War memorials – note from the district council

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has granted listed building consent to restoration work on the war memorial in St Peter’s Street, St Albans.

This work will be the first part of a restoration programme for the war memorials in the care of St Albans City and District Council.

The Council is committed to honouring those who died for their country and to the long-term preservation of the City’s war memorial heritage.

Last year Cabinet agreed to obtain specialist advice on the cleaning and maintenance of the war memorial at the top of St Peter’s Street, St Albans.

It also agreed to an inspection of all the City war memorials with a view to putting in place an ongoing programme of cleaning and maintenance.

All the war memorials in the Council’s care have been inspected by a stonework and conservation specialist. He has advised us which war memorials require restoration work and how this should be done

A programme of work has been drawn up for the restoration of five war memorials.

The first stage relates to the restoration of the grade II war memorial in St Peter’s Street. This will involve cleaning, re-pointing work and the restoration of the names of members of the armed forces who died in World War II. The names are located separately at the base of the memorial and are difficult to read due to erosion.

As part of the restoration process, we will meet the request of the family concerned and correct one of the names which was originally misspelt.

Although the Council obtained quotes for this work some time ago, work could not be undertaken without listed building consent.

As the work is likely to take up to twelve weeks to be carried out, we do not plan to start it before Remembrance Sunday on 11 November 2012.

The names of those who died in World War II are inscribed on stone panels. Each panel will be extracted and temporarily taken off site so it can be properly restored. While the work is being undertaken, the memorial will be fenced off.

The restoration will take place at the earliest opportunity next spring, when the weather conditions will be more suitable for the re-pointing work to be carried out.

Greener living tips for Hertfordshire householders

An online guide to help Hertfordshire residents adapt their homes to save energy and water has been launched by the county’s local authorities.

The Hertfordshire Building Futures Partnership, which comprises Hertfordshire County Council plus the ten district and borough authorities, has unveiled the new ‘Retrofit Resource’, which provides a wealth of information to help save energy and water.

Retrofitting not only means making homes more efficient through technology, it also involves using sustainable materials; for example, insulation made from recycled materials; and also preparing for climate change; for example, making adaptations to deal with extreme temperatures and severe storms.

The new resource sets out 12 steps to success, from identifying financial and environmental savings to choosing the right retrofit solutions to help. As well as tips that cost nothing but save money, such as using less energy and water, the guide shows householders how to make use of green technologies and make their home more resilient to a changing climate.

Available as a short ‘how-to’ guide and a more comprehensive manual with detailed information, the retrofit resource tells householders what to do before making any changes, what funding is available to help and the typical cost and financial savings of each solution. An online database of Hertfordshire companies with appropriate expertise is also part of the package.

The Building Futures Retrofit Resource has been created in partnership with BioRegional Development Group and the Association for the Conservation of Energy, and has been developed with funds and assistance from the Climate Change Skills Fund, which has been managed by Sustainability East on behalf of Improvement East. The Hertfordshire Building Futures Partnership is a partnership of the eleven local planning authorities in Hertfordshire.

To access both guides and the database of companies visit the Building Futures website at www.hertslink.org/buildingfutures.

What a massive waste!

WasteAware, the organisation set up by Hertfordshire’s local authorities and funded by the County Council has produced a ‘film noir comedy’ in the vein of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, to explain to people the issues around properly separating food and garden waste from other rubbish.

The professionally-produced film is, in total, thirty minutes long and STILL makes mistakes with what can and can’t be disposed of for composting.

Having spent £20,000 producing this film and a further unspecified amount getting it shown and put online, to date the County Council’s records show just 1000 people have seen it.

“The 15 minute film has been professionally made at a cost of £20,000 to Herts tax payers,” said Lib Dem environment spokesperson Cllr Rob Prowse. “Yet very few people have ever heard of it, let alone seen it. WasteAware is funded by the County Council but they don’t seem to be accountable to anyone for how they spend tax payers’ money.”

“The Lib Dems agree with the aims of WasteAware but this is simply not on. At £20 per viewing, the film itself seems a massive waste!”

Options for traffic in the city centre

The following paper has just been presented to the City Forum. Please give us your views.

City Centre Traffic

The current SADC administration have confirmed (in agreement with city District and county member White) that they will not progress with the St Peters Street Scheme as they don’t believe it provided the benefits required in terms of air quality and potential impact on local streets and business in the city.

Consideration is currently being given to other options to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion. These are:

– The closure of Victoria Street (from the Maltings car park exit to Chequers Street) to all vehicles except buses. The Maltings car park access onto Victoria Street to become exit only and the signal staging / timings at the Chequers Street / Victoria Street junction revised to have bus demand call for Victoria Street.

