Article for the Berkhamsted and Tring Gazette
11th January 2012
For politicians, the Christmas break can be one of the most relaxing of the year. No one wants to be troubled by politics over the festive season if they can help it (both the public and the more sensible MPs) and it is a chance to spend some time with the family. Trips to the Pantomime and, a first for me, also taking the boys to Hyde Park for the Winter Wonderland. Did I say ‘relaxing’? Anyway, a change is as good as a rest and all that. Batteries can be recharged, ready for the year ahead.
And this is always just as well, as Christmas becomes a distant memory. Constituency casework tends to be at its busiest. People often postpone a problem or issue in December, but take it up with their MP in January.
As for the Ministerial work, this is now gearing up for the Budget on 21 March. However, and I hope you understand, I can’t tell you much about this at the moment!
There are some local issues worth touching on at the moment. Last week’s edition of the Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette led on the proposed 800 home housing development for south Berkhamsted.
The developers argued that there is a need for more housing in the area and that it is unfair on young people who cannot get on the housing market. As regular readers will know, I oppose the proposal. But I also acknowledge that there is a need to strike a balance. If we say that there can be no further house building in the Dacorum area, we will see it becoming even harder for younger generations to afford to buy in the area.
A balance needs to be struck between building new homes but also ensuring that infrastructure is not strained and that the best characteristics of our towns and villages can be protected. My problem with the proposal is that it doesn’t strike that balance.
Berkhamsted as a town has expanded a lot in the last 30 years and, under the current plans, will expand further. But an additional 800 homes on top of the current proposals would be an expansion too far.
The challenge for local authorities – and local people – is to identify those areas where development would be appropriate and, in doing so, giving greater opportunity to those wanting to get on the housing market, whilst still saying no to the inappropriate developments. The objective of recent changes to planning law is to enable this to happen.
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One example of the challenges Berkhamsted faces is school places. In recent years, a particular problem we have had has been the lack of places in reception years at First Schools. One radical proposal to address this would be drop the middle school system and switch to the two-tier approach used in most of the country. Given that Ashlyns School has the capacity to take Years 7 and 8, this might prove a relatively quick way of increasing the number of places for reception years. But it is a big change. The County Council has just started consulting on the proposal, so do make your voice heard.
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The talk of Parliament is The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher. The film has caused controversy by the portrayal of Baroness Thatcher suffering from dementia. I can understand that those close to her might find this upsetting. It is intrusive and, during someone’s lifetime, insensitive. But, having watched it, this is not a film that seeks to be unkind to Margaret Thatcher. Above all, the qualities of courage and determination in this remarkable Prime Minister stand out. And in doing that, it sets out the reasons why she will be remembered and, I hope, admired for a very long time to come.
