Save our Village Campaign

21st December 2011 – On the Home Straight

saveourvillage — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:50:45 +0000

We are pleased to report that the issue of charging users of the village car parks in the village has almost been resolved, with formal agreement between Parish and Borough Councils anticipated early in January 2012. WHBC has agreed in principle, to a 125 year lease of the four car parks to the Parish Council; having brought them up to a reasonable standard before handover (including improvements for disabled parking, repairs to major surface degradations and cleaning). The Parish Council will manage them jointly with their existing car parks and maintain them in good condition. All the village car parks will be without charge at the point of use (unless a penalty is incurred!).

During the negotiations, the Leader of WHBC made it very clear that he would only agree to a solution that included a rent payment. The Parish Council considered that the preservation of a stable village centre for the future should be supported and thus a charge will be made as part of the Parish precept, which residents pay as part of their Council Tax. The Borough Council will receive £10,000 per annum rent; the Parish Council will pay the business rates, utility bills such as lighting, maintain the car parks and utilise the Borough Council’s on-street parking restriction enforcement contract for the High Street car park 90 minute restriction. The total cost is likely to result in an additional payment of approximately 10p per week for a Band D property (other bands will vary from this). This we believe is a modest payment; if the original proposals had gone ahead, the Borough Council expected to extract up to £50,000-£60,000 per annum by charging for their car parks and for resident and business user parking permits.

We anticipate the lease will begin on 1 April 2012, once the fine legal details have been resolved.

24th November – Position on Discussions with WHBC

saveourvillage — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:44:52 +0000

Following the meeting between the Parish Council and WHBC on Monday 7th November, we received a draft “heads of agreement” from the Chief Executive, which included many points which we felt were not acceptable. At a full Parish Council meeting on 9th November a formal response was agreed and sent on the 10th. The Parish Council also set up a negotiating team of four Councillors to continue negotiations and endeavour to reach an acceptable arrangement. We received a response from WHBC on the 14th in which they accepted the concept of granting a lease to the Parish Council on all four car parks and negotiations now centre around:

a. The costs involved, what is included or excluded, future reviews, capping, indexation etc.

b. The term of the lease.

c. Arrangements for transfer of the parking enforcement arrangements.

d. What, if any, work should be done on the car parks to upgrade them and who should pay for that.

e. Items such as routine maintenance, insurance, commencement date, etc.

The team met on 21st to discuss the latest WHBC draft and dispatched our reply on 22nd. We await a response which should finally clarify if any significant impediments to a satisfactory outcome remain.

11 November 2011 – D-Day on 17th Cancelled !

saveourvillage — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:37:19 +0000

Thanks to all the efforts of so many people, common-sense has prevailed and Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council have agreed that there may be a better way to run car parks in the village ! Right now, the Parish Council and the Borough Council are in negotiations about the Parish Council leasing the High Street, Lockley’s Drive, Titmuss Yard and Broomfield Road car parks and operating them to the benefit of all in the village and our visitors.

You can read the WHBC press release here: http://www.welhat.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4056 As ever, press releases never tell the full story and nobody should be under any illusion that without our overwhelming protest, the proposals would have gone ahead. The Committee meeting on 17th November – D (ecision) Day - will not now consider car park charging in Welwyn as the parties are in negotiations and neither a recommendation nor a decision can be made at this stage.

However - we are not finished yet! There are still a number of major aspects on which both parties need to agree and then there is a lot of finer detail to be teased through. The threat of car park charging could still return. As soon as we can, the Parish Council will explain what will be happening in the near future – please bear with us – we want to explain the details when they are established, rather than just trumpet a headline.

Nevertheless, the topic will not be discussed on 17th so D Day is cancelled for now. Negotiations need to be brought to a successful conclusion for the spectre to be completely removed.

8th November 2011 Still talking – but pounds apart!

saveourvillage — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:26:07 +0000

Although this web site has been rather quiet, both Working Group and Parish Council have been busy. The Parish Council are currently in discussion with Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council on certain aspects of the car park charging proposal. There appears to have been some shift of ground but it is far from confirmed and there has certainly not been any breakthrough. The Parish Council continues to stand for the Village car parks being free at the point of use, as has been clearly indicated by all as essential. More information is expected from the Borough Council but if anything positive emerges, there would still be a lot of detail to examine and resolve before any solution is reached that is acceptable to residents, businesses and visitors alike.

Don’t let us rejoice too soon – considerable distance remains between the parties – and let us be fully aware, WHBC may reject our offer leaving us back at square one and them still pressing ahead with their original proposal. Nevertheless, we are in discussion and meaningful consultation is what the Parish Council has sought from the start.

So we ask everyone to exert continuing pressure on WHBC by writing to all Borough Councillors (especially those for Welwyn wards and members of the Cabinet’s Housing and Planning Committee); signing the ePetition and discussing with friends and neighbours and encouraging them to right and sign the petition.

Don’t forget – only 9 days to go to Decision Day on 17th November! Please be prepared to show your rejection of the proposal at the meeting in Campus West – more details as soon as we have them.

Grant Shapps MP urges local authorities not to use residents as “Cash Cows”

saveourvillage — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:36:53 +0000

In an article in the Sunday Times on 16th October 2011 our local MP Grant Shapps Housing & Local Government urges local authorities not to use residents as “cash cows” adding “Only lazy councils will attempt to use residents to boost their bank balances”.

Read the full article here:
http://www.saveourvillage.org.uk/docs/sunday-times-16.10.11-grant-shapps.pdf

24th October 2011 – 24 DAYS TO GO !

saveourvillage — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:41:10 +0000

Only 24 days before the Planning & Housing Committee meeting on 17th November that will vote on the car park charging proposals. They will make a recommendation to the Cabinet.

