It surprises me that residents of the town still think I am a Councillor more than 18 months after those very people voted me out. The other thing is just how many ask if I am going to do any more newsletters or columns in the Berkhamsted Review.  
Everyone knows that with more Councillors, doing a similar amount of work, means that they have more time to achieve things, although unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case with the current Council. I continued to represent the Town Council on the Access Committee as no one could do it but I did expect one of them to jump in and take my place with the monthly column in the Review letting residents know what was going on, on both Town and Borough. Yet, here we are still without a column providing council information and I although I have tendered my resignation from the Access Committee because I get no input from our Council, I am being asked to reconsider. It really does make you wonder what our Councillors do and perhaps that is why they are reluctant to let us all know.
In the August edition of the Review, Cllr Reay, who must have drawn the short straw, wastes a whole page discussing the pros and cons of the market and it wasn't that long ago that yet another page was wasted explaining the current policing plan. I'm sure that less than 100 words have been devoted to informing us as to what the Council actually are getting up to.
Let's put a little more meat on Cllr Reay's August market column, as I was part of that Council. When we took office in 1995, only two Councillors were part of the previous Council, which gave us an opportunity to stand back and look at the way the Council works. One of the things was the fact that the Town Council was responsible for the market, but had to give all the profits to the Town Hall Trustees for the upkeep of the Town Hall premises.

The rights to operate the street market in Berkhamsted have been in varying ownership                     for at least four hundred years. They were vested in the Town Council for the benefit of the community, with the specific object of providing monies to go towards the upkeep of the Town Hall premises.
From 1860 to 1979, the Town Hall and other buildings were held under the same trust as the market rights. The Market House was first of all leased to the Town Hall trustees with the market rights and did not become their freehold property until 1923. They had owned the freehold of the Town Hall since 1860 and of the Sessions Hall since 1888. In 1971 the Charity Commissioners varied the 1860 and 1888 charitable trusts by appointing Berkhamsted Urban District Council as the Trustee of them and this of course brought the freeholds of buildings and market rights into that Council's Trusteeship. The Local Government Act 1972 brought Berkhamsted Parish (now Town) Council into existence, which succeeded to the Trusteeship and in 1979 the Charity Commissioners terminated the existing Trusts, created the Market Fund with the Town Council as Trustee, with the task of administering and managing as the endowment of the Berkhamsted Market Fund "the property consisting of the right of franchise of holding a market with all tolls, profits, perquisites and advantages pertaining thereto ....... that had belonged to "the Charity known as the Market House" founded in 1860.

The position from 1979 to 1997 was that the freehold right to hold a market in the High Street was vested in the Town Council for the object as stated in the 1979 Scheme of the Charity Commissioners - the upkeep and maintenance of the property of the Town Hall Trust.

As the arcade declined, more income was required from the Market just to stand still. We felt it better for the Town Hall Trustees to run their own market for their own benefit and this change took place in 1st February 1997.

Whilst my quill is still working, how about some Council news? A major change in the way out Borough Council works will be taking place shortly. National Government (they who know best!!) has decreed that local government must change although it doesn't apply to Town or Parish Councils, as they don't count.

The idea is that to cut costs and enable decisions to be made quicker, a 'head honcho' may be elected or appointed by either the Council or electorate. This person will be surrounded by up to 10 trusted souls called a 'cabinet'. The remaining 42+ elected Councillors will be allowed to 'scrutinise' all the decisions made and make comments. It is not expected they will be able to actually change anything, of course, as that would smell of democracy and we mustn't have that, must we?
Over the coming weeks, according to Cllr Williams, leader of the Conservative group, we will be 'consulted' on the way forward. May I suggest you badger your local Councillor and find out exactly where he/she stands on this matter. I'll be honest, if I was still a Councillor, I would object to any system that removes the democratic right of any Councillor to question decisions made on my behalf and of those whom I represent. I expect all the Councillors will consult their party leaders and come out with a spirited defence of the proposed 'improvements', but do make any views or concerns that may have been stirred by this scrap of information known to everyone who matters.

I will endeavour to put more meat on this skeleton in time for the next column.