I was under the impression that the 'summer' months were the quiet ones for all levels of local government, as usual I got it wrong again. We had yet another by-election to replace three members of the Town Council, I had the leader of the Borough council writing to ask for an assurance that I did not divulge Part II information about a court case connected with the Tring Tesco planning application, we have a Borough member of the Town Council divulging Part II information, supplied in support of a grant application to the Council, to the local press for the only reason that I can think of - an election was imminent. Who said politics had no place in the Town Council?
Before I go much further, I'd better explain what a part II item is. As you all know, the affairs of local government are public, but there are times when we have to have a curtain amount of additional knowledge in order to make a considered decision or, perhaps we need to either know about, or discuss matters that affect a particular person or organisation. Under these circumstances, the information is private and confidential to the members and should not be divulged to anyone outside the council, other, of course, than the person who supplied it .

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I have once again been accused of misleading you by inferring that the Town Centre car parks will have 2 & 4 hour parking in them all. Having read my copy for the umpteenth time, it does say that Water Lane will have duel rates and St. Johns Well Lane will have a number of all day parking spaces. Just to clarify the matter, Water Lane and Lower Kings Road will have 2/4 hour parking, St Johns Well Lane will have 2 hour plus all day. The penalty for overstaying is raised from £5 to £10. On the other hand, the car park in canal fields is still free both in cost and often has lots of vacant places.

Ian Johnston and myself had a wonder round the town, with Mr Petts of the Borough Council, in late July to look at possible sites for the CCTV cameras. Due to the season, leaves appeared on trees just to make life very difficult and short of chopping large numbers down, one position had to be abandoned and some of the others relocated slightly to ensure the best view. We are hopeful that a scheme to meet both the Towns' concerns and the technical requirements of the Borough will be the outcome of our meeting.

Just in case you have been away, we now have the second conservative member of the Town Council in the guise of Dr I Reay, a Liberal-Democrat, Gerald Lanchin, who got in with the support of the Labour party and a Labour representative by the name of Paul Dyett who, strangely, needed the support of the Liberal-Democrats. The Town Council now has six Independents, four Liberal-Democrats, two Conservatives and one Labour (according to Cllr. Sharpe). On the other hand, we could have six Independents, five Liberal-Democrat-Labour and two Conservatives (according to just about everyone else). Whoever is right, the next 20 months or so, are going to be very interesting, judging by what's been happening over the past two months or so.
It started with the almost unheard of debate over who will be Mayor for the coming year, rapidly followed by the resignations of three Councillors. In order to reduce the expenditure on yet another election, after all, it would have been the third, I suggested that we co-opt a Conservative, a Liberal-Democrat and an Independent. Reflecting the success of the alliance in County Hall, the Liberal-Democrats came up with their own suggestion, as publicly announced, of a similar scheme, but replacing the Independent by a Labour representative. This was rejected by the Conservatives and an election was called. The result you now know and you can make your own mind whether it was worth it. Even the Borough returning officer got the figures wrong, so there's hope for me yet!

The Council meeting of the 28th July should, once again, been a fairly straight forward affair of allocating the three new members, committee memberships and a little shuffling around would have sorted it out until next May when the new year starts. I even drafted a suggestion, but it was pointed out by another member (not an Independent, I hasten to add), that I was leading the Council with pre-conceived ideas, so I dropped it. Lo-and-behold on the appointed day, that very same member presented a scheme as part of a motion to council in order to totally re-arrange council under the guise of sharing the work out, but forgetting the work that our working parties do or even that little extra Chairmen do. Needless to say, we spent the best part of two hours arriving back almost where we started and as a result, an extraordinary meeting had to be called to finish business that would have been completed without difficulty. That meeting took place on August 18th prior to the Finance and Policy meeting scheduled. By necessity, the F & P had to be shortened to ensure that all the business planned, actually gets completed.

The new council did make a couple of decisions at the 28th July meeting, the first was to reject the spending of around £500 on modifying the wall near the bottom of Durrents Lane so that you appear to leave Northchurch at the same time as entering Berkhamsted. You may remember it was planned to form a small flower bed to make an attractive feature and we even got the approval of the Borough landscapes department. The other item that was mentioned last month was the Town Warden van finance. My committee did reverse the previous decision not to take the money offered by Borough and the decision will now go back to the Borough Budget & Asset Management Committee that we are prepared to accept the money for a van in Borough livery, provided it also has the indication that it is the Town Councils' Warden van. I have spoken to the chair of that committee, Cllr. Keith White, who assures me that it will be thought about. I got the feeling we are not his favourite local authority!

Just another reminder that all council meetings are open to the public and generally meet in the Civic Centre on a Monday evening starting at 7.30pm. We often allow you to voice an opinion on any subject on the agenda (posted in display case outside the C.C. or ring the Town Clerk on 228945). I will even make this promise that if more of you come on a regular basis, I will see about providing tea and biscuits, after all, it is your council and all of us would like to see more of you attending as members of the public. As one of our regular visitors told me, 'so many things go on and the first you know about it, is when it happens, and that's too late'.