Cheslyn House gardens, Woodside Playing Fields and Cassiobury Park have all retained their Green Flag status, which is fantastic news and a testament to the hard work and effort put in by all those involved in the upkeep.  I’m not just talking about the council-employed gardeners and park staff – who do an amazing job - but also the community groups like our ‘Friends Ofs’ , the sports clubs, the local councillors and the police.  All of whom take pride in our parks, and like me get so frustrated when they see others show such blatant disregard, dropping litter and the like.   

I think we need to have a big community push on litter and re-educate those that think it’s acceptable to just leave a mess behind them that it really isn’t!!

The coalition government today announced it is overhauling national licensing policy  because the benefits of 24 hour drinking laws had failed to materialise and there’d been an increase in the incidences of drink fuelled crime and disorder.  It’s particularly timely for us as we’re in the process of toughening up our own local licensing policy (scroll down to earlier blog on that!) – which we can still only do within the confinements of the national policy. 

Overall, I welcome any changes that will give local authorities greater flexibility over licensing matters; especially the extra help with funding the costs of policing, taxi marshalling and street cleaning.  Watford council taxpayers unfairly bear the brunt of the clear-up costs when we know it’s not just Watford people that cause the mess.

 I understand the proposed changes would also allow local authorities to do more to tackle discount sales of alcohol in supermarkets and cornershops.  This sounds like a step in the right direction as we know most of the people that are excessively drunk on a night out have got themselves tanked up on cheap booze before they leave home.   So in principle this review gets a thumbs up from me, but of course there would need to be checks and balances built into any proposal.

Watford For You has just launched it’s new website: www.watfordforyou.org aimed at promoting the town to residents, businesses and visitors.  It’ll also play a key role in attracting new businesses to invest in the town – something we need in order to keep employment levels up. If you’ve not heard of Watford For You it’s the marketing arm of our Local Strategic Partnership ‘One Watford’. 

We also launched the Watford Commuter travel plan to help reduce congestion on our busy streets.  Part of this is a business bike loan scheme, and we presented the first loan bikes Watford Community Housing Trust and Clydesdale Bank. 

Hard times or not, we want to signal that we are a town open for business and keen to be green!

Most people have heard of the Samaritans, but not everyone will know exactly what they and their volunteers do.   They’re all about confidential non-judgemental emotional support, 24 hours a day for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those which could lead to suicide. To raise their profile further they’ve recently embarked on a national publicity campaign – the 2010 Samaritans Smart Car tour – in which each of the 199 branches in the country connect with each other.  A driver from each branch has been driving the car from their branch to a neighbouring branch, where he or she hands over the keys to the next volunteer and so on until all branches have been visited.  I was invited along to welcome the Smart Car to the Watford Samaritans branch visit, at 45 St John’s Road, before it departed for Amersham.

Over the five years since the latest Licensing Act came into force, we’ve gained a good understanding of where we can and can’t influence licensing decisions.  And following several successful challenges to the court of appeals, we feel confident we can toughen up our existing policy.   

By doing so, we hope we can attract the types of venues we want to see in the town centre – those that cater for a wider range of groups across a wider spectrum of hours; that offer entertainment; are food rather than alcohol led etc.  And we hope that we’ll be able to say ‘NO’ to new bars and pubs that only sell alcohol. 

We also want to be able to impose stricter conditions on those venues for which we do grant licenses,  eg waiter service after 9, joining Pubwatch, installing CCTV. 

By doing all of this, we hope that we’ll change the dynamic of the town centre, and get rid of this image that the town centre is a ‘no-go’ area for people over the age of 25! Our changes won’t affect those that already have licences, but we hope that if the town centre does change, they too may diversify away from just being venues for people to stand around and drink. 

We are already involved in a new initiative, which sees the police, CCTV operators, Taxi drivers, Taxi marshals, door staff and the council all working together to tackle drunks in the town.  Someone noted as being drunk will have any alcohol they have on them confiscated, be refused entry to bars and clubs, and if necessary, issued a section 27 notice requiring them to leave the town centre.  This should make a big difference. 

We’d welcome your views, and are running an online consultation. You can fill in the survey found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z9R39ZH

Some good news for a Friday afternoon – Herts Highways will be renewing the street lighting on St Albans Road in order to enhance the appeal of the area, thanks to pressure from Watford Borough Council and the St Albans Road Traders Association. 

The current columns will be replaced with new columns designed to bear festive lighting and hanging baskets.  Stylish, but efficient lanterns will replace the old functional street lights.  

