Items reported to Herts Highways this week: Hillside Road, Lemsford Road and Avenue Road

Hillside Road: badly broken pavements on far side from Old Lyndale School
Cars cutting corners on St Peter’s Road/Manor Road as they enter Hillside Road: this is a danger to cyclists waiting to go into Hillside Road
Hillside Road: pavements outside number 12 – very bad and need attention
Avenue Road blue blocks: whole pavement needs redoing: including the kerbs
The junction of Lemsford Road and Sandpit Lane is very dangerous: high levels of traffic and a great deal of awkward turning

These were reported in response to your comments and my own observations. I continue to press for action on Lemsford Road resurfacing which Herts Highways promised over a year ago.

Are your children using soap?

Liberal Democrats have contacted Herts County Council to urge that advice to schools include a check on whether soap is being provided in school toilets.

Some schools do not provide soap because of their past experience about what happens to soap in the hands of boisterous teenagers. But with medical advice clearly being that we should all wash our hands regularly, it is urgent to review policies and ensure that soap is now provided.

The same of course applies in all other workplaces and we would suggest that everyone be prepared to challenge employers, the managers of licensed premises and all other public places when soap is not in evidence.

Fix 2: Will parent power really influence councils over school standards?

Commentary by Chris White

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The Prime Minister is expected today to announce new powers for parents in primary schools over secondary school standards. Councils might be forced to act in response to primary school parents who have not been able to get a place at a school of their choice.

Certainly any move to break the log jam on school standards is welcome: the Thatcherite reforms, continued by this Government, have meant that schools have astonishing levels of autonomy, when you consider that they are spending our money. This can work well when there is good leadership from headteachers and their team. But when things start to go wrong the role of local authorities, once clearly in charge of schools and accountable to you and me, has become unclear.

Even with recent new legislation giving back to local education authorities the power and duty to look after school standards, intervention is often too slow and too mild. Meanwhile parents attempt to vote with their feet – but find that there is too little slack in the system for them to choose to send their children to alternative schools.

We do need the ability to challenge the inertia of bodies like Hertfordshire County Council. Local county councillors, who know local schools and talk daily to local people, are almost entirely excluded from the system with the result that we have the absurd situation in which one man – a councillor from Letchworth whom none of us has elected – has the key decision-making role over local schools in St Albans.

That role should be removed from him and his ilk and be given back to local people and their chosen representatives.

Uproar over county plans to replace slabs with black top in Salisbury Avenue

On Sunday morning I put round a note indicating that Herts Highways were planning to replace the pavements with ‘black top’, something I believe would alter the character of the street.

The email and web response has been overwhelming and very clear: only one resident so far has said they favour this solution. Everyone has backed my stance.

I have relayed this to Herts Highways and will post their response when I get it.

Primary school places – academies are NOT the answer

Just when I thought I could not be more depressed on the subject of primary school places, the Tories are proposing giving them Academy status. This means interference from sponsors, semi-selection, a disengagement from the community – all the reasons why Academies at secondary level are a major problem but with added absurdity.

I cannot understand why Con-Lab politicians can’t understand that it’s not structures but resources and quality management that count. A good head teacher and some decent building make all the difference.

If we had ‘Academies’ in St Albans those without places might find themselves discriminated against even more because of admissions rules determined by the schools. Moreoever, very small organisations with huge autonomy will need to employ more admin staff. That’s money taken away from teaching.

Sadness as Conservative smear campaign continues

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I am very sad that the Conservatives have continued to smear me in this campaign by alleging that I have demanded a cut in highways sending. Given that I have been campaigning on roads and highways for no less than 16 years, this was anyway unlikely.

Where, of course, the Tories made a fatal mistake was to assume that my words were not recorded anywhere: but full council meetings are recorded and my speech is now available (see below). This makes it clear that I proposed both a gross and a net increase in highways spending, as was anyway clear from the amendment tables, which have been on HCC’s website since February.

I have demanded an apology and may have to report at least once councillor to his council’s Standards Committee. All of this does no good to politics – but we have to keep it clean.

