South West Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats

Government approval for a new 400 metre length of track in Tinsley, Sheffield, means that work can now go ahead to complete UK's first tram-train project.

Specially built vehicles will run from Rotherham along an existing freight line to join the Sheffield Supertram network at Meadowhall. The seven tram-trains are being built by Vossloh Espana and can use two different types of electrical power supplies for the two different types of track.

With winter on it's way there is a flurry of activity on the roads in and around Tring at the moment. Most of it involves what highways folk refer to as "patching". Pothole repair consists of temporary filling in with soft material - a "quick fix" if you like - though the contractors are not always quick to get there! In addition these temporay patches oftren have to be done again 2 or three times.

Black History Month is an opportunity for us all to reflect on Britain's diversity and rich culture, as well as serving as a reminder of the inequality that still exists.

This year, more so than others, the significance of Black History Month cannot be overlooked. Following the referendum result, we have seen a rise in racist attacks and xenophobic hate crimes reminding us that we must remain vigilant against division, and always celebrate our differences as well as our shared humanity and compassion.

Planning permission for the new Cambridge North Station, which is expected to handle 3,000 passengers a day in the north east of the city, was originally granted in 2013. However, when Cambridgeshire County Council, the original promoters of the new station, had to hand the project over to Network Rail, it was decided that a second planning application would have to made and the whole process repeated. Thie time taken to do this then led to the project being delayed further since it became entangled in various financial reviews. Altogether these administrative obstacles pushed the completion back by nearly three years

There are over 300,000 British pensioners permanently resident in Spain, but the UK does make an estimated contribution to the Spanish government for their healthcare costs.

What we're talking about here is the cost of treating temporary visitors, i.e. tourists. What we find is that the EU27 has to spend £155 million a year on healthcare for ailing Brits, but the total NHS spend on looking after European tourists is only £30 million.

Wow, since my last roundup of council by-elections a month ago the Liberal Democrats have gained more than ten more council seats in by elections! And all this without losing any and with a seat safely held at Bishops Castle in Shropshire.

This is rapidly going beyond my ability to maintain an accurate count, but I reckon it must be now around two dozen seats gained since the May elections without a single loss.

Liberal Democrats are celebrating gaining the Hadleigh seat on Suffolk County Council. As a result the out of touch Conservatives have lost their majority on the council. They can no longer be certain of driving through their policies at budget time and on other crucial votes.

Suffolk's newest county councillor is Trevor Sheldrick, a respected town councillor with a long record of service to the town. The full result was:

All Hertfordshire schools that are not directly on a gritting route will now be offered free salt supplies this winter.

Earlier this week we reported that Lib Dem Group Leader, Stephen Giles-Medhurst had proposed at the Highways Panel meeting that ALL schools, irrespective of their location, should be able to get salt to help them. His plan, backed by Labour, was voted down by the Conservatives

Yesterday, Tim Farron delivered his leader's speech to Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference in Brighton. In it, he talked at length about where we, as a country go from here, about Brexit and the politics of fear, division and hate.

"We must fight to keep Britain open, tolerant and united"

He also spoke about the refugee crisis, the NHS and how we ensure it cares for everyone, how to improve our children's education, attacked the Labour party for failing to stand up to the Tories and set out how our party will "do a Trudeau".