This month has been fairly eventful as far as the political scene is concerned. Members of the public are still complaining about the increase in the Council Tax via the local press, which is a sure sign that the new public relations department at Borough has not got the message over yet. As far as I am concerned, the defection of one of the Borough Council ruling group to the Independents was the highlight of the Annual meeting on April 22nd. This event is generally a nicely well organised function, where the outgoing mayor says his piece and the incoming one thanks everyone for their support. This is followed by the agreement of the minutes of the last full Council meeting, swiftly followed by agreeing the committee membership for the year.
Only this time, the 'Berkhamsted syndrome' took over and the leader moved an amendment to the published list to delete their errant member from all committees. This was not acceptable to the three opposition parties and confusion reigned for some time as the left hand attempted to find out what the right hand was up to. The upshot was that a meeting of the four group leaders had a meeting and agreed that a meeting of the Urgency committee be held on Saturday morning to sort matters out. As I was not party to this meeting, as I write this, I understand the membership of a number of committees has been increased to allow more accurate representation of the political balance of the Council on each Standing committee. Needless to say, guess who loses out? Never mind, as my colleague, Richard Halling reminded me, a 50% increase in membership is not to be sniffed at and it only needs this to happen during each Council cycle and we will almost be the ruling group. Now there's a thought, as I believe the ultimate wish of the silent majority is to remove party politics from local government.

 As I mentioned last issue, as we start the final year before the election next May, I thought I would remind you of some of the things this council has achieved over the past three years. We inherited a proposal for a new Town Guide, the Mayors (now called the Heritage) Walk, the Canal & Riverside Partnership (CARP) and a system resistant to innovation & change. One of the first things that we all noticed was that we had very little power and if you wanted something doing, do it yourself. The leaders of the majority group decided that things would have to change and set about raising funds to get things done. They started by looking at the facilities available to enable your council serve you rather than pay lip service to those outside the town wherever possible. These have now been upgraded with improved computer and report compiling & printing facilities. An additional part-time member of staff was employed to ensure holiday cover, all day opening five days a week and assist with the compliance with the new financial regulations. The idea of a decent council operated visitor and information centre is still on the wish list with a distinct possibility of it happening.
The Borough Council have played a part in the life of the town, including the provision of lots of money to the Chamber of Commerce for the Christmas lights, the formation of the Town Centre forum and the funding of a Town Warden.
The Forum is the place where the public has a direct line to the majority group and officers of the Borough Council. It has the advantage over the more formal committee procedure, where you are restricted to a limited time and place to speak, by being far more interactive. At the present time, only Tring & Berkhamsted have these forums, but I am sure our new Independent member will be pressing to have Kings Langley and, ultimately, Hemel Hempstead to have their own forums. The Town Warden Andy Rolls, has been worrying the Borough officers and succeeding to get some of those jobs done that no-body ever seems to get round to. Indeed, he even has been known to 'wade' into the bed of the 'River' Bulbourne and clear out the rubbish, including returning trolleys to the Supermarkets. I have warned him that as the year progresses, funding will start to evaporate, time scales extend and it would be useful to keep accurate records on the when, why and who. The silly thing is, most of the items he requests to get done, should be done as routine by the Borough Council, but they always seem to have an excuse why it hasn't, or express surprise. I have yet to make up my mind whether funding will be cut because it's costing too much, council tax increased because it has been 'politically' under funded for years and it was hoped that no-one would notice. In defence of both the Borough Councillors and officers, the public expectation of council services is far greater than that which they are prepared to pay for, so a little honesty wouldn't go amiss. Which ever it is, all those thoughts you secretly had about being missed out appear possibly true and you will have to decide whether the old ways or the new ones are what you want. Indeed, it would be useful to let us have your thoughts, as the budget for the year after the election will start to be considered in late summer and we wouldn't like to slip back into the old ways of reducing the precept just before an election, would we?

Just to update you on my web page, I have now separated the town information from my business and you can now find out all sorts of information including links to town schools and other organisations at http://berkotc.connect.co.uk. It has a counter fitted to the first page of council information, so we can get an idea whether or not to continue with it after this year. It is regularly updated and added to, so pay it a visit and let me have your comments and opinions on any town/borough matters.

Stop Press - Just arrived on my doormat is information about the Structure Plan Review 1991-2011. You remember that County sent the report to the Secretary of State in the hope he would consider intervening in the review, either by deleting the Green Belt proposals or reducing the total housing requirement. It looks as though the 'democratic' process has won and no change made. The fall-back position is still the SerPLAN review up to 2016, so watch this space!