PLEASE – sign the ePetition – Click Here

PLEASE – write to your Borough Councillor – Click Here

21st October 2011 – Write to your Welwyn Hatfield Borough Councillor

saveourvillage — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:41:37 +0000

Your response with Petition, ePetition, letters, cards and e-mails has certainly grabbed attention. But faced with their refusal to-date to do as our local MP has urged – proper consultation and discussion with the Parish Council and local people – we now ask you to take an additional step – write to your Borough Councillor.

The contact details can be found at http://www.welhat.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3554 (which gives their e-mail address; click on the name and it will give you their home address). If you live outside Welwyn, please write to your local ward councillors. The main messages to get across are:

1. The whole village objects to car park charging, for the many reasons detailed before but primarily because it will inevitably lead to the demise of businesses and the end of the village as a commercial and social centre. Businesses that have only just recovered from the “collateral damage” arising from “The Wellington” fire and are trying to weather the current economic malaise, as we all are. None of us need additional taxes; we demand efficiencies from our public servants.

2. How can the strategy claimed in their Budget Book 2011/12, of “Encouraging Prosperity … improving … local shopping environments … and encouraging the growth and retention of businesses” be reconciled with (in the same Book) extracting a relatively small amount of money that will kill a small but vibrant commercial and social village centre ? Look no further than Lemsford for a village which has no shops and where it is difficult to get business tenants due to the lack of local amenities.

3. In view of the overwhelming grass-roots opposition, how will they be voting ? Will they please discuss and explain to colleagues who are Cabinet and Committee members what their constituents are saying to them ? Nobody in Welwyn wants the charges; WHBC have failed to explain the benefits to the village and have totally ignored the downside impact of their proposals.

4. We seek a fundamental change – open and reasoned discussion and consultation – not a behind-closed-doors decision.

Are WHBC listening ? NOT YET – they are even planning to increase the Welwyn parking charges for 2012/13 and beyond before they have even introduced them! So, we must keep up the pressure – write more letters, phone more people, muster ,more support from a wider base to do the same (call your friends) and – Don’t forget to put the meeting on 17th November in your diary – and come along !

21st October 2011 – The Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council Budget

saveourvillage — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:16:40 +0000

At 342 pages, the WHBC Budget Book 2011/12 (view on-line at http://www.welhat.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=4008&p=0 ) is a sure cure for insomnia, but it repays closer scrutiny. For example, on page 173, under the heading “Income Generation” is an entry “Introduce charges to Welwyn Car Parks”. The budgeted income is shown rising from £20,000 per year for 2011/12 to £30,000 per year for years 2012/13 and beyond. You might ask: “Are they planning to build more car parks in Welwyn ?”, or “How will they squeeze more cars into existing spaces ?”, or “How many residents permits will they sell in Danesbury or Hawbush Rise ?”. However, the pragmatic observer will probably conclude that these questions will be filed in the “Too Difficult” tray and that the mechanism will be to increase the charges in the existing car parks.

There is a further gem near the bottom of page 174, where it is revealed that the budgeted income from “Introduce charges to Hatfield car parks” is shown as a whopping £200,000 per year from 2012/13. You might expect that the good citizens of Hatfield might get warm under the collar at that – but if the precedent had already been set in Welwyn the previous year they would have a far weaker argument for opposing. That is the true significance of the plan to charge for our car parks – they stand to gain a massive income elsewhere if it goes ahead in Welwyn.

The claims of Councillors and Officers that the proposals were “an integral part of an improvement plan for Welwyn Village car parks and a large part of dealing with the ongoing parking issues in the village” and to counter “a negative impact on local businesses” were nothing of the sort – they had already budgeted to increase the charges by 50% for 2012/13!

On Page 196 they state one of their priorities as: “Encouraging Prosperity and a Healthier Community – improving town centres and local shopping environments, planning for housing growth, and encouraging the growth and retention of businesses”

On Page 193 at point 5.8, they noted the governments consultation on proposals for business rates retention (http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/resourcereviewbusinessrates) This will mean that any actions they take which destroy income from business rates would directly affect their income. Conversely of course, it will also mean that where they support business growth they will benefit from it.

Their laudable aspirations are out of step with their budget strategy. Faced with their intransigence we must continue to expose the foolishness of charging in the village and the inevitable result to commerce and the social heart of the village.

21st October 2011 – More Stealth Taxes !

saveourvillage — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:02:26 +0000

Last Sunday, The Sunday Times exposed Councils country-wide were increasing prices of basic services. The prices of burials, day centres, football pitch hire, school dinners, school transport, pest control officer visits and dumping garden waste at recycling centres were amongst the targets. Their aim – to beat the freeze on Council Tax rises introduced by the Government. Grant Shapps, our local MP was quoted as urging local authorities not to use residents as “cash cows”, adding: “Only lazy councils will attempt to use residents to boost their bank balances. If local authorities cut out their excessive chief executive pay, share back offices and root out wild overspends they can safeguard frontline services”.

He said the same when he met members of the Working Group on 21st September. WHBC have focused on car park charges at the moment, but the point is the same.

20th October 2011 – “Village Life” takes an interest

saveourvillage — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:02:15 +0000

Many of you receive a copy of Village Life through your letterbox; a couple of weeks ago the editor, Jose Saavedra, met with members of the Working Group and as a result he has written an article which will be in the November editions of the magazine for Hitchin and Tewin. When we met with Jose we stressed the effect on the village and the absence of any benefits or improvements that would accrue. We hope that this will get our story to a wider but still very interested audience. You can visit the Village Life website at http://www.villagelifemag.com