http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/newsarchive.php Recent News Stories from Hitchin and Harpenden Liberal Democrats en-GB Hitchin and Harpenden Liberal Democrats http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2010 Hitchin and Harpenden Liberal Democrats 2010-03-10T23:19+00:00 United Kingdom http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000072/hertfordshire_road_maintenance_costs_81_more_than_average.html Figures which compare spending by different councils on road maintenance confirm what many of us have believed for some time - Herts County Council is appallingly inefficient at mending the roads. 2010-02-26T18:19+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000071/fcc_meet_the_manager.html Nigel Quinton, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Hitchin & Harpenden, reminds Harpenden rail users that First Capital Connect will be holding a Meet the Manager event at Harpenden station on 24th February from 5 to 7.30 pm. 2010-02-22T15:22+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000069/ppc_says_that_peter_lilley_has_questions_to_answer_on_expenses_despite_escaping_from_41000_repayment.html Nigel Quinton, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Hitchin & Harpenden, welcomes Peter Lilley's comment that "MPs have only ourselves to blame" but thinks that he still needs to explain to his constituents why he needs to claim for a second home when he lives within easy reach of Westminster, and why he and his party have resisted change at every opportunity. 2010-02-09T12:00+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000070/incinerator_protest_gathers_momentum.html Nigel Quinton, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Hitchin & Harpenden, was delighted to be asked by Hatfield Against Incineration to hand their latest petition to the Waste Management Cabinet Panel at their meeting today. Although the council's proposal is for a site in South Hatfield, there is a commercial proposal by Biffa to be sited in Ware, and the choice of incineration over cleaner, greener modern alternatives is a matter for the whole county, not least on financial concerns. 2010-02-08T16:00+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000068/first_capital_connect__transforming_travel_or_just_using_a_good_advertising_slogan.html Local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates Nigel Quinton for Hitchin & Harpenden and Sandy Walkington for St Albans joined senior Liberal Democrat MPs at Westminster yesterday for a private meeting with FCC top management, Mary Grant and Neal Lawson. 2010-02-03T14:40+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000067/local_lib_dems_press_fcc_top_management_on_compensation.html Local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates Sandy Walkington for St Albans and Nigel Quinton for Hitchin & Harpenden joined senior Liberal Democrat MPs at Westminster yesterday for a private meeting with FCC top management, Mary Grant and Neal Lawson. 2010-02-03T13:10+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000066/tory_brown_bin_mess.html Several years ago the Tory-run North Herts District Council (NHDC) made the decision that residents' brown bins would not be emptied over Christmas. This decision was taken so that the emptying of black bins wasn't disrupted over the festive period - and at the time was probably sensible. However, the council have since changed the rules on what waste can be put into our brown bins. Nowadays the contents of brown bins not only includes traditional garden waste, but also food waste. It's fantastic that residents are doing their part for the environment and recycling more, but the council have yet again failed to react quickly enough to the change in residents' habits and the subsequent problem of rotting food in uncollected bins. 2010-01-21T00:31+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000065/lib_dem_ppc_alarmed_at_pct_financial_report.html Nigel Quinton, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Hitchin & Harpenden, is calling for an urgent explanation from the PCT after they announced a £24M deficit at a Scrutiny Committee meeting at County Hall. 2009-12-20T21:21+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000064/herts_waste_consultation_deadline_this_friday.html PPC Nigel Quinton has issued the following call to everyone to help reject the county council's proposed waste strategy, that will see £220 million pounds spent on an incinerator and hundreds of millions of pounds of our money committed to feeding this monster for the next quarter of a century. 2009-12-13T00:00+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000062/public_meeting_4th_dec__peak_oil__climate_change.html PPC Nigel Quinton will be in Kimpton next Friday to deliver a talk on "Peak Oil, Climate Change and a vision of a clean green future". 2009-11-29T18:11+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000061/priory_school__the_great_political_debate.html On Wednesday 25th November the Priory School invited our PPC Nigel Quinton to a school politics debate. While Nigel represented the Liberal Democrats, chair of governors Charles Lacey spoke from a Tory perspective and headmaster Peter Loach spoke from a Labour party perspective. 2009-11-29T10:43+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000060/hitchin_town_hall_and_the_tory_lies.html Hitchin Tories often speak of providing "Value for Money" and in a recent leaflet they claimed to be "Listening to You" and "Saving Hitchin Town Hall". But when it comes to our Town Hall the reality is completely different, 2009-11-21T19:24+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000059/while_taxes_rise_our_council_sits_on_1m.html North Herts Council has revealed that it has more than £1,000,000 collected from developers to pay for improved local facilities that the council has not spent! Some of the money was collected more than five years ago. 2009-11-21T19:14+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000058/east_of_luton__tories_forced_to_retract_party_political_claptrap.html Our colleagues in Luton have succeeded in getting the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Luton South to remove from his web site a story claiming the plan to build 5,500 new houses East of Luton was all the Liberal Democrat's fault. Given the fact that it is ONLY the Liberal Democrats who have consistently opposed this mad scheme, which has been voted through by Tory and Labour councillors on the Joint Planning Committee, it is quite incredible that the Tory candidate should have written such nonsense, but it sadly typical of the misinformation they peddle. 2009-11-05T16:10+00:00 http://hitch-harp-libdems.org.uk/news/000056/hitchin_rail_curve_hits_tory_buffers.html Tory and Labour members of North Herts planning committee last night decided to object to the proposed "Hitchin curve" on green belt grounds, once again demonstrating their complete inability to make the right decisions on the environment or on transport. 2009-11-04T16:18+00:00