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Local election video for May 3rd 2012

Real progress for Greens at Budget

After weeks of hard work and negotiating, I got my amendment to the budget passed at last night's Council meeting (pictured above). The amendment included nine measures, including boosting St Peters Street by extending the Sunday market in to the ‘forgotten’ northern end of the street.

There is plenty of scope to expand the market, and this would have many benefits, including bringing more visitors and activity further up to the north end of St Peters Street, more opportunities for local traders to sell and to keep money circulating within the local economy, and of course the extra income to the Council.

The ruling Conservative group accepted all my proposals, which included developing a local food programme to promote local growers, insulating Council properties, and switching some Council communications from paper to email. The measures have been costed by Council officers and promise to generate thousands of pounds of savings.

I also won a commitment from the Council to install solar panels or other renewable energy on any of its larger buildings that would pay back the investment within ten years.

I've used this budget process to directly inject some imaginative ideas into the Council, ideas that not only improve our district, but that also save money for our Council Taxpayers.

The budget was also amended by a Labour proposal to reduce the rise in council house rents that the Conservatives had planned. I was happy to vote in favour of that proposal.


Full list of items in Green amendment:

Additional priorities in the Corporate Plan: (only cost here is council officer time)

1. A feasibility study into establishing a local food partnership. This follows the example of cities like Nottingham, Plymouth and Brighton. Local groups, businesses and individuals with an interest in food and health can come together to support each other, promote each other’s activities, and promote the wider benefits of producing and consuming locally grown food.

2. Explore ways to report the carbon that would be produced by major capital projects. Our district produces more carbon emissions per head than almost any other in the UK. We need to take responsibility for tackling this problem and this is one way to help us do that. If we monitor what’s happening with our big capital projects, we will find it easier to identify areas where we can reduce our carbon footprint.

3. Explore moving to a ‘green’ tariff within our electricity contract. We have the opportunity through our electricity contract to support renewable energy generation in this country, which the government has again said this week is a key part of Britain’s energy strategy. Ideally we’d sign up with a company at the forefront of this technology, but we are at the beginning of a five-year contract with our current supplier and it would be impractical to change that. Moving to their green tariff, however, would be a step in the right direction.

Capital and revenue items:

1. Change some of our flower beds from bedding to shrub bed. Bedding is the type of flower bed where you see small flowers planted and replaced twice a year. Shrub bedding is the type that typically has herbaceous plants or low shrubs. Shrub bedding has lower maintenance costs and, to my mind, often a more natural and appealing look. In any case, we could save £10,000 by replacing a minority of existing bedding areas with shrub beds. Saving: £10,000

2. Make available 30% more stalls at the St Albans Sunday market. The monthly Sunday market in St Albans is currently limited to 62 stalls, compared to the 161 stalls that are put up every Saturday. The Sunday market is very popular with residents and traders, and is a great attraction. There is plenty of scope to expand it, and this would have many benefits, including bringing more visitors and activity further up to the north end of St Peters Street, more opportunities for local traders to sell and to keep money circulating within the local economy, and of course the extra income to the Council. New income: £6,600

3. Issue committee papers electronically by default. All I am proposing here is moving from the current practice of opting out of receiving hard copies to one where you opt-in. At the moment, councillors, officers or members of outside bodies who are happy to receive Council paperwork purely electronically have to volunteer that information. If people instead had to opt in to receiving some or all of their paperwork as hard copies it would encourage them to think about whether they actually need each document in that format.

Some councillors in this district and in many others are already using laptops and tablet computers to view some documents, and there are developments, including with Modern Gov software, that are making this increasingly simple to do. For some people, using a screen instead of pieces of paper will feel like a natural and convenient development, but of course for others it will not, and I want to emphasise that those who want to continue to get their paperwork as paper must be completely free to do so. Estimated saving: £10,000

4. Invest in renewable energy on our corporate buildings. Over the last few months, the government rules on installing renewable energy have been changing, so it’s been very difficult to work out a detailed proposal. But it remains true that government support for renewable energy makes it a good investment, especially on larger buildings. I am proposing a budget of up to £250,000 subject to any investment being able to pay back the capital inside ten years. The funding would come firstly from my revenue saving proposals and then from borrowing. Conventional electricity prices are only going to rise further, so we have an opportunity to save on those costs, and to demonstrate that we in this Council are serious about renewable energy. Budget: up to £250,000 with revenue income up to £25,000 pa

5. Provide signs at the Peahen junction asking drivers to switch off their engines while they wait. After many years of talking about the unacceptable pollution in our city centre, it is surely time to try and do something about it. This is a quick, easy way to help. For most vehicles on the roads today, ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than switching off and on again. As vehicles approach the Peahen they are routinely stationary for at least a minute and a half. Drivers who switch off their engines will be reducing pollution and even saving a bit of fuel. Cost: up to £1800

6. Install energy-saving measures at three Council buildings. A list of simple energy-saving measures that together would create revenue savings that would repay the capital in just over a year. Budget: £3680 with revenue saving of £2747 pa

Should St Albans switch off?

