I hate these short months. It only seems a couple of weeks ago that I sat down to scribble my words of wisdom and here I am again. I will quickly comment on Sheila Newlands' letter in the last issue. The first two 'grumbles' are really in our own hands, we get the environment we deserve after all and I am astounded at the amount of rubbish and fly-tipping that goes on around us. My local tip is the old footpath area that runs along the bottom of the Hilltop estate. I cannot believe that the residents that overlook the area do not see anything, but I have only ever had one complaint about glass on the non-existent play area and that was back in 1995. The other point about refuse sacks is slightly misleading. The Borough contract is a side door collection one and the bags should not be left out on the street for more than 30 minutes before being collected. The contract also allows for the same number of black bags to be left as were collected, up to a maximum of two. I hope that you will agree that the Borough has done the best they can to minimise the problem.
No doubt you all saw in the local paper that us Independents on the Borough council have formed ourselves into a 'group' and we will have five full committee places instead of the current two and minimum four. We have yet to decide who will do what, but in our usual democratic way, the coin will be tossed. You may all think it slightly over the top, but I bet you didn't know that in the last two months of 1997, nationally, 8 by-election seats were won by Independents and we have a full voice in the Local Government Association, so there is life outside the political party system if you know where to look.

Three meetings that you really must mark in your diary are the Town Centres Forum on April 1st, the Annual Town Meeting on April 15th and the first AGM of the Berkhamsted Access Committee on April 17th (Friday). Taking them in order, the 'Berkhamsted Health Check' being carried out by well paid consultants will be giving the public the first glimpse of their draft suggestions, but those of us who attended the workshop the other Sunday, did wonder about a survey that suggested that a high proportion of shoppers in the town walk, did so several times a week and tended to be female and over 65. After all, it was carried out at the end of 1997 during the day and during the week! Along with rest of my colleagues, I wait with baited breath for their solution to this problem.

The Annual Town Meeting is your opportunity to put direct questions to your Council and get an answer. The actual format is slightly fuzzy at the time of writing (after all it is nearly six weeks away), but I understand the Committee Chairmen will be giving a report of their particular activities over the past year and this will be followed by a presentation by the Chairman of the Canal & Riverside Partnership on how the expected £630,000 will be spent. You will be pleased to note that we will have contributed over £20,000 by the end of April and this sum is almost half the total precept raised only three years ago. Another £110,000 odd may be made up of £5000 from D.B.C., £10,000 from English Heritage, £70,000 from Europe, £10,000 and another £15,000 of matching funds from British Waterways. A project manager (£35,000 gone each year) will raise the slight shortfall of around £470,000 who will oversee the whole project. I have a feeling that the De-lisle clock will be working before phase one, which is enhancing the Castle Street Bridge, is completed.

The Berkhamsted Access Committee AGM is a result of local resident, Nick Goss, coming to see me at my regular Saturday morning 'surgery' and complaining that we meet during the day, and how is he to get there when he works. We took this on board and decided to try out a meeting in the evening and the format will be a glimpse of what we do and how we can help the disabled, and their carers, to have a better quality of life. We hope you can bring this meeting, in the Sessions Hall of the Town Hall, to the attention of anyone you may know, who either needs information or just a 'wish list'. You will be surprised at what is available and what can be done if you ask.

The Boundary review recommendations were considered by the Town Council and decided to agree with them. The order will not be made before 17th March 1998 and I have written to the Secretary of State making suggestions to alter the ward names. After all, for example, how can you have Sunnyside ward on the southern side of the town and not include either Sunnyside Church, Sunnyside allotments or, indeed, be on the sunny side of the valley?

The Committee structure review managed to split the Council with two reports being presented to the Council. Each one had an equal number of the working party supporting it so it was decided to ask the working party to look again in much more detail on how we can improve the service the Council provides for the town. With the election now about a year away, it is hoped that the work will followed up by the new council in 1999. Talking about which, the millennium book is progressing well and I still live in hope that we will be able to organise a town event either on 31st December 1999 or later in the year when the weather is warmer. For some reason, everyone seems scared of committing future councils to spending any money and yet they want major projects to be undertaken.

The public meeting arranged by the local electricity undertaking to explain the minor difficulties we have been experiencing drew an audience of around 20, which was disappointing to say the least. I mean, what other organisation can stand up and say that all the reinforcing required in an area was completed by September 1997 and blame the regular problems during November to January on work being done elsewhere. The good news was that all the work will be completed by April - apart from trimming the trees, any work on the low voltage system and all the other updating and system-strengthening work they can't afford at the present time. All very reassuring!

I thought you might like to know that the officers at Borough haven't lost their touch when it comes to Berkhamsted. Environment Committee (ex-Works) reported on March 4th that the new car park ticket machines are due for delivery on March 9th and be installed on March 11th. Unfortunately, the statuary notice has to be published for 21 days so the machines will not be operational until at least the end of March, and we were concerned that the Christmas (97) trade would be affected. Development Control on March 5th considered an application for a single house in Tring. It was to replace a row of dilapidated garages and it was reported that the traffic generated by the one house would be minimal over unused garages, so all would be well. On the other hand, both Netherfield and the Bedford Street housing developments had the traffic increase dismissed, as both had permission that would generate more traffic movements than residential use. These totally ignored the fact that neither had been in use for a number of years.

A number of people, including me, wonder what I do all day. To make life easy, I have bared all on my Internet web page, which you can find at http://normancutting.com. From there you can find out what's in 'Sunnyside Up', recent text of 'Cutting Comments', my activities with the Mobile Radio world and lots more. I may even get round to providing previews of Council activities if there is a demand, as it is continually evolving.