Notes from Herts Highways

Bowgate: Carriageway breaking up
Patching work completed, agreed no further action required at present.
Sailsbury Avenue: Imminent footway works. Confirmation that works on IWP are road only and no action is proposed on the footway at this time.
Shirley Road: Poor condition of Carriageway and footway. Investigation required into parking problems, site to be inpsected by HH and any immediate safety hazards to be reported via fault system.

My comments:
On Salisbury Avenue, local residents will be greatly relieved at this.
On Shirley Road, it is clear that replacing slabs is not going towork given the illegal parking. Further discussions to take place on this. Any input from residents welcome.

Andrew Duff was reelected as MEP for the East of England, which includes St Albans. The Liberal Democrats were third in the region, ahead of Labpur.

Many thanks to all of you who supported me on Thursday.

It is now my duty to support all my residents – regardless of how they voted and to try and get the still Conservative dominated county council to deliver the change that you have so clearly indicated that you want.

I will be having a meeting about the school places crisis on Tuesday.

Electorate: 816,950
Poll: 39.3%
Spoilt: 2475

Conservative 55 seats 147,776 votes 46.0% +3.7
Green 1 seat 22,900 votes 7.1% +2.4
Labour 3 seats 44,650 votes 13.9% -12.1
Liberal Democrat 17 seats 87,042 votes 27.1% +1.0
Other 1 16,142 votes 5.0% +4.6

That means that the Conservatives have 20 more seats than they would do under a legitimate voting system. The Liberal Democrats have four fewer.

The majority of electors voted for change at county hall. Change (eg improved roads, more school places) will not be delivered because the electoral system is skewed to benefit the Conservatives.

Full results: http://www.hertsdirect.org/actweb/election/default.htm

In a historic first all eight county council divisions which form in part or in whole the St Albans parliamentary constituency are held by Liberal Democrat county councillors:

St Albans Central
St Albans East
St Albans North
St Albans South
St Albans St Stephen
The Colneys
Sandridge (also in Hitchin and Harpenden)
Abbots Langley (also in Watford and South West Herts)

Chris has been re-elected as Liberal Democrat Group Leader on Hertfordshire County Council and so becomes Leader of the Opposition.

Stephen Giles-Medhurst (Watford: Central Oxhey) was re-elected as Deputy Group Leader.

Further announcements, including the nominations to Hertfordshire Police Authority, will be made over the course of the next week.

Overall the Liberal Democrats made four net gains from the Conservatives while Labour collapsed from 16 to 3 seats.

St Albans Central

Chris White – Liberal Democrat 2034 45.6% [+3.2]
Conservative 1095 24.6% [+0.5]
Green 786 17.6% [+9.6]
Labour 524 11.8% [-11.7]

Chris’s majority: 939

Overall, the County Council now comprises:

Conservative 55
Lib Dem 17
Labour 3
Others 2

Today is polling day for the county council and European Parliament elections.

Voting takes places between 7 am and 10 pm.

The council should have deleivered you a polling card. You do not need this to vote but it will help you identify the polling station and help the staff.

Outside your polling station you will find ‘tellers’. These are party volunteers who are entitled to ask you for your polling number (but you don’t have to respond). They cannot find out how you have resulted as a result. The purpose of this exercise is to allow the parties to find out which of their supporters has voted and to call on those who have not. It is therefore normally to your advantage to give your number because it will avoid you being disturbed later.

The numbers are normally shared amicably between the parties.

The results of this election should be available as follows:

County Council: from Friday lunchtime
European Parliament: from Sunday evening

BBC London (because the BBC’s regions don’t reflect political regions) is covering the fact that roads and pavements are a key issue for voters in Hertfordshire on 4 June.

This site has received a record breaking 6,000 hits so far this month: last month there were over 4,000.

Thank you for reading!