Paul Clark

North Herts Conservative Councillors have blocked a Liberal Democrat proposal to make value for money one of the council’s top priorities. The proposal would have replaced the council’s existing priorities, making delivering better value an additional priority.

Liberal Democrat opposition leader Steve Jarvis said, “Coming the week after the council discovered that this year’s council tax rise was double what it needed to be and an Audit Commission report that highlighted the council’s poor performance on value for money, the decision by the Conservatives that this should not be one of the council’s top priorities is stunning. People in North Herts are paying far more than those in surrounding areas, yet the Conservatives don’t seem to care.”

“When we challenge them on this they say that they are being careful with the council’s money. The problem is that they are using our money to do it. Other councils can do better than this. Why can’t North Herts?”

Papers for this week’s North Herts Council cabinet meeting reveal that, after pushing through a 3.9% increase in Council Tax in February, the council has now discovered that the increase could have been much lower. The council spent nearly £200,000 less than expected last year – enough to reduce the council tax rise by 2%. 

Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition on the council, Steve Jarvis said, “North Herts has one of the highest levels of council tax in the area and a track record of big increases.  Now it is clear that this year’s rise could actually been much lower, with no impact on local services. The Conservatives who run the council say that they are being prudent, but it’s easy to be prudent when somebody else picks up the bill. It’s time they recognised that they are giving local people a bad deal and brought their performance into line with other councils.” 

Liberal Democrats proposed further savings in spending on new computers and software at the time of the budget. Coupled with the savings that have now been discovered these could have resulted in a tax rise of less than 1.5%. Neighbouring St.Albans council, which is run by the Liberal Democrats, did not increase its council tax at all this year.

At a meeting of the council on Thursday the Conservatives running North Herts Council dismissed a bad report from the Audit Commission claiming that the Audit Commission got it wrong. They rejected a Liberal Democrat proposal to recognise that the Council was falling behind other districts and needed to do better.

Steve Jarvis, Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition on the council, said, “The Audit Commission report clearly identified that North Herts council’s performance and value for money is worse than most other district councils. They reached this conclusion after studying the council’s performance and comparing it will other councils where they have conducted similar exercises . The Audit Commission is an independent body that has no reason to conclude that North Herts Council is worse than other councils unless that’s what the evidence shows. Rather than accept that there is a need to do things differently and that the Audit Commission is providing helpful information the leader of the council told us that the Audit Commission is wrong and that everything is fine.

“Many people will think that this sort of complacency is one of the reasons why North Herts Council performs more poorly than it could.”

Comments made by the Audit Commission in their annual audit letter to the council include

• Performance has largely stood still whilst other councils have improved
• Value for money is improving but sill falls short of levels achieved at most other authorities
• Over the last three years the council has also achieved a below average rate of improvement. This indicates that the council’s performance has not advanced at the rate of most district councils.

The Liberal Democrats have published their Freedom Bill, detailing how the party plans to roll back the authoritarian laws passed by both Labour and Conservative governments which have undermined civil liberties.

Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords protest the restrictions on demonstrating outside Parliament during the passage of the Serious and Organised Crime Act.

The legislation is the first time a major political party has collated all of the laws which have undermined civil liberties into one Bill, so that they can be easily repealed. By axing expensive and ineffective measures that hinder and keep tabs on innocent people, the Bill will help switch efforts to catching the guilty instead.

The 20 measures contained in the draft legislation will:
- Abolish the veto in the Freedom of Information Act that allows ministers to keep information secret
- Scrap the expensive mandatory ID card scheme
- Remove all innocent people from the DNA database, except for those tried for a violent or sexual offence
- Stop councils and others snooping by restricting the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to serious and terrorist offences
- Regulate CCTV to protect privacy following a Royal Commission on the use of cameras

You can view the bill in detail, comment on the draft and sign up to back the campaign at http://freedom.libdems.org.uk

Liberal Democrats condemned the Conservative group at county hall for failing to back proposals to increase spending on youth by £1 million.

Liberal Democrats at County Hall say: ‘It beggars belief that the Tory run County Council still does not get it. Young people need to be given something to do. Our proposals would have provided a subsidy for young people to enable them to use District Council leisure facilities or provide activities in areas where there are currently none.  This would have been paid for by reducing the wastage and over staffing at County Hall.

Local Hitchin Liberal Democrat Paul Clark says;”We need to respect our young people and give them something to do that they want, then they will not be tempted into harm’s way. But the Tories seemed locked into an old-fashioned approach to youth provision which sees it as somehow an arm of the Education Department and Schools.  In todays modern age the young people want to be treated fairly and given a choice which is what our proposals would have done.”

