News has just come in that the Herts County Council Executive Member with responsibility for highways has asked for an additional urgent item to be added to the agenda of the next Cabinet Meeting on Monday, 23rd April.
Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Handside & Peartree, Malcolm Cowan has discovered a worrying and startling fact about the implications of the call-in of the New Barnfield incinerator plan by government. The county council have no Plan B as backup if the current plan is thrown out by the inspector, and that they also plan to persist in moving Southfield school this year. If the plan is rejected, the move will have been disruptive and pointless and if approved, it could have been delayed for a year. He says 'It really does look as if the Tory Cabinet is in denial - no plan B means years more uncertainty and extra cost as landfill prices go up. Moving Southfield school this year means a real snub to the children and their parents who have already endured years of uncertainty. It is almost as if they don't believe their plan is going off the rails'.
Hertfordshire Council's hugely expensive and inappropriate "Spin Machine" has spun out of control again. Leader of the Opposition on Hertfordshire County Council, Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst has made further complaints, this time regarding press releases issued by the Council that are inaccurate and misleading.
The unexpected resignation of a Conservative councillor who was a member of both Dacorum Borough and Hertfordshire County Councils has caused two by-elections.
Last October and November Liberal Democrats campaigned strongly against the "unwise" plan by the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner. County Councillor Nick Hollinghurst who spoke twice at Council meetings at County Hall said "Apart from G4S's lamentable performance with Olympic Games security, we have to remember they are a large multi-national corporation. They run prisons, courts, police administration, prisoner transport and support services. It is unwise to hand over yet another part of Britain's criminal justice system to an international private business with, some say, already too great an influence in UK policing."
Liberal Democrats have questioned the judgment of Conservative David Lloyd, the Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner, following the resignation of his recently appointed Deputy, Rachel Frosh.