12 Dec 2025
Harpenden town councillor Richard Scott asks whether the current SADC administration has learned the lessons of their predecessors…
Ten years ago, Harpenden was one of the safest Conservative areas in the country. In 2015, the party led Harpenden Town Council (HTC), St Albans district council (SADC) and Hertfordshire County Council (HCC). They also held the local parliamentary constituency with a majority of more than 20,000.
Since then, everything has changed. Today the Liberal Democrats represent Harpenden at town, district and Parliamentary level. I myself was elected as a Liberal Democrat Harpenden Town councillor in 2023.
What explains this dramatic reversal of fortunes? There are many who would attribute this to Brexit. As someone who helped lead the Remain campaign in Harpenden, I recognise the impact this had upon such a strongly pro-European community. However I believe that something more fundamental contributed to the Conservatives’ decline: they stopped listening. They started taking our community for granted. Voters sensed this, and they didn’t like it.
My deep concern today is that a small number of senior local Liberal Democrats risk repeating that same mistake. We need to change course before we suffer the same fate as the Conservatives.
In February 2025, SADC introduced on-street parking charges in Harpenden High Street. Parking meters were installed, some on HTC land without permission, and free parking was limited to 30 minutes, followed by a further 90 minutes of paid parking.
What makes this contentious is not only the change itself, but the way it was delivered. It came after a series of consistent and overwhelming objections from residents and local businesses:
• 1,774 residents signed an SADC e-petition opposing the charges;
• 7,286 signatures were gathered by Harpenden’s independent retailers in a similar petition;
• 95 per cent of respondents to SADC’s own consultation objected;
• The Harpenden Society called the proposals “not fit for purpose” and recommended one hour of free parking;
• HTC passed a cross-party resolution in November 2024 strongly opposing the scheme and recommending one hour free parking on the High Street.
Despite this clear rejection, SADC proceeded with their scheme, without even allowing Harpenden’s 12 elected district councillors a vote on the final decision. For many residents, this created the clear impression that their local voices were not valued.
Almost immediately following the introduction of the charges, many High Street businesses reported concerns about changes to customer behaviour, including reduced dwell time. In March 2025, 50 Harpenden businesses wrote to SADC leader Paul de Kort and to the SADC chief executive. They provided early evidence of the impacts and requested a meeting to discuss possible adjustments. The response was disappointing. SADC declined to meet, suggesting instead that the businesses submit questions to a future SADC public realm committee.
In September 2025, Harpenden Town Councillors voted on a cross-party basis to commission independent research to properly understand the impact of the SADC parking changes. The intention is to gather robust evidence from both residents and local businesses and to provide this to SADC ahead of its 12-month review of the scheme scheduled for early 2026.
The level of engagement with the survey has been excellent.
The survey reached every household in Harpenden. To date, 2,900 residents have taken part, along with 110 town-centre businesses through telephone interviews. Responses remain open until December 22.
This is exactly how local government should work: consult widely, gather evidence, and present it constructively to the authority responsible for the final decision for full consideration.
It was therefore highly concerning to hear how the views of the respondents to the HTC survey were summarily dismissed at the December SADC meeting.
During Council Leader’s Question Time, Harpenden Conservative district councillor David Heritage asked Cllr de Kort whether residents and businesses could be confident that their input, via the HTC survey, would be taken into account.
Cllr de Kort replied: “Not implemented of course. Because they are not in the position to do that.”
Cllrde Kort went on to say that SADC “won’t be implementing what a survey says or what Harpenden Town Council say they would like to happen,” though he added that SADC would “look at it with the full amount of attention that it deserves”.
Procedurally, Cllr de Kort’s point about implementation authority was correct: HTC cannot direct SADC policy. But his tone and phrasing were unfortunate to say the least. I would encourage local residents to view and assess the meeting footage for themselves on the SADC website. Residents and businesses were hoping for reassurance that their views would carry weight during SADC’s 2026 review. Instead, many have since interpreted the response as arrogant and dismissive, a perception that could easily have been avoided.
When trust in politics is fragile, as it is in the United Kingdom and many other countries today, elected politicians must take great care to be seen to listen. It is deeply unfortunate that, once again, SADC appear to be failing in this regard.
Two broader factors help explain the sensitivity of this issue.
First, the scheme is generating much more income than SADC originally expected.
Early figures published by the St Albans Times indicated revenue of around £5,500 per week, compared with the original SADC forecast of £4,000.
Second, SADC’s transport strategy aims to encourage walking, cycling and public transport. Many residents (including myself) share these goals. However, any transition of this kind must be introduced in a way that minimises harm and brings local people and businesses along with it.
In May 2026, Harpenden residents will elect four district councillors in the scheduled local elections. Voters will assess the available candidates not only on their merits, but also on the reputation that their party, and their party leadership, carries with it.
The Liberal Democrats have worked patiently and tirelessly over the last decade to earn Harpenden’s trust. Such trust should never be taken for granted. The HTC survey, representing thousands of residents and more than a hundred businesses, is an opportunity for SADC to show it is listening. The upcoming 2026 SADC parking review provides a chance to reset relations between SADC and HTC, rebuild confidence and demonstrate that local voices matter.
