11 Oct 2024
The controversy surrounding SADC’s proposed charges for on-street parking is very much at the forefront of the fight for Harpenden North and Rural in the imminent district by-election.
The vacancy was created by the recent resignation of Beth Fisher, with the poll taking place on Thursday October 17.
Four candidates are in the running: Sue Griffiths (Local Conservatives), Ross Harper (Labour Party), Mario May (Green Party) and James Robertson (Liberal Democrats).
We reached out to each of them in a bid to determine their stance on key local issues.
Sue Griffiths said she made the decision to stand as a Tory candidate in order to give something back to her local community.
She has put supporting Harpenden’s High Street at the heart of her campaign.
“The Lib Dems have been running the local council for nearly six years and currently have 48 of 57 seats. There is no scrutiny and no effective opposition as there are only three Conservative councillors and historically the Greens and Labour have voted with the Lib Dems.This has led to waste and inefficiency, increasing financial issues and poor service. It’s time to have an effective opposition to keep them on their toes.
“We would retain the older person’s parking permits and free on-street parking. The revenue shortfall could be made up by more efficient running of the council, for example, if parking restrictions were properly enforced in car parks, revenue would rise and the loss would disappear. Why is the council running green spaces when they could be handed over to parish councils? Why is St Albans not parished and the costs borne by St Albans not Harpenden residents?”
She also attacked the Labour Government’s planned introduction of VAT on independent school fees: “We have talked with local schools and parents who are desperately worried about Labour’s ideological attack on children’s education. Ten per cent of local children are educated privately. If only half of them go into the state system it will put up class sizes and/or lead to children not getting a school place locally. It is unfair.”
Meanwhile, Lib Dem James Robertson explained why he was standing for the ward: “I came to Harpenden over 10 years ago and am keen to contribute to making this a great place to live. I’ve been a school governor at Sir John Lawes for a few years, but this seemed like an opportunity to make a bigger contribution.
“I’m dismayed by what the Conservative Government has done to public services over the last 14 years and by their neglect for key issues like housing and the quality of our rivers. These issues impact local people’s daily lives and I want to help turn the tide.”
He believes there should be a balanced view on the parking issue: “I know firsthand the financial pressures local government is under – I work with 14 local authorities in my day job. A decade of funding reductions means councils have difficult choices to make in how to fund vital services for all our community.
“At the same time, I can completely understand local people’s desire to protect Harpenden High Street and I have been out there multiple times a week knocking on doors and listening to what residents have to say. At this stage in the process, I think the most important thing is to listen to all the voices in our community and arrive at a balanced view. I would hope that’s what the residents of Harpenden North and Rural would want from their representatives.”
He said the issue of VAT on school fees was not something he had encountered when canvassing: “Harpenden has an amazing set of schools, both primary and secondary. My children attended The Grove Junior School and Sir John Lawes and I couldn’t have wanted for more in terms of their education and the support they received.
“To be honest, it’s not an issue that has been coming up on the doorstep, albeit the Lib Dems have made clear that we oppose VAT on school fees, whilst recognising that there are issues with some schools having charitable status while performing little or no charitable work for the communities in which they operate.”
He highlighted the other issues of his campaign: “I’m a great believer in helping people get active and improving the options for active travel in the community. I’m also a passionate campaigner for young people and will want to ensure we offer support to young people across Harpenden and the wider district, and bring my professional expertise to bear in strengthening our efforts.
“I have a long track record of work to improve the environment and hope to do more on our rivers and green spaces, while also tackling littering. Finally, I know that we have housing shortages and will want to contribute to a balanced
solution that creates the housing we need for young families, in a manner that is sensitive to our environment and ensures developers contribute the amenities necessary to ensure our community flourishes.”
Ross Harper is standing as the Labour candidate: “I have always been interested in politics and about three years ago I joined the Labour Party. It was the Covid period where like many I became more interested and in many ways more frustrated with the systems and institutions.
“Since joining I have been learning how things work at the local level. In May, I stood for the seat in Harpenden North and Rural – I was the only candidate standing who showed up to the vote count and results. I see standing in the local elections as a fantastic opportunity to get involved in my local area.”
Controversially, he is in favour of charging for parking: “I broadly support charging for parking. I believe many of us could do more journey’s which are one to two miles by foot/bicycle/public transport. I don’t believe this proposal is solely about raising funds for SADC, if it is then it’s flawed as I don’t believe it is going to generate large amounts of revenue.
“I would hope a scheme of this nature would actually help improve the parking experience for those that really need it. This would avoid the merry-go-round between the High Street, M&S and that triangle of doom many of us have driven around hoping to find a space. But I do believe there should be robust concessions for those that driving is the only option.”
He refused to be drawn on the VAT issue: “I don’t believe the council has any say on this issue/topic and it’s being implemented from a national/Government level and therefore shouldn’t be an issue which has any influence on this local election. However, local people will know the huge disparity in resources between state schools and private schools – Labour is trying to address this issue.”
Finally, he revealed some of the other issues of his campaign: “For Harpenden North and Rural specifically I would like to review Luton Road: the yellow box junction is not enforced outside The Old Bell – this often gets locked up and causes huge congestion in am/pm peaks (enforcing this could generate revenue); review of local school bus network to encourage more use of buses; review of waste collection routes/schedules – on Mondays the collections cause more delays on the road; general review of road design to help prevent congestion.
“More generally for the local area, fly tipping, polluted rivers and flooding of key roads would be top of my list.”
A university and college lecturer and schoolteacher for nearly 40 years, Mario May is chair of St Albans District Green Party. He describes himself as an active community-builder and says he is absolutely determined to protect our green spaces and wildlife and build social justice.
There are currently three Green councillors on the district council, making up the second largest group and holding the Lib Dem administration to account. Green campaigners work with the community and the council, campaigning for change and bringing in new ideas that are making the district a better place.
Mario did not comment directly on his campaign, but highlighted various Green achievements including a ‘right to grow’ policy for unloved patches of land, a reprieve for market street traders threatened with huge fee increases, campaigning vigorously for the Local Plan to avoid building on the Green Belt, co-founding Wilder St Albans – a district-wide biodiversity project, campaigning to save hundreds of trees from being felled, launching a huge petition to reduce abstraction from River Ver, four new disabled parking bays at St Albans station, passing a motion to back a 20mph district-wide speed limit, instigating the electric taxi scheme, switching council planting to more perennials, and getting hundreds of solar panels installed on leisure centres..
