GOVERNMENT GIVES IGNORANT AND CYNICAL RESPONSE TO HANDS OFF HERTS e-PETITION

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 15th Sep 2007

Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Albans, has expressed his outrage at "the ignorant and cynical way" in which the Government has purported to respond to the Hands Off Herts e-petition on the Downing Street website.

"1528 individuals signed the petition before it closed at the end of August," Sandy said. "In terms of public support it was easily in the top two percent of all the petitions on the Prime Minister's site. The promise was that all serious petitions with more than 200 signatures would get a response from the Prime Minister, one of his ministers or an official.

"What all the signatories to the Hands of Herts petition have received instead is an anonymous stream of Downing Street drivel. In Gordon Brown's Brave New World, it seems that the people of St Albans are viewed as 'epsilon semi-morons'. There is no mention at all of Hertfordshire - the subject of the petition. There are real issues around addressing housing need in Hertfordshire but you would not know it from this response. It just drones on about Green Belt policy.

"There is a breath-taking dishonesty in the suggestion that it is local authorities driving the agenda. It was Ruth Kelly's own inspectors who over-ruled the proposed housing totals developed by the East of England Regional Assembly. Then Ruth Kelly over-ruled her own inspectors and demanded yet more housing units by 2021. That is what has put our Green Belt in hazard. Now the new Secretary of State has announced the winding up of the Regional Assembly; as if to underline the way the Government has continued to ride rough-shod over the wishes of local councillors and people.

"The Downing Street suggestion that the threat to the Hertfordshire is 'nothing to do with me, guv' simply insults our intelligence," Sandy said. "The Prime Minister should give a straight answer to the questions put in the petition and not wash his hands of the whole process. The next stage will be to take the Hands Off Herts campaign to Downing Street. He must be left under no illusion that people in Hertfordshire care passionately about the integrity of their city and county"

Hitchin & Harpenden PPC, Nigel Quinton, added his support to Sandy - "This is typical of the government's attitude - hats off to Sandy for launching the Hands off Herts campaign - I know many Liberal Democrats across the county have signed his petition and I think it quite outrageous that the government can dismiss it with such clear contempt. The government needs to take note of the very serious implications for Hertfordshire of their unsustainable development proposals."