Council to consult on housing numbers
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 by admin

With the East of England plan being scrapped as a result of the coalition government’s Localism Act, North Herts Council now has the power to decide how many new houses should be built in the district during the next 20 years.

The Council has decided to consult local people on a range of options, including one that is currently the Conservative administration’s preferred option.
The options are:

  •  15,800 – The number in the East of England Plan.
  •  14,500 – Based on national population projections
  •  13,000 – Large scales development around Stevenage, but no green field development elsewhere.
  •  11,000  – Continue with recent rate of development.
  •  7,700 – Continue with recent rates of development, excluding Great Ashby.
  •  7,000 – Based on the number required to deliver the additional affordable homes needed.
  •  5,400  – The number required to meet the forecast growth needs of the district.
  •  2,500  – The number that can be accommodated without any green field development.

The Council’s preferred option is 7,000. This would need some development on the edges of Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth and Stevenage.

The consultation will begin in February.

It is good that local people will have a chance to have their say on how much development there is in North Herts. Once we know the exact dates and how people can respond more details will be available here.

Stevenage Council’s expansion plans blocked
Posted December 4, 2011 * Comments(0)

The courts have thown out an attempt by Stevenage Council to overturn the decision earlier this year to block their plans to extend development into North Herts. They had mounted a legal challenge to a planning inspectors decsion that their Core Strategy, which assumed development in North Herts was “unsound”, but the court decided against them this week.

North Herts Council will now consult next year on the number of new houses to be built in the district. Although this is likely to many fewer than Stevenage were proposing there is still a risk that they will propose development between Stevenage and Weston.

We will make further details of the consultation available as soon as we have them.

Council discovers boundary error
Posted November 10, 2011 * Comments(0)

During a check of ward and parish boundaries North Hert Council has discovered that six houses in Great Ashby are actually in the parish of Weston (and have been since they were built around 10 years ago).

Since this clearly makes no sense the council has started the process to move the boundary.

Councillors vote to pay themselves 65p a mile
Thursday, November 10th, 2011 by stevejarvis

North Herts Councillors have voted to pay themselves 65p a mile for car travel at a council meeting minutes before they agreed that they would pay the workers who run local elections just 23p a mile. Conservative councillors voted down a proposal by Liberal Democrat leader Steve Jarvis that would have limited all councillors to the 46p currently paid to those with the smallest cars. 

Steve Jarvis said, “Most employers only allow their staff to claim the 45p a mile which the tax rules say is reasonable, regardless of the size of their car, but apparently Conservative councillors in North Herts think that they should be treated differently. There is no reason why local people should contribute to the cost of buying and insuring the car, which councillors would need to pay for their private use. There is also no reason why local tax payers should have to pay more just because a councillor decides to have a larger car.

“It is particularly ironic that at the same meeting councillors approved the fees to be paid to elections staff, including a payment for car mileage at just 23p per mile.”

Mill End traffic speeds
Posted October 18, 2011 * Comments(0)

The speed measurements in Mill End, Rushden during the spring (some of you may have seen a black box attached to a road sign) apparently showed that the police speed checks in the area had resulted in no significant reduction is traffic speeds.

During the time the checks were being done one person was given a fixed penalty notice and fice were cautioned.

Since the checks were not persuading drivers to lower their speeds they have be abandoned.

September speed checks
Posted October 17, 2011 * Comments(0)

This month the results were:

Hatch Lane, Weston (26th September, 1620 – 1650)
20 vehicles, average speed 26.2mph, max speed 34mph.

Pupil premium for Sandon School and Weston School
Posted October 16, 2011 * Comments(0)

The newly announced increase in pupil premium will mean that Sandon School gets £3,904 and Weston School £6,344.

Knights Templar will receive £37,000.

Lib Dems deliver £8.5m for poorest kids across Hertfordshire through the Pupil Premium
Sunday, October 16th, 2011 by stevejarvis

Hertfordshire’s schools are to receive an extra £8.5m for via the Pupil Premium.

The original plans for an extra £430 per pupil have been boosted by £100m, meaning that every school in Hertfordshire will now get nearly £500 for every child on Free School Meals.

Liberal Democrat Children’s Minister, Sarah Teather, recently announced that the total Pupil Premium funding for next year will rise to £1.25bn, double the amount in 2011-12.

Thanks to the Liberal Democrats in government, the money allocated to the pupil premium will rise again each year until 2014-15, when it will be worth £2.5bn.

School bus service to end
Posted September 29, 2011 * Comments(0)

The County Council has decided that the 870 service that takes runs from Weston to Hitchin Boys and Hitchin Girls schools will be withdrawn next summer.

The consultation, which ended in August highlighted that this was one of a third of school routes planned to be cut which have no alternative public transport.

Steve Jarvis said, “The county council spends something like £20,000 a year on the service, but there must be cheaper ways that the service could be provided. We need to investigate the alternatives.”

Council’s crazy parking charges consultation
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 by stevejarvis

North Herts Council has insisted that it was right to consult on introducing car park charges in the evening and on Sundays, even though it claims to have no plans to make these charges.

The councillor responsible for this claims that they are consulting on introducing a charge of zero, which most people will think is daft.

He claims that there will be another consultation if the charge is to be canged from zero.

Most local people seem to think either that the council has taken leave of its senses or that they are going to introduce the changes soon despite what they say.

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