, if the footpath is your own, or is on land you own (for example, your driveway, patio or pathway), and it is not classified as a highway adopted by Hertfordshire Highways, you as the owner of that footpath would be liable for any failure of care if anyone injures themselves on it.

Incentives for council tenants have been updated

A number of incentives for council tenants were reviewed at Cabinet on 4 November. The aim of the changes is to ensure that housing resources are aimed at those tenants with the greatest needs.

Recent consultation with tenant representatives on the housing strategy identified the under occupation of council properties, as being of significant concern to them.

The proposals went to Overview and Scrutiny (Public Services)* who recommended:-

· The objective of giving incentives should be to reduce under occupancy.

· Incentives should be given only to those who need the service and to those living in appropriately sized housing.

· Incentives should be phased out where appropriate, rather than stopped.

· Consideration should also be given to using funds saved from phasing out incentives, to improve the green spaces on the estates.

Therefore it has been decided to make the following changes:-

The 50th anniversary payment rewarded anyone who had been a council tenant continuously for fifty years, with a payment of 4 weeks rent. This meant that tenants occupying larger homes with higher rents received larger payments. This payment is now seen to be unfair as an increasing number of people housed by the Council do not become council tenants but are referred to Housing Associations or Registered Social Landlords. It also unfairly rewards people who live in larger accommodation where rents are inevitably higher.

The savings used from withdrawal of this benefit will be used to increase the grant for tenants who voluntarily move from larger accommodation to one bedroom properties thereby enabling families on the waiting list to be housed in the more suitable, family sized properties.

The decoration scheme for tenants over 60 years old who live alone and / or have a disability, enabled them to have one room in their house decorated free of charge every two years. The current budget for this is £50,000.

There are currently 160 tenants on the waiting list for this service.

This service will be withdrawn when committed expenditure to cover those on the waiting list has been utilised. The funds will in future be used to decorate vacant retirement housing and elderly designated properties to make them more attractive for people wishing to move to smaller properties. In addition, once the existing waiting list has been cleared some of the savings will be used to provide a handyman service to assist tenants on the day they move into a property, if they’re moving from a larger property into retirement housing or properties designated for the elderly.

The gardening scheme for tenants over 60 years old, who live alone, and / or have a disability, currently pays for a free basic gardening service. However the cost of providing this service for 2008/9 was £129,842 and it encourages people who can no longer maintain their property to remain there rather than consider moving to an alternative, more suitable property. It also means that people waiting for a property with it’s own garden, who can maintain it have longer to wait.

It is proposed to introduce a charge for those receiving this service.

The service charge will be introduced in April 2010, existing service users will pay 50% of the cost in 2010/2011 and 100% of the cost from 2011/2012. New applicants to the scheme will pay 100% of the cost from the outset.

Cllr Joyce Lusby commented: “The above changes will result in the Council being able to direct £158K to other parts of the service where it’s most needed.”

Swine flu update: note from District Council

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As of Friday 13 November 2009

The Council continues to monitor the situation. There has been a slight dip in the number of people contacting the National Pandemic Flu Service, both nationally and at a local level here in Hertfordshire. This may be due to the October half-term holiday and should not necessarily be seen as the start of a downward trend.

The PCT reminds us that treatment with antivirals remains a key part of the strategy to manage swine flu as antivirals can prevent complications developing in otherwise healthy people. Whilst the spread of swine flu remains at a lower level than first thought, there is still a proportion of the population who are developing a very severe illness after contracting swine flu.

It is therefore very important that those in the priority groups take up their invitation to have the vaccination at the earliest opportunity. GP practices will be calling patients into clinics being held over the next few weeks.

A useful leaflet explaining who is in the priority groups for the vaccination and why it is important they have the jab can be found at Swine flu vaccination, what you need to know.

Chris demands review of highways maintenance

Chris White has demanded that the planned scrutiny of highways maintenance be treated as an emergency.

Chris was attending the County Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee today and condemned the fact that this topic was not due to be looked at for at least six months while much less important issues, like postal services, are being dealt with immediately.

Chris said: ‘Many residents in the county regard highways maintenance as an emergency. Given that councillors in one area have already thrown out the highways maintenance programme it is surely time the county council recognised this as a serious problem.’