NHS Hertfordshire has now approved the full business case for the replacement QEII Hospital in Welwyn Garden City. The planned 4-storey Local General Hospital will replace the existing buildings and is expected to be complete by August 2014.
The guest speaker at a dinner in the University of Bedford last Friday organised by the Local Government Organisation for leading Liberal Democrat councillors was Councillor the Lord Tope - an unusual title to put on any business card. But if a "polymath" is a person who has a grasp of many different academic subjects, the Baron Tope just has to be a "polypolitician"!
Local MP Tim Farron will join the celebrations this Thursday as the Olympic torch makes its way through the South Lakes. Tim is hailing the celebrations as a tribute to the work of council Leader Brendan Jameson, who died in March and who worked so hard to ensure that South Lakes got not just one but five torch stops. The torch is to arrive in Grasmere at 5.30pm and will travel to Ambleside and Bowness-on-Windermere before continuing its journey through Kendal and Milnthorpe on Friday.
Tim will join Barrow and Furness MP, John Woodcock, who will be holding a campaign morning to launch a petition to retain the direct rail service between Barrow and Manchester Airport, which is threatened by Transpennine's proposed 2014 franchise and the post-electrification service pattern.
South Lakes MP Tim Farron and fellow A590 campaigners are celebrating a major win after Roads Minister Mike Penning today pledged his support for a roundabout to be built at Greenodd junction on the A590.
Kent Trading Standards have been made aware of fake digital thermometers being sold. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) seized more than 400 fake digital thermometers after raids in Harrow and Oxford. Some of the fakes were being sold for as little as 99p. The MHRA warned they could give inaccurate readings, posing a serious threat to children with potentially fatal illnesses such as meningitis.