Hemel Hempstead Liberal Democrats

Andrew Duff, Lib Dem MEP for the East of England, has welcomed a deal voted through the European Parliament to reduce roaming costs in Europe for businesspeople and tourists alike. Costs for calls and texts will reduce sharply from 1^st July this year, when data costs are also to be capped for the first time at 59p per megabyte, with further reductions in later years.

Plans for the long-awaited Hemel Hempstead Local General Hospital appear to be moving forward. It appears that papers to be presented to the West Herts Hospital NHS Trust Board refer to plans either to refurbish or rebuild the hospital facilities at the Hillfield Road site in Hemel Hempstead. According to a report in the Hemel Hempstead Gazette the papers refer to "achieving a deliverable outcome within the next two to three years."

Conservative-controlled Herts Highways, responsible for managing and maintaining Hertfordshire's road network, has today been forced to admit to a major blunder that is likely to cost the county council about £1.26 million.

The ill-starred bus lane in Moor End Road, Hemel Hempstead, is a key element in the town's traffic management intended to reduce congestion and keep buses running on time to destinations such as Chesham, Berkhamsted and Tring. After a false start with rising bollards that had to be removed, the council settled on a more conventional bus lane which went live on 25th July 2011. It was enforced with an automatic camera. Penalties were issued from the 8th August 2011 onwards.

It was immediately clear there was a problem with the clarity and visibility of the signage and an exceptionally high number of penalties were being generated. Between 19th and 23rd August 2011 local Liberal Democrat county councillor, Nick Hollinghurst, alerted fellow councillors, council officers and the Conservative Executive Member for the Highways and Transport, Cllr Stuart Pile, to the growing problem.

No action to correct these problems was ever taken and the county council decided early on to reject all criticism of the technical shortcomings of the scheme. Nevertheless today's Herts County Council Cabinet meeting sounded the retreat and agreed to repay the wrongly collected fines.

Nick Hollinghurst, who has been campaigning on the issue since the middle of last year, said today: 'As ever, the Tories at Herts County Council fail to listen when they don't like the message.

'They were clearly wrong on the issue, remained wrong, denied they were wrong and even said they were surprised people were saying they were wrong at the point when they finally got into serious trouble with a legal tribunal.

'Money does not grow on trees. Had they listened to me and the countless members of the public who protested, they could have saved their reputation - and more importantly over a million pounds of precious public money.

'There must be some political responsibility here. This lies with Cllr Stuart Pile who must consider his position: he has let down Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire and Hertfordshire's taxpayers and should now resign.'

Nick Hollinghurst, Lib Dem County Councillor, has responded to the damning criticism from the Chief Adjudicator of the Traffic Penalty Tribunal in her decision on two appeals.

Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.

The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:

• The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
• A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
• 21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
• Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
• Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.

The Conservative Cabinet of Herts County Council will be meeting on Monday, March 19th, to decide whether to sell off yet another care home. In a close echo of the sell-off of Jane Campbell House in St Albans, the Hyde Valley Residential Care Home in Welwyn Garden City also has an occupation rate approaching 100%, and in addition the Council's own report clearly states that 'it is a very popular day service'.

A new online system for reporting Highways problems, meant to be an "improvement", has come in for sharp criticism from Hertfordshire's Liberal Democrats. The new system, rolled out recently by Conservative-run Herts County Council, now requires a compulsory registration process, which includes a check against the electoral register.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.

The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.

Fairer taxes, promoting green jobs, protecting your civil liberties - these are just some of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government.

We're building a freer, greener and more liberal country - and stopping some of the worst excesses of the Conservatives. Find out more in this infographic.