South West Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats

Welcome to this edition of 'Rickmansworth This Week e-news'

Local Area Forum The next Rickmansworth Local Area Forum is on November 23rd , at Three Rivers House, starting at 7.30pm. Rickmansworth residents are all welcome. Most of your elected councillors will be there and you will have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, give your views on local matters. There will be a report from the Police on community safety.
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Fancy a guest for a month ? It is almost pantomime time and some of the Watersmeet panto performers are seeking local accommodation from 27th November to 31st December. Apart from this potentially being fun, you would also be paid between £80-£120 per week (depending on the food offered. breakfast, evening meal). If you have a spare room and might be interested in helping the venue and its guests, please email watersmeet@threerivers.gov.uk and details will be provided.

On November 9th the West Herts Liberal Democrats held their Annual General Meeting in Rickmansworth.

The meeting re-elected the out going chair, Sally Symington, as also were the Secretary and Treasurer also re-elected. However from a packed meeting room several new members joined the committee. In the interests of inclusivity the committee adopted the twin principals of Flexibility and Job Sharing that will ensure the formal structures can respond rapidly to change and encourage the sharing of skills and responsibilities with newly joined members.

Proposals to devolve control of local passenger rail services, plus more independence for Network Rail in planning routes could be a problem for the future development of UK's railfreight industry. This is because most rail freight services travel cross-country and planning for this needs a centralised system.

Hertfordshire Liberal Democrat county councillors have challenged the Conservative administration at County Hall about its repeated failings over highways gulley cleansing.

At last week's County Council meeting, County Councillor Chris White (St Albans Central) highlighted the fact that he had already flagged up 20 entirely blocked gulleys in his division and was working on a further ten.

Earlier in the year, the Tring and Berkhamsted Branches of the West Herts Liberal Democrats successfully merged in order to streamline admin and efficiency - just as a wave of new members joined.

The first Branch AGM was held in Tring at the end of October and it gave everyone an opportunity to meet the new arrivals.

Welcome to this edition of 'Rickmansworth This Week e-news'. Ann Shaw writes and Les Mead writes, edits and circulates this newsletter. Feed back on this newsletter is welcome.
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The next Rickmansworth Local Area Forum meeting is on November 23rd, at Three Rivers House, starting at 7.30pm. Rickmansworth residents are all welcome. Most of your elected councillors will be there and you will have the opportunity to ask questions, make comments, give your views on local matters. There will be a report from the Police on community safety.……………………………………………………

Although it was expected that the Conservatives would hold this seat for Haldens Ward on Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council the Liberal Democrats got a very good result. Haldens was an area which we had never worked before and the party had only four weeks notice of the election which had been called due to ill-health.

A group of MPs say the government is being dishonest when they claim it is allocating an extra £10bn to the NHS in England over the next five years.

Commenting on the news Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Norman Lamb said:

"The Health Select Committee are right to call out the Government on false claims about their investment in the NHS. Services are desperately in need of the money they were promised.