North Herts Council is now planning to spend a massive £10.6 million pounds on new council offices - 40% more than they originally estimated. The revised figures was presented to the Council’s Cabinet as part of the Council’s budget for 2009/10.  Liberal Democrats say “This is an outrageous amount of money for the Council to spend on new offices at any time. 

It looks particularly bad at a time when many people in the District are finding it hard to make ends meet.  “The Council’s papers show the new offices as part of its programme to deliver “satisfied communities”. We cannot imagine that many people in

North Herts will feel greater satisfaction as a result of the council spending nearly £1,000 for every resident of the District on a new office building.” The Liberal Democrat group on the Council has consistently opposed the decision to move to new offices.  Remarkably, Labour Councillors have supported the Tory leadership and voted for the move and the expense.

The Tories have refused to cut waste at County Hall when confronted in the budget debate with the need for much deeper reductions in costs.

Lib Dem say: ‘The Tories are boasting that they have made £17.4 million efficiency savings. But at a time of deep recession it should not be too difficult. Suppliers know full well that everybody is reducing margins and will be willing to offer much keener prices.

‘We have proposed that an extra £3 million be saved by reducing procurement costs especially in regard to Hertfordshire Highways, £3.75 million be saved from reducing staff numbers and £600,000 saved from reducing the endless stream of glossy publications pouring out of County Hall which are not being read by anyone.

Hitchin Lib Dem Paul Clark says”Yet again inflation busting Council Tax bills from our Conservatives Councils will be dropping through our letter boxes soon.  Services will be reduced and the bureaucratic paper work will no doubt increase with no help to residents or our troubled local economy.

Hitchin is also being targeted by the Tories further as they look to hike the carparking charges in Hitchin & Letchworth while leaving other areas unaffected.  This is wrong and Lib Dems on the District Council fought to get this reversed but the Conservatives voted to impose the increased Tax Pain. 

Roads in our town are becoming increasingly hazardous due to several factors;-On Hitchin Hill past Standhill Road the road has been steadily crumbling.  We are now told that this will now be resurfaced in March next year but we wait to see what happens.

The Conservative run County Council continue to waste taxpayer’s money with short term measures such as patching.  Lib Dems are calling for a proper long-lasting renewal of our roads.With the recent bad weather conditions, areas such as Bridge Street have flooded due to blocked drains.  The County Council has seemingly not been managing the gulley cleansing programme in a proper manner to stop this happening.  Only when local residents complain do they do something to stop the problem.Rat running remains a problem as seen in an incident on Hitchin Hill when a vehicle drove into the front of a house.  At the time these houses were built the kerb should have been raised to offer some protection, but this was not done.

Now the County Council has taken its responsibility to remedy and improve the situation.  In addition they are also working with the Police to make the area safer for residents.In Tilehouse Street, Standhill Road, Cemetery Road, St John’s Road and Hollow Lane car parking is getting worse.  Some relief is in prospect for Standhill Road, Hollow lane, Kershaw’s Hill and Cemetery Road etc following work by local Highbury Councillor Paul Clark.  Funding for a residents parking scheme has been put in place and should be installed soon.

Recent changes of contracts have left some elderly residents with no care services at all. This has been cause by a hand’s off approach by Conservative run Herts County Council.  As the care providers changed it became clear that the Council had not been monitoring the status of the previous contract and staff were left unable to work as they did not have the appropriate paperwork in place.

Liberal Democrats were made aware of the problem by a number of distressed residents who were not receiving the support they were entitled to. When this situation began to be rectified they were asked to double check their bills.

Hitchin Highbury District Councillor Paul Clark says: ‘It is worrying that this ever happened.  The County Council was very lucky this did not lead to a death of a resident. Liberal Democrat County Councillors are still concerned about the level of services residents are receiving and have referred the situation to the watchdog.  It will be interesting to see what they say in their report. We will continue to press for improvements to these important services.”

North Herts Council has confirmed that providing better facilities for teenagers in the district is not one of its priorities – even though residents in three of the district’s four towns say that this is the single most important thing that the Council could do to make the area a better place to live. Answering a question from Liberal Democrat Councillor Steve Jarvis the council’s policy portfolio holder told a meeting of the council that providing facilities for teenagers was not a priority and not the District Council’s responsibility despite the public’s views. She told the meeting that the County Council should be dealing with the issue.

Commenting Steve Jarvis said, “I’m afraid that this buck passing between the District Council and the County Council – both of which are run by the Conservatives – is all too common. Local people clearly think that providing more facilities for young people is important but the Council has decided that it knows best.”

 “People will wonder why, when it is already one of the most expensive councils in the area, it wastes its money on asking people’s opinions if it doesn’t intend to pay any attention to the results.” 

The District Council surveyed a representative sample of 1,000 people from across the District in July and August