– Improvements at junctions on the ring road

– Potential traffic gating / queue relocation options at a signalised King Harry junction. (Note: This probably won’t work in capacity terms but could work as a queue relocation measure to restrict the number of vehicles entering the city centre)

– As an alternative to King Harry junction a potential traffic gating / queue relocation facility through signalisation of the Holywell Hill / Griffiths Way junction. As there is a short dual carriageway section just to the north of the junction consideration should be given as to whether there is any scope to shift the junction northwards or possibly consider an alternative design such as a long about, incorporating pedestrian facilities near the Abbey station to take advantage of this potential additional queuing space. There may be opportunities for bus priority in this scheme.

Modelling work has been undertaken to consider options of the above and is currently being assessed for discussion with councillors and the network St Albans.

Key points
– Consultations and any subsequent decisions taken would be engineering-lead
– Initial decisions/preferred options would evolve through initial consultation with the city centre members and key stakeholders including the QNP
– Initial decisions/preferred options would be taken to the wider public for consultation.

Update on progress with upgrading path between Hillside Road and Townsend Avenue

I have received this note from the county council which is now managing the project.

We have given your specification to our contractors to price and give potential dates for works to commence. These should be with us just after Easter. We have been reminded that scheduling the work will need to be mindful of the nesting season (early March to late August) as even hedge pruning and clearing of vegetation can be deemed inappropriate in some instances. We will do everything we can to get the works started as soon as possible but experiences elsewhere in the borough tell us we need to take care.

Great compost giveaway

The great St Albans compost give away

The refuse and recycling team at St Albans City & District Council is holding a Great Compost Give Away event on Sunday 25th March.

The compost is the product of residents’ green recycling efforts and is being organised by the Council, just ahead of the Easter break, to promote composting and green waste recycling.

Residents can come and collect their compost, on a first come, first served basis. This is a do-it-yourself event and you will need to bring a shovel and some bags which you will need to fill yourself.

The Great Compost Give Away is being held at Sandridge Gate Business Park in Ronsons Way, St Albans, near the Household Waste Recycling Centre, from 10am to 3pm, or until stocks run out.

Conservative response to lights switch-off: “buy a torch”

The position of the ruling Conservative group on the County Council on the controversial lights switch-off proposals was illuminated at the Full Council on Tuesday, 21st February, when one of the Conservatives suggested that she didn’t know what people were doing going around past midnight, and that anyone who objected to the plans “should buy a torch.”

Chris White, the Lib Dem Group leader and Councillor for St Albans Central, commented: ‘The Conservative councillor’s comments show just how out of touch they are. When we recently showed the plans for the switch-off to the public– something that the County Council refused to do, relying instead on members’ feedback – I was approached by a number of residents who pointed out that pub workers, for example, don’t get out of work long past midnight. This is clearly a much wider problem: I know many restaurant workers don’t get out of work a lot later than that.’

Lights switch-off plans to go on display

Controversial plans to switch off some street lights in St Albans at night – part of a wider scheme being rolled out across Hertfordshire by the Conservative-run County Council – will go on display at the District Council following intervention by our local Lib Dem councillors.

Street maps showing the lights set to be switched off in the City will also be available for the public to view at the Liberal Democrat office (9 Hatfield Rd, St Albans AL1 3RR – above the Kashu Restaurant) on Saturday 18th February from 10 a.m. till 1 p.m., when a County Councillor will be on hand to answer questions and listen to residents’ views. The period to receive feedback has also been extended, thanks to Lib Dem pressure, to allow more residents to be consulted.

The plans have been put on the web, too: see www.stalbanslibdems.org.uk/partnightlighting.

Allan Witherick, Lib Dem County Councillor for St Albans North, said: “We have heard from a number of local residents who are unsure about this scheme, and wanted to make sure we did everything to address people’s concerns and feed them back to the County Council.

“When we were finally given the plans by the Council’s officers towards the end of last week, we thought it would be useful to put them on display, so that people could stop by after the Market if they wanted to. After we put the plans online on Friday, some people stopped by this Saturday, so we want to make sure that as many people as possible can come to next week’s viewing.”

Michael Green, chair of the City Forum, which discussed consultation arrangements for the street lighting proposals at its most recent meeting on Tuesday 7th February, added: “Councillors expressed concern that insufficient time or opportunity was being given to local residents to voice their opinion on the lights that will be switched off. The District Council has agreed to the Forum’s request to display relevant maps in the council offices, in principle – we are still awaiting details – but this initiative from the Liberal Democrats will provide another opportunity for people to view the plans and will allow them to provide feedback directly to the county councillor present.”