Herts Highways advise that in order to minimise disruption, the major part of the works will take place after 7:30pm, but there will be no excavating after midnight.  The work will start on 26 July 2010 and take 21 days, working Monday to Friday.  There will be temporary parking restrictions and/or temporary traffic signals in place at night.

I was at the Watford Sheltered Workshop on

Century Retail Park this week for the unveiling of their new kitchen, which they received funding for from the Big Lottery Fund.  For those that don’t know the Sheltered Workshop is an excellent charity that finds work for people who would struggle in the normal working environment.  The new kitchen will mean workers will now be able to improve their cooking skills.  This is me with David Lynch and Michael Taylor.

Watford Borough Council has taken over an empty shop in Charter Place Shopping Centre and is asking everyone that lives, works and shops in

Watford to come along and have a look at some development ideas for the town over the next 20 years or so.  It’ll be open from Monday 12th until Saturday 24 July (Monday to Saturday), between 12noon and 7pm.On display will be ideas for the re-development of Charter Place, Watford Health Campus, the Croxley Rail Link and Watford Junction. There will be information about our aim to improve cultural facilities and town centre public spaces as well as details of the draft licensing policy being considered by the council, which will try to attract more restaurants - and fewer bars and clubs - into the town centre.

Staff will be on hand to answer questions and anyone that completes a short survey will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 gift card which can be used in shops in Charter Place and the Harlequin Centre.  Please do come along!

Preparations are underway for this year’s  Watford LIVE! Community Arts Festival – our 10 day event that aims to  celebrate the diversity that artists, performers, individuals and groups in Watford and the surrounding area have to offer.  The first two days will be showcase days, and in this photo I’m with two acts performing on the first day, Saturday 10th July.  Hayaam is a talented belly dancer, who runs classes in Watford where you can learn to shimmy and sway like her – she’s on at 3.30pm.  The other two are from RTDance, a street dance and performing arts company, who again run classes locally for all ages and all levels.  They’ll perform at 2.30pm the same day.  There’ll be lots of other excellent performers, and the day kicks off at 1.30pm at the Pond area of the high street. 

On the Sunday, there’ll be live music acts performing from midday.  Have a look at the festival’s website for more info about what’s on during the 10 day festival: www.watfordlive.org or contact Watford Borough Council’s Community Services team on tel: 01923 278333.

We’ve got a lot of talent on our doorstep, and a lot of places where you can go to learn these talents for yourselves.

Yesterday I wrote to you about why we have to take difficult decisions to tackle the deficit and lay the foundations of a fairer society. These are not decisions that any Government wants to take but we have no choice except to clear up the financial mess that Labour left us. Today’s Budget takes these difficult decisions in an honest and fair way and with the clear stamp of Liberal Democrat values running through it. In the past, efforts to tackle a big deficit have always hit the poorest the most. The coalition has ensured that – for the first time – this will not happen. The richest will pay the most, while pensioners and children will be protected.

Look through the Budget and you will see key policies we campaigned for being put into effect.

• The £1,000 increase in the Income Tax allowance will mean that 880,000 low paid workers will be freed from Income Tax altogether. This is the first step towards delivering our manifesto commitment to ensure no-one pays tax on the first £10,000 they earn.
• The Budget puts in place our promise of a new tax on banks, ensuring that they help to pay to clear up the mess left by the financial crisis.

• Top earners will pay a full 10% more in Capital Gains Tax than under Labour, with no loopholes or tapers or get-out clauses. That change helps ensure those with the broadest shoulders take the greatest strain.

• We will guarantee that pensioners get a fair deal, putting into effect the Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment for a “triple lock”, so state pensions rise every year in line with earnings, inflation, or by 2.5%, whichever is the highest. Never again will pensioners be allowed to fall behind.

• The Coalition Government will not let regions, towns or cities that depend heavily on the public sector be forgotten. That’s why this Budget establishes a regional growth fund to ensure those parts of the country get meaningful support to help create jobs and opportunities for all.
• Tackling Child Poverty remains at the heart of the government’s approach. So while we have decided to cut child tax credits for those who can most afford it, we have increased tax credits for the poorest families and put up to £ 2 billion into child tax credits to help ensure children of all backgrounds get a fair start in life.

These measures will ensure that the burden of deficit reduction is shared fairly across society. This Government is being honest with people about the road ahead. Together, we can make it through these difficult times and restore health to our economy and to the public finances. These difficult choices are the foundation stones for the fairer Britain we will build over the next five years.