West Herts Liberal Democrats - Working for Hertfordshire, for Britain and for You!

Based on recent polling, LibDems are best placed to gain an extra MEP at the expense of the Brexit party.

If you're a remainer, give your vote to us in the East England to deprive Farage's party of a seat.

Change UK cannot win a MEP seat based on polling in the East England and Labour do not currently have a strong Remain position

Dacorum Borough Council Election Results May 2019 - ALDBURY & WIGGINTON

Phil McDowell Liberal Democrats 522 Elected

Stan Mills Conservative 305

Phil McDowell who combines running the family business, plus another company of his own in nearby Pitstone, knows this part of the Chilterns well from his childhood.

Dacorum Borough Council Election Results May 2019 - TRING WEST & RURAL

Thank you to the people of Tring West & Rural for their support.

Olive Conway; Conservative; 529
Mike Hicks; Conservative; 507
NICK HOLLINGHURST; Liberal Democrats; 899; ELECTED
Roger Oliver; Green; 438
Peter Scott; Labour; 171
CHRISTOPHER TOWNSEND; Liberal Democrats; 824; ELECTED

WINNING HERE!

Tring, Berkhamsted & Northchurch today held a successful Euro Campaign stall in Berkhamsted.

They were joined by the first placed Liberal Democrat Euro candidate, Dr Barbara Gibson who was out and about meeting voters on the High Street.

Barbara Gibson visited Berkhamsted to meet some of the new Liberal Democrat councillors who were successfully elected to Dacorum Borough Council in the May 2019 local elections.

Remember, in the European Parlimentary Election on Thursday 23rd May you have one vote and must vote for a party.

Please vote for the Liberal Democrats.

From left to right in the photograph:

Cllr Phil McDowell; Sharon Bowles, Baroness Berkhamsted; Cllr Nigel Taylor; Cllr Sally Symington; Berkhamsted Town Cllr Peter White; Cllr Lara Pringle; Hertfordshire County Councillor Dr Barbara Gibson; Cllr Stephen Claughton; Cllr Nicky Woolner; Cllr Geraldine Corry and Cllr Garrick Stevens, who is also the Leader of Berkhamsted Town Council.

.Thank you to the people of Tring Central for their support in the 2nd May Dacorum Borough Council Elections

The results for the Ward of Tring Central are as below:

Mark Anderson UKIP 145
JOHN BOWDEN Liberal Democrats 570 ELECTED
Geraint Cooksley Labour 135
Stephen Hearn Conservative 461
Phil Hills Conservative 350
Mary Hodgskiss Green 319
ROXANNE RANSLEY Liberal Democrats 730 ELECTED

The turnout was 37%

This represents a Liberal Democrat GAIN of one seat from the Conservatives.

John and Roxanne are seen here at the Forum in Hemel Hempstead.

The picture shows the scene in Tring opposite the church at five to nine in the morning in the week before the election.

On 24th April, what should have been the half eight o'clock 500 bus to Aylesbury broke down in Station Road - it was one of the rare 500s that still use the "Cow Lane Loop".

Passengers waiting in Tring weren't to know of course, though there was not much they could do about it by then. Their patience was remarkable, though it might just have been resigned despair.

After a bit the queue was joined by the bus driver himself, who had reported the breakdown and left his bus in Station Road.

A few years ago the 500 ran on a 20 minute timetable and gave a reasonable service to local people. Now, however the service has been cut to 2 an hour - every 30 minutes.

This means that if a bus fails to turn up for any reason, passengers are faced with a service gap of at least an hour. In the picture on the left hand side was a young school student who had been waiting an hour and a quarter - having, I suppose, just missed the 8 o'clock bus.

A bus breakdown at any time is a great inconvenience for passengers but if a service is cut during the morning peak travel time there can be serious consequences. People can be late for work, for school, for appointments, for interviews. There are reports of people losing their jobs or apprenticeships as a result of bus service unreliability, reports of pupils in trouble at school and of infuriated parents reverting to car travel to take their children to school themselves. Breakdowns and other situations leading to service cuts take place all too frequently.

Bus services are essential to many groups of people, and of course have the potential, if delivered reliably, to reduce the use of private motor cars during the rush hours. They are also there for any of us in an emergency, should our own cars be unavailable or if we cannot drive because of some injury or health problem.

Bus services are important public services and our local councils at every level must take a far more pro-active approach in ensuring they are provided accessibly, reliably and conveniently. And if this requires some public money to provide direct or indirect support - then we must face that reality.

Allowing our bus services to continue to fail will lead to increased traffic on our roads, increased delay for motorists, increased air pollution and social isolation for certain groups of vulnerable people.

Nick Hollinghurst, Herts County Councillor for Tring West & Rural, says: "The transition from primary to secondary school is always difficult, not only for the young people concerned but also for their families. Parents may have to plan for daily travel, not only a new route for the child who goes to the new secondary school, but to work out how that can be managed for other school age children. Recently there were large numbers of Hertfordshire schoolchildren for whom the secondary transfer was extremely stressful with pupils and families having to be registered on the "continuing interest" list. They then had to wait anxiously to see if any places might turn up in a suitably located secondary school as other parents withdrew their applications there.

Informal counts of the referendum voting papers made 3 years ago while scrutinising the accuracy of the local voting gave an unequivical result. Back then in 2016 Berkhamsted was solidly in favour of "Remaining".

It was hardly surprising, of course.

With a number of local companies and former local companies being heavily involved in exporting British goods to the Continent - and with so many jobs dependent of European trade - it was hardly likely the the people of Berkhamsted would vote to turn their backs on our best and nearest training partners.

The town's prosperity depended in great measure on the UK being able to trade as an equal with the major economies in the rest of the EU.

Few would want to exchange that easy and prosperous customs-free trade for risky, tariff-ridden arrangements with distant nations where it is expensive and complex to markets UK products.

Few would see a future with large bullying countries like the USA, or overwhelmingly large countries like the People's Republic of China, or countries with vast populations like India whose government is already pushing for greater access to the UK for their citizens - to be in any way preferable with smoothly running free trade with friendly countries on an equal footing.

And so, by a significant margin, the people of Berkhamsted voted 3 years for the UK to remain part of the UK.

Signs like this appearing in the High Street show that they have not changed in that opinion!

The cordial reception the Liberal Democrat canvassers and leaflet deliverers receive from the townsfolk also attests to a continued and enthusiastic support for Remain - and a rejection of popular nationalism and the prejudices that inevitable go with that.

Shown here at their first meeting in Dacorum's Forum Offices, the Liberal Democrat Dacorum Borough Group gets off to a good start on the Saturday after the election.

In the May 2nd elections the Group increased from 5 to 19 councillors.

Tring:
Tring Central; John Bowden, Roxanne Ransley
Tring West & Rural; Nick Hollinghurst,Christopher Townsend
Aldbury & Wigginton; Phil McDowell

Berkhamsted:
Berkhmsted Castle; Stephen Claughton, Richard Freeman
Berkhamsted East; Garrick Stevens, Nigel Taylor
Berkhamsted West; Sally Symington, Nicky Woolner
Northchurch; Lara Pringle

Hemel Hempstead:
Adeyfield West; Adrian England, Ron Tindall
Highfield; Brenda Link, Sammy Barry
Boxmoor; Elizabeth Uttley, Claire Hobson, William Allen