Government scraps green deal

Commenting on the Government’s plan to stop funding for the Green Deal, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said:

“Today’s news is yet another blow for green industry and British jobs. The Conservatives claim they want to tackle climate change, but this is further evidence they don’t care about the environment.

“For five years we fought sceptical Tories to ensure we were the greenest Government ever by investing billions in renewables and setting out ambitious climate change targets.

“By quietly dumping the Green Deal, David Cameron has yet again shown how little he cares about the future of the planet.”

Conservatives refuse to accept immediate move to minimum wage

Conservatives at Thursday’s district council meeting refused to back proposals previously agreed by one of the council’s committees to move immediately to a living wage for all council staff and contractor staff.

​Lib Dem Cllr Aislinn Lee​ said: ‘This issue has been around for 33 months. I really thought that when George Osborne announced the National minimum Wage the Conservatives locally would finally understand the issue and fall into line.

‘​Instead of supporting many very low paid employees (via our contractors) they have pretended that the issue needs yet more work. ​What a message to send out to these residents!

‘They also complained that the “task and finish” group of councillors which looked into this had done a bad job – despite this never being mentioned to anyone before Thursday.’

Chris White, Lib Dem Group leader, added: ‘I often wonder what the difference is between “procrastination” and “prevarication”. The Conservative wrecking motion manages to be both.

‘We need to look after poorer members of society and recognise that it is no longer acceptable for the state to have to use the benefits system to pick up the excessively low wages paid by employers.’

Conservative administration in St Albans accept poor quality verge cutting

At yesterday’s meeting of the District Council, Conservative councillors opposed a Liberal Democrat motion expressing concern about the inadequacies in maintaining highway verges this year.

Lib Dem Group Leader Chris White said: “What was made clear during the course of the debate was that the Tory councillors are not happy to criticise their colleagues in County Hall, even when such an obviously abysmal job has been done.

“It has also been made clear over the course of this process that there has been a failure in handover and monitoring and this is something that the district council administration needs to take responsibility for.”

Chris added: “We will continue to speak up for local residents and hold the Conservative administrations both at District and County Hall to account, even if the local councillors are willing to accept the inadequacies in services being provided to local residents.”

Fall out from Conservative budget on working people in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats are seriously worried about the fallout from the Conservative Government’s budget ‘for working people’ that is clearly anything but.

Despite saying ‘Britain deserves a pay rise’, George Osborne has apparently decided this only applies if you work in the private sector, so if you’re a teacher, fire-fighter, police officer or nurse you deserve to have your pay cut every year in real terms. (more…)

Chris criticises National Grid over Hatfield Road disruption

Chris White has criticised National Grid Gas for the continuing disruption in Hatfield Road.

Chris said: ‘I saw there were problems last week and asked the county council to intervene. HCC was assured that the worked would be complete on Friday but lo and behold there were huge jams over the weekend.

‘National grid are taking far too long to fix this, causing misery to local people, commuter and local businesses – who have suffered a loss of takings. How long does it take to do a gas connection? Why weren’t the trenches filled in last week?’

Exhibition on architects’ plans for new museum and gallery

Note from District Council

Come to a public exhibition on the architects’ plans to transform St Albans into a museum and art gallery and give your views.

The exhibition will be held in the Town Hall during the Magna Carta celebrations, on Friday 12 June (2pm-7pm) and Saturday 13 June (10am-3pm). Project team members and the architects will be on hand to answer questions about the plans and to discuss the vision for the new museum and gallery.

Visitors will see artists’ impressions of what the new museum and gallery will look like and be invited to give their views on the proposals via questionnaires.

The aim of the consultation is to gather feedback on the plans prior to the submission of a planning application later this summer.

The exhibition will remain on display at the Town Hall until the end of the Alban Weekend (20-21 June 2015).

You can see a preview at the Museum of St Albans in Hatfield Road until Friday 12 June when the exhibition moves to the Town Hall. It is mounted in the Activity Room. As the room is not always open to the public, please call the museum on 01727 819340 to check opening times before visiting.

The design for the new museum and gallery was unveiled in April by the architects, John McAslan and Partners. It includes the addition of glazed link galleries to the first floor of the old Town Hall. These glass-covered walkways will enable visitors to walk round the building and see wonderful views of the City.

There is also provision for a new temperature-controlled and secure basement gallery to be created under the building to house national touring exhibitions and contemporary art shows. The ground floor will accommodate a visitor information centre, exhibition space to showcase St Albans’ history, an education area and a café.

St Albans City and District Council is working with St Albans Museums and Galleries Trust and the University of Hertfordshire Galleries on the project.

 

Food hygiene advice

Note from the district council

Join the Chicken Challenge and halve campylobacter food poisoning

St Albans City and District Council is calling on people to follow simple hygiene rules when handling and cooking chicken to help halve campylobacter food poisoning.

It is backing a campaign by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to get people to take up the Chicken Challenge during Food Safety Week, 18-25 May.

The FSA wants to cut the number of campylobacter food poisoning cases in half by the end of 2015 by getting people to commit to hygiene standards.

A recent FSA poll found that 73% of people eat chicken every week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The same poll revealed that almost three quarters (72%) of 16-24 year olds and half of those aged over 25 (52%) agreed that chicken was their favourite meat. (more…)