22 Jan 2026
St Albans Liberal Democrats have been accused of brazenly attempting to claim credit for a U-turn over charging at London Colney’s Haseldine Road car park.
This week Cllr Tony Lillico, Lib Dem chair of London Colney Parish Council and district councillor for the village, announced overwhelming support for plans to transfer ownership of the car park from SADC to the parish council.
He said: “It felt like a real break-through moment when the Lib Dem-led district council agreed to my idea. More than 90 per cent of those who responded to my informal public survey back the plans and now the public meeting has expressed overwhelming support too.
“Longer-term we know that the transfer of the car park will also mean that London Colney residents will have to pay for its upkeep – as with all of our other car parks, but I was delighted that at this meeting, council leader Paul de Kort confirmed that the district council will soon complete repairs to the car park potholes that were highlighted by me.
“It’s brilliant that we Lib Dems have been able to work hand in glove on this exciting proposal, which is set to secure the future of our car park, free at the point of use, without the need to introduce charges or a wide area Controlled Parking Zone across the centre of our village.
“Subject to final negotiations between officers at both councils, we’re hoping for the transfer to take place by the end of 2026. London Colney parish councillors are now getting to work on a plan for the future management of the car park.
“I know how important access to parking is within our local area, and it’s something I’ve made a priority throughout my time representing London Colney. When I was first elected in 2023, my Lib Dem colleagues and I had the Haseldine car park relined and surface repairs completed.
“This plan is a fantastic opportunity for our village, and I’m glad that Lib Dems working together across both councils has enabled us to come up with such a brilliant outcome for local residents.”
What Cllr Lillico fails to mention is that the plans to charge for parking at Haseldine Road came from the Liberal Democrat administration at SADC.
Last year, members of the council’s public realm committee overwhelmingly voted in favour of introducing fees at the free facility, with a projected annual income of £66,000.
They ignored a petition opposing the measures which was signed by hundreds of village residents.
SADC then launched a consultation reviewing the possible need for a Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) in the London Colney area which could have meant resident permit parking, additional yellow lines, setting a maximum time a vehicle can remain parked (e.g. in bays outside shops), and more parking charges.
A campaign against the proposals was fought by local Labour councillors Mike Hobday and Emma Turnbull, who said the fees would devastate High Street and Haseldine Road shops and posed an unfair tax on local families.
The SADC administration remained quiet in response, even after the consultation closed at the end of September, only for Cllr Lillico to announce plans for the parish takeover in December.
Mike responded this week: “It is cheap and demeaning for a political party to claim credit for a campaign that they ignored.
“For 18 months, Cllr Emma Turnbull and I have fought the Liberal Democrat plan to make money out of London Colney drivers. We challenged this at council meeting after council meeting. We collected over a thousand signatures across two petitions – we presented the second at a council meeting on Wednesday.
“During the bulk of this time, village Liberal Democrats did and said nothing. London Colney’s Liberal Democrat councillor voted four times that St Albans council’s budget should include this income.”
He highlighted the many shops, restaurants, churches, mosques and health centres who supported the Labour councillors; campaign by collecting signature petitions or by displaying posters.
Mike added: The real heroes of this U-turn are the shops and businesses of London Colney who collected signatures on the petitions and the thousand-plus residents who signed up to object to the Liberal Democrat plans. The council’s U-turn is a victory for people-power, not for the political party who were finally forced to listen to the village.”
He said Labour councillors had previously warned that parking charges would damage local shops and restaurants.
“The Haseldine Road car park is full at busy times, so charges would have moved 70 cars into local residential streets. The council became aware of this, so increased the threat by suggesting charges on residential roads too. Our campaign opposed both these proposals and asked for more traffic warden enforcement of existing yellow lines.”
