Welwyn Hatfield Liberal Democrats

In his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat Conference, Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined his goals for the Government and the country over the coming years. He reiterated his commitment to liberal values on the environment and human rights and his determination to ensure a fair chance for every child, saying "every child can do good things, great things, if only we give them the opportunities they deserve."

Local Liberal Democrats have heavily criticised the large rail fare increases just announced.

Spokesperson County Councillor Malcolm Cowan said 'Increases of at least 3% above inflation just cannot be justified. Most commuters and rail users are seeing very small pay increases; if council tax can be frozen, then why not rail fares? They are a larger element in the budgets of many local families.

Local LibDem county councillor Malcolm Cowan is protesting about the all the lights being turned off around the Church Rd/Longcroft Lane roundabout in WGC.

Malcolm says 'These lights have been made unworkable by removing all the electrics (as the photo shows) and the lighting head at the top as well. I know the columns are to be moved and replaced by new ones, but we have been left with no proper lights at this important junction for at least 6 weeks and Herts Highways have failed to give me any idea when the work will be carried out and lights turned back on.

Liberal Democrats were left fuming after last week's council annual meeting rubber-stamped removing them from all scrutiny committees.

The number of committee seats allocated to the Libdems has been cut from 7 to 3 following their loss of one councillor.

Cllr Cowan said 'While 3 is strictly our minimum allocation, it is not uncommon for significant groups - we poll around one vote in five, taking one year with another - to be given a place on most major committees. However, not only did the Tories give us the minimum, but we are not represented on any of the 3 scrutiny committees, despite the fact they are set up to give opposition groups a voice and provide a critical overview of the decisions being taken.'

Louise Lotz attended a meeting at County Hall this morning. First the waste panel met to debate the incinerator proposal and then the press and public were excluded while they made a decision. Cabinet met next and after the meeting they issued a press release to say that New Barnfield had been chosen as the site with Veolia as the preferred bidder. Said Louise: 'This is a completely unsuitable site, and the natural beauty will be destroyed forever. We did try to persuade them to delay the decision and to use other methods of waste disposal, but to no avail.'

To: Herts Waste Partnership Cllrs

HCC Cabinet

CC: Local Press

26^th April 2011

Dear County Councillor

We are writing to request that you delay your decision on the proposal for an incinerator in Hertfordshire, scheduled for 28th Apri

The government's review on its waste strategy is due out in May and the review may well have changes and recommendations which the people of Hertfordshire would expect you to take into account before committing to a 25 year contract at significant expense to council tax payers at a time of economic cuts.

Hertfordshire County Council are drawing nearer to deciding on an incinerator. Louise attended Hertfordshire Waste Partnership, a joint group of county and district councillors, on Monday 18th April. At this meeting they agreed a non-compulsory target of 60 per cent recycling and composting by 2020. This paves the way for a decision on an incinerator operator who would process the remaining 40 per cent of residual waste. This decision is to take place on 28th April at County Hall. There will be two meetings, first one of the sub-committee, followed by a cabinet meeting.

The badly damaged section of the B195 (Birchall Lane) near the Eco Aggregates site is to be repaired earlier, following pressure from LibDem county councillor Malcolm Cowan.

'I have been chasing Herts Highways for several months, since the damage first became apparent, to get this sorted' said Malcolm. 'I understand there is a dispute as to whether Eco should be repairing it, but clearly we shouldn't have to wait for that to be resolved, on such an important and busy road.