http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/newsarchive.php Recent News Stories from Welwyn Hatfield Liberal Democrats en-GB Welwyn Hatfield Liberal Democrats http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2010 Welwyn Hatfield Liberal Democrats 2010-03-14T20:58+00:00 United Kingdom http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000256/and_now_for_my_next_trick_mandleson_makes_your_degree_course_vanish.html Thanks to Labour's obsession with targets, and the mess they have made of public finances, good degree courses may be closed so that Universities are not fined. Sounds crazy, but this is what could happen according to Paul Zukowskyj, prospective Lib Dem MP for Welwyn Hatfield. 2010-03-05T19:46+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000254/herts_highways_is_poor_value_for_money.html Hertfordshire road maintenance costs 81% more than average 2010-02-27T10:37+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000253/herts_highways_are_incompetent.html The Liberal Democrats have slammed the Conservative county council controlled Herts Highways department as 'unbelievably inefficient', following the publication of comparative cost figures in a key county council document. 2010-02-16T09:18+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000252/hatfield_town_centre__update.html Hatfield may be getting a new town centre after all. The development consortium will be lodging a planning application in the next few days for a revised redevelopment. Your local Liberal Democrats have greeted the news with cautious optimism, tempered with the knowledge that it is still not guaranteed financially. 2010-01-27T10:22+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000251/cautious_welcome_for_tory_recognition_of_six_to_fix.html The Liberal Democrats have today issued a cautious welcome for the Decision by the Conservatives to opt for a zero council tax increase. 2010-01-12T13:27+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000250/snow_clearance_still_not_good_enough.html Liberal Democrat county and borough councillor Malcolm Cowan has hit out at the snow clearance efforts on the pavements. 2010-01-09T09:56+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000249/mandelson_happy_christmas_youre_fired.html Yet another kick in the teeth for our area. Yesterday, Peter Mandelson cut the budget for Universities by £500m. The University of Hertfordshire is a major local employer. This year they have already had to cut jobs through a voluntary redundancy scheme. The University may now be put in the position of having no alternative to a significant compulsory redundancy programme. 2010-01-06T19:02+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000248/shock_as_300000_overspend_called_petty_cash.html County councillors were reeling at a recent meeting when a leading Tory called a £300k overspend 'petty cash' and said it was 'nit-picking' to raise it. 2010-01-06T18:58+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000247/herts_roads_are_worse_than_the_national_average.html In the week before Christmas the Department for Transport released statistics which showed that, unsurprisingly for most Herts residents, that the Roads in Hertfordshire are worse than the national average and deteriorating fast. 2010-01-04T19:46+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000246/cllr_malcolm_cowan_distressed_as_borough_fail_to_act_on_snow__again.html The recent heavy snow has left pavements across Welwyn Hatfield in an icy and dangerous state - yet dozens of Serco staff employed by the borough council have been told not to empty bins, collect recycling or remove the leaf fall because of the bad weather. 2009-12-20T18:06+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000245/county_bows_to_1010_pressure.html Liberal Democrat County Councillor Malcolm Cowan asked the Tory administration to sign up to the 10:10 campaign. 10:10 is a campaign to do as many things as possible to reduce your carbon footprint by 10% in the year 2010. 2009-12-05T23:42+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000244/expensive_and_ill_thought_through.html The county council's approach to replacing its ageing street light stock has been condemned as 'expensive and ill-thought through' by the Liberal Democrats. 2009-12-05T00:26+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000243/county_declares_war_on_culdesacs.html County declares war on cul-de-sacs 2009-11-27T22:44+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000242/paul_makes_front_page_of_the_wh_times.html "NEWTS BARNFIELD" was the headline as Paul Zukowskyj released the news that the Tory-run County Council's New Barnfield Incinerator project might be "dead in the water" thanks to the presence of the Great Crested Newt a stone's throw from the site. 2009-11-22T17:07+00:00 http://welhatlibdems.co.uk/news/000241/press_release_unannounced_ofsted_catches_council_out.html At the beginning of October Tory-run Hertfordshire County Council had a surprise OFSTED inspection. These inspections were started in the light of the horrific death of Baby Peter. The report lists areas which the Council is good at, those it needs to improve and those that require urgent action. In total there are 5 areas that were meeting minimum standards, 7 that required improvements and 2 which require urgent action - both in the most serious areas. OFSTED found that the call centre was handling calls and having assistants signing off reported cases of abuse rather than trained social work managers - a practice we have criticised the council for in the past. The other was that cases dating back as far as March 2009 had not had proper case reviews. Chris White, Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader said: 'The county announced this report in very glowing terms, only briefly mentioning the serious defects in the system and praising the areas that had been highlighted as meeting basic standards. It did not mention that of the 14 bullet points nearly two thirds were areas they have to improve on to keep our children safe.' Sal Brinton, Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for Watford said: 2009-11-06T18:26+00:00