At Wednesday night’s Full Council meeting, I put forward a motion designed to support Hertsmere Borough Council in its attempt to encourage our County Council to deal with the state of our roads and pavements.

I gave a speech explaining how we all regularly use certain roads and pavements strewn with potholes, cracks and other defects, making it a challenge walk, cycle or even drive along them. During this speech I also teased those councillors who choose to drive gas guzzling 4x4’s, as being the only ones who can use our roads without fear of personal injury or damage to their vehicles. One or two of them who got the joke, playfully chastised me after the meeting for my little dig.

You may be interested to know that there are over 3.5 million potholes on British roads, more than enough to fill a few hundred Albert Halls. The backlog will take more than 11 years to repair them all.

Here in Hertfordshire, the trigger to get a pot hole repaired is 40 mm for carriageways and 20mm for footways, or just over 1.5 inches in old money.

Although budgets have been increased over the past six years and with the recent announcements of a further 3 year settlement that will allow further significant funding for road maintenance, we need our local authority to be more proactive and not to leave defects until they deteriorate to the point that repairs become urgent and ultimately more expensive.

This isn’t about the car user alone, as our poor pavements and roads make travel for other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists much more vulnerable to accidents.

Only last week the Borehamwood Times reported on the case of Jack Gardner, a 93 year old former councillor for this area, who suffered serious injuries after tripping over an uneven pavement slab in Borehamwood, who then sued the County Council and received £8,500 compensation in an out of court settlement.

When I am out canvassing on the door step, this is one of the top three issues people are expressing their fury about (fyi, bins and youth facilities are the other two). I encourage them to complain directly to the County Council, whether they actually go on to do that is another matter altogether. However, if Hertsmere Borough Councillors using the voice and platform we have at our disposal cannot get the county council to acknowledge this, then what chance will a lone resident have of being heard?

My original motion was “This Council recognises that the level of road and pavement maintenance in Hertsmere is unacceptable and demand that the County Council take action to rectify this.” A very clear and strong message in both its language and aspiration, or so I thought.

Now I have yet to see a motion put forward by any non Tory group councillor that is accepted in its original format, this motion was no exception to that rule.

After I gave my opening speech, the Conservative ruling group then moved a further motion to amend my original wording, which would make the motion now read, “This council recognises that the level of road and pavement maintenance in Hertsmere is not of a high enough standard and insists that the County Council present their plans for improving the Boroughs roads to members of this authority as soon as possible”.

Did you spot the subtle difference?

To be honest, it was still a good message to send and I didn’t really have a major problem with most of their suggested changes. The words “insists” and “demands” are neither here nor there and the insertion of “as soon as possible”, whilst leaving the County Council some wriggle room in terms of timing, it didn’t cause me a huge amount of concern.

This may sound like semantics to you, but the one alteration that really disappointed me, was the change that turned the word “unacceptable” into “not of a high enough standard".

This motion and potential Full Council “swan song” for me, was meant to be all about us sending the strongest message possible back to the County Council. For many councillors in the room, “not of a high enough standard” implied that the level is currently acceptable, somehow okay or not too bad, but we would like you to please try a little bit harder.

"Not of a high enough standard", is how my Dad described my O level results, or it depicts someone trying to get into Oxford University but who didn’t quite get the grades they needed.

The amendment then went to the vote and of course like a blue Mexican wave, 28 conservative hands naturally shot up in support of the changes, whist the entire Liberal and Labour group of 11 councillors, all unanimously voted for the motion to remain in its original form.

So although the attention grabbing title of this blog is slightly facetious, by default our 28 Tory Borough Councillors did in fact all agree that the current level of road and pavement maintenance in Hertsmere is acceptable.

I was disappointed that after 20 minutes of discussion, we couldn't find agreement on this subject and I thought of Jack Gardner spending two years recovering from the injuries he sustained just because he wanted to go to the shops and couldn’t do so without tripping over our poorly maintained pavements. That is “unacceptable” to me.

So the good news, my motion was passed and the request in its softer form will now be sent, but my question to you is this. What message would you like to have seen us send to County Council on this issue? Do think that the level of road and pavement maintenance in Hertsmere is “not of a high enough standard”, or should we have told them it is “unacceptable” or both?

You may not have noticed but there appears to be some media hype surrounding the return of the TV show Gladiators to our small screens, apparently it’s going to be bigger and better than before.

Reading the Borehamwood Times this morning it occurred to me, as it often does around 11.30, long after the kids are at school and the second pot of coffee of the day has started brewing, that if we as local politicians appear to have no faith in the power of politics, what hope is there for anyone else?

Now brace yourselves, hold onto your seats, its election time once again here in Hertsmere. I know it's exciting but please relax and only continue reading once you have calmed yourself down. I use tea and bourbons, you may use other props. I want to give you my assurance that I’ll try not to use this Blog as an unofficial form of election publicity, but it’s going to be business as usual for me and I won't be shying away from the contentious issues facing my home town. The people who know me well, know I have a difficulty hiding my frustration at a world gone mad and a Tory Council gone native. If that upsets or offends you at this time of year, I suggest you may want to avoid reading this blog until May 2nd, if I still have one then.

Henry Redman

I heard yesterday that Henry Redman of the Brookside Boys club had sadly passed away.

For those who didn’t know Henry, he was a man who will probably be best remembered for his tireless community youth work and close association with the Brookside Boys club that he founded over 40 years ago.

I met Henry a number of times over the past year, mainly at the club with my fellow councillor Ernie Butler, who was working closely with Henry and Dick at the club investigating ways to raise the funds it needed to avoid closure and to secure its long term future.

Henry struck me as a formidable character, a charming ‘old school’ gentleman, with razor-sharp intelligence and a tenacious attachment to the principles he founded his club on. He put every ounce of his energy and time into maintaining this facility for the youth of Borehamwood. It was at the very heart of everything he did.

His Forty plus years of dedicated work for the Brookside Boys Club and the many thousands of lives that his immeasurable contribution to public service touched, is a tremendous legacy, which thanks to his efforts will live on for a long time to come.

I extend my deepest sympathy to his family, friends and of course the boys at the club both past and present, for their tragic loss.

Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour

The Web encyclopaedia Wikipedia says that “Gossip is idle talk or rumour, esp. about the personal or private affairs of others”. Whether you call it gossiping, rumour mongering or Lashen Hara (I will let you look that one up for yourself) I’ve never been a big fan of the practice. Which makes one element of being a councillor a bit of a peculiar lark.