Keep your homes safe on bonfire night

Message from Neighbourhood Watch:

We are reminding residents to keep their homes secure and report suspicious behaviour over the Firework weekend.

Last year 18 burglaries occurred in St Albans between November 5 and November 8, when many people were out attending firework displays. Therefore, we are urging residents to leave lights on when  going out to a firework display or if they leave their home empty any time after it gets dark.

Residents can make their homes more secure by following some basic crime prevention advice such as:

  • Make a habit of checking that ground floor windows and doors are closed and locked when you leave the house or go to bed. Upstairs windows should be locked when the house is unoccupied.
  • PVCu doors must be locked by lifting the handle and turning the key to ensure all the security features are in place.
  • Car and house keys should be kept out of sight in a safe place. Don’t leave them on display on window sills, in porches, hallways or kitchens.
  • Secure your rear garden by shutting and locking any gates. Burglars can use garden tools to break in, so make sure you securely lock away any tools after use.
  • Use timer switches on a lamp, radio or tv set so that they turn on as it gets dark in the evenings.

Message from Govia about disruption

I would like to update you on the latest situation with Thameslink, where an overhead power line problem followed by a major signalling fault has been severely disrupting our services and passengers since Tuesday afternoon.

Network Rail, which owns and maintains the signalling, track and power supplies, now expects to complete repair work tonight. To facilitate this, we will be stopping all trains between St Albans and Bedford from 2300 tonight until 0400 tomorrow and running buses between these two stations instead. I have attached a spearate update from Network Rail that gives more detail about what they have been doing.

Owing to the level of disruption caused by this incident there will still be alterations to Thameslink services tomorrow (Friday) as we return the service to normal, even if Network Rail does complete its repairs. This is because our trains are out of position for the normal timetable.

We aim to run a normal service between Bedford and Brighton, and between Sevenoaks and London. However, there will be a reduced stopping service between Luton and London St Pancras, and between Sutton/Wimbledon and London Blackfriars as the service recovers. We are asking passengers to check www.nationalrail.co.uk or 03457 48 49 50 for the latest service information.

To recap, it has been a long and difficult three days for our Thameslink passengers and for our staff who will all be relieved now to learn that Network Rail has repaired this major fault.

The effect on our service has been severe, especially north of London where we have had to cut back the number of trains to just a few an hour, between Bedford and St Pancras, and also reduce the service to and from Sutton and Wimbledon.

We would like to thank everyone involved for their patience. If anyone was delayed by 30 minutes or more then we urge them to claim compensation at www.thameslinkrailway.com/delayrepay.

Clarence ward by-election: increase in vote share for the Liberal Democrats

Daisy Cooper with Cllr Ellie Hudspith

Daisy Cooper with Cllr Ellie Hudspith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The results of yesterday’s by-election are set out below:

Green Party 98

UKIP 16

Ellie Hudspith – Liberal Democrat 916 ELECTED

Labour 193

Conservative 388

Chris White said: ‘I am delighted to welcome Ellie to the team. She has been an excellent candidate and I am sure she will be an excellent councillor.

‘The Conservatives pressed us hard in this by-election, having previously taken no interest in the ward. The Lib Dem message of “Service and action all year round, not just at elections” clearly hit home and well over 50% of those who voted backed Ellie and the Clarence Lib Dem team.’

Paxton and Lower Paxton: note from County Council

Colas Ltd, are programmed to carry out ironwork adjustments and road marking replacement on the following sites in your constituency on the dates stated:

  • Lower Paxton, St. Albans – 24th October
  • Paxton Road, St. Albans – 24th October

Attached are the Works Information Leaflets which will be posted to the residents of each street, in addition to the distribution maps highlighting which residents will receive these leaflets.

The process is weather dependant which can result in delays. Any changes to the programmed date will be updated on the onsite ‘yellow boards’ and any postponed sites will be marked as such.

Message from Govia Thameslink

Govia Thameslink Railway is consulting on a major timetable change for 2018 planned for our Thameslink, Southern, Gatwick Express and Great Northern routes that will boost capacity and link new communities in the south of England to stations across the heart of London and beyond, to Bedford, Peterborough and Cambridge.

The new timetable is needed to facilitate the expansion of the Thameslink network in 2018 and will enable passengers to benefit from the major investment of the Government-sponsored Thameslink Programme. This expansion is in part enabled by the completion of work at London Bridge which will allow many more Thameslink trains to operate through the station, removing a major bottleneck in the rail network. It will facilitate a significant increase in services to London Bridge. For reference, please find the information sheets attached which outline the proposals according to route.

Passengers and stakeholders can download the details, a “station checker” and respond via the websites using this link www.thameslinkrailway.com/2018consultation or http://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/timetable-consultation

More Herts County Council schools nonsense

In what Liberal Democrat Councillors are labelling as a mean-spirited move the Conservative-run County Council has vetoed a move to allow all schools in Hertfordshire to ask for gritting salt to help keep school routes and schools open.

Only those schools more than 100 metres from a County Council designated salt gritting route can apply for free salt from the Council.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst proposed at Monday’s Highways Panel at County Hall that all schools, irrespective of their location, should be able to  get the salt to help them. His plan, backed by Labour, was voted down by the Conservatives.

“This is mean spirited and means a two tier system. Many urban schools in town centres are within 100 metres of a gritting route but the roads and pavements next to schools are not part of that because they are on a side road. This creates a hazard for children so even if the school and parents wanted to help out they would have to find the
salt and grit themselves. That is wrong!” said Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst.

“This is frankly a disgrace especially as the Council has a massive stock and has even been offered free of charge a large amount from Tesco who have an over supply! I am demanding they rethink this refusal. I cannot see any justification for refusing requests from schools for salt to grit the pavements,” Stephen concluded.

St Albans set to grind to a halt when it snows this winter

Maps produced by the County Council show that traffic will completely grind to a halt in central St Albans should there be any snow this winter.

The new maps – which Herts CC claims will only reduce coverage by 2% – remove the following roads from the gritting routes:

  • St Peter’s Road
  • Manor Road
  • Beaconsfield Road
  • Lemsford Road
  • Marlborough Road
  • Clarence Road
  • Woodstock Road North
  • Woodstock Road South.

Local Lib Dem County Councillor Chris White commented: ‘It is already bad enough when it snows. But these routes are all part of the key arterial network of the centre of St Albans: if these roads are left impassable traffic will simply grind to a halt.

‘Yet again the hopelessly out of touch Conservative County Council has – without any consultation – decided what it best for St Albans like some nineteenth century colonial power.’

The new maps are shown below:

Existing_And_Option_A_By_Divsion_St. Albans Central ED

Anti-idling campaign

Note from the district council to Chris White

S106 funding of £5,000 has now been allocated to this project and I wanted to let you know about it so it’s on your radar.

The primary aim of the campaign is to improve air quality and protect the health of residents and visitors, by persuading drivers to switch off their engines when they are stationary. The aim is to educate drivers to the impacts to health, environment and their pockets, of leaving their engines running and encourage them to switch off. This is a light-touch educational campaign and no enforcement action will be used against drivers who idle their engines.

Over the coming months I intend to produce publicity materials which will be distributed to schools, taxi drivers and bus companies. Residents will also receive a flyer in their resident permit mailings. I will also be encouraging community groups and schools to lead on projects to promote the messages within the campaign where possible.

Weeds and grass

There are still problems across the district despite assurances from the County Council that all is in hand.

This photo is from Hamilton Road:

IMG_1192

There are also still streets which have not had weed treatment, like Liverpool Road and Marlborough Gate.

All of these issues are being taken up with the County Council but let us know if there are any others.