My speech: chris-white-budget-speech.pdf

Our budget amendments: liberal-democrat-amendment-to-budget.pdf

Fix 1: Tories use road repairs as electioneering tool

County councillors in Watford and St Albans have expressed astonishment over the county council’s programme for road repairs.

The latest ‘surface dressing’ proposals involve NO roads in Watford district whatever and, almost without exception, only roads in Conservative-held county councilor divisions in the district of St Albans.

Cllr Chris White said: ‘When I saw this list, I sent it back to officials in disbelief: Tory areas have already had more than their fair share of highways work so far over the past four years.’

Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst added: ‘It becomes increasingly difficult to see this as anything other than electioneering by a Tory administration which knows it’s on the run.

‘First we had the completely untrue suggestion that we wanted to cut highways spending when we are actually proposing increases. Now they are rushing out to fix the roads in the seats of councillors about to lose their seats.’

NOTES

The schedule is shown below. The single road listed for Watford is in fact in Hertsmere. The roads seemingly in Aislinn Lee’s division are in fact brought forward from the previous year.

Kennels Lane Harpenden – Coles Lane to Kinsbourne Green
Sauncey Wood Lane Wheathampstead – Common Lane to SD jt E Mackerye End Lane/The Slype
Kimpton Bottom Bower Heath – E Plummers lane to NH bdy (SD jt o/s Blue Cross).
Amwell Lane Wheathampstead – Down Green lane to SMA jt Harpenden Road
Wheathampstead Road Harpenden – HRA jt Piggottshill r’bt to SMA jt 100m W Long Buftlers
Holly Lane Wheathampstead – Sauncey Wood lane to Common Lane
Lye Lane Brickett Wood – SMA jt West Riding/Lye lane x’rds to 30mph A405 excl M25 bridge
Mile House Lane St Albans – HRA jt 15m W Nappsbury r’bt to HRA jt E Butterfield.
Smug Oak Lane Brickett Wood – Rear bellmouth Station Road to HRA jt 15m A5183
Harper Lane Radlett – E of railway bridge to new surface jt Shenleybury r’bt
Hemel Hempstead Road Redbourne – 40mph Cherry Tree Lane to SMA jt A5183 r’bt
Redbourne Lane Redbourne/Harpenden – HFS jt A5183 r’bt to W Hatching Green Close
Redbourn Road St Albans – HFS jt/end of hatching A4147 r’bt to SMA jt o/s Prae Mill Hotel
Redbourn Road St Albans – SMA jt 80m SE Keepers Cottage to surface jt 130m S Hogg End Lane
Redding Lane Redbourne – Rear bellmouth A5183 to limit of adoption (30m SE Norrington End Farm gate) excle new SMA
Beesonend Lane Harpenden – Rear bellmouth A5183 to end of metalling
Little Cuts Road Wheathampstead – B652 to Limit of Adoption
Beechtree Lane Appspond – SMA jt A4147 to Limit of adoption ( concrete road o/s cottages)
Little Revel End Lane Redbourne – Holtsmere Lane to rear bellmouth B487
Holtsmere Lane Redbourne – SMA jt B487 to Gaddesden Lane
Hollybush Lane Wheathampstead – SD jt Mackerye End to limit of adoption (gate Eight Acres)
Common Lane Harpenden – N Sauncey Wood Lane to S Bower Heath

Fix 6 – Concerns over introduction of councillor budgets

The Lib Dem group on Hertfordshire County Council have expressed concerns
over the introduction of councillor budgets by the Tory administration.

Group Leader Chris White said: ‘We voted against these proposals in the
budget round because we felt that the money could better be spent on local
highways.

‘We also have serious concerns about how to make the system fair and
transparent: it would be easy for the public to get cynical and think that
each councillor had a £10,000 slush fund.

‘There need to be clear rules and regulations to make sure all spending is
above board.’

Notes: The county council announced this week that three quarters of a
million pounds had been set aside for this project.

Fix 6 – Stop the County Council wasting your money and freeze your county
council tax