This graphic is from Transport for London's current campaign to ask vehicle drivers to avoid idling their engines. They say that if you're stopping for a minute or more, you're better off switching off. The full version of this graphic, with more facts and figures, is here.

I've always thought it would be good if drivers at the Peahen junction, and the Watsons Walk junction further down London Road, switched off while they wait. Even when traffic is moderate, you'll often be stationary at these junctions for well over a minute. And these junctions are severely polluted, needing all the help we can give them.

What about signs at these junctions, asking and then reminding drivers to switch off their engines while they wait?

Westminster Lodge model and materials on show

Inside this mysterious white box at Westminster Lodge is a small display about the new leisure centre.

The display includes a model of the new centre:


And there are several boards showing artist impressions of the outside and inside, along with samples of the materials that will be used:


As one of the main ways that the contractor created money in the budget to pay for the extension to 10 lanes was to cut back on the cost of materials, this is particularly interesting.

London Road Project – the latest on Tesco’s homes plan

My tour of London Road ‘Eversheds’ site and news of improvements to Tesco’s plans

Representatives of Tesco’s development arm, Spen Hill, today took me on a personal tour of the old Eversheds site on London Road, where they’re planning to build a large development of homes.

They’re keen to keep me involved of course, as the best laid plans of developers, no matter how big the supermarket behind them, can always come unstuck once councillors start picking at them in committee (Look what happened when Tesco tried to build a supermarket on the site.)

But it works both ways: the more we find out about the plans before they’re finalised, the more chance there is to influence them for the better.

And the plans have already improved. The developers have taken on board several of the negative comments made by people who saw the early version. In particular:

• The total number of homes is down from 114 to 88.
• Instead of less than one parking space per home, there is now one per home, with half a dozen visitor spaces.
• Gone is the line of modern maisonettes proposed for Inkerman Road (circled red above). Instead there will be a terrace of three-bed cottages, echoing the existing housing.

Work to renovate properties in Alma Road and Inkerman Road has already begun. Hoardings are going up this week to cover up the blighted properties in London Road, which will become flats with retail or restaurant units on the ground floor. All that work, round the edges of the main site, will probably take about nine further months.

Spen Hill are aiming to put in final planning applications for the main development plus the terrace on Inkerman Road, in early November. All the committee hearings, negotiations and legal work will probably take until the summer. Then, if the Council gives the go-ahead, the building work itself would take about 15 months.

I’ve encouraged Spen Hill to put the new plans on display, so everyone can take a look. The new scale model will soon be available for viewing at the Council. If you have a particular question, do get in touch with me, or you can contact the developers through their project website.

New boundaries for St Albans?

The Boundary Commission is changing the shape of hundreds of English constituencies, following the Government's decision to reduce the overall number of MPs.

For St Albans, the suggestion is that we take on two wards from Harpenden&Hitchin constituency - Sandridge and Redbourn. As you can see from the map above, the additional area is huge, but of course the Redbourn ward in particular is very sparsely populated. Nevertheless, this would add about 8000 voters to the St Albans constituency. Because these two extra wards generally vote Tory, the change would make it even more likely that St Albans returns a Tory MP in 2015.

You can read more about the proposals, and how to respond to them, here.

New hotel proposed for city centre

This is a before and after impression submitted by Premier Inn, of the hotel they'd like to build in St Peters Street.

Apparently the ground floor to the street would be restaurants, nicely tidying up the empty units that are there at the moment. Then there's a gym behind that, and then three floors of rooms - 125 rooms in total.

It's the kind of hotel the city needs, but I'm concerned at the moment that the building would dominate the city centre, especially painted the colours as shown. I will be looking for the Council to get the appearance of the front elevation changed, so it better reflects the historic surroundings.

Yes, it's better than what we've got at the moment, but that doesn't mean we should go ahead without some improvements to the design.


More photos:

View from the other end of Adelaide Street, before and after:

Tesco homes - application expected soon

After a decade of decay and delay on the old Eversheds site between London Road and Alma Road, things are finally starting to happen.

In 2008, after a vigorous local campaign, St Albans Council refused Tesco permission to put a supermarket on the site. In 2010, Tesco announced it was moving and expanding its city centre store instead. The company then handed the site over to its wholly-owned development arm, Spen Hill.

Spen Hill is expected to submit a full planning application in the next few weeks for a housing project on the site.

I recently held a meeting with seven members of the development team, to discuss details of the project.

Plans to improve existing buildings in London Road, Alma Road and Inkerman Road, have already been approved, and work has started.

Spen Hill plans to reduce disturbance during the work by completing the street-facing part first, and only accessing the site from one point on Alma Road.

Once Spen Hill submits a full planning application, everyone will have a chance to look at the details, and give their comments to the Council’s planning committee.