I am very heartened at the news that Tesco has given into public pressure and withdrawn a plan to build a superstore at Tolworth, near Kingston, Surrey.
There are many parallels with St Albans. The Tolworth site is also located on a congested highway, and local residents protested about the impact on nearby residential and shopping [...]
Entries from February 26th, 2007
Can St Albans follow South London in beating Tesco?
February 26th, 2007 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
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Julian Peter Francis Cummins 1955-2007
February 23rd, 2007 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
Julian Cummins was my best man as I had been his. He was godfather to my son Tom and I am godfather to his daughter Olivia. Most importantly we were best friends since we first met – together with our wives – at Cambridge University in 1973.
So his sudden death at the age of 52 [...]
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Hands off Herts hits Marshalswick
February 21st, 2007 · No Comments · Hands off Herts
{mosimage}We had a fantastic response when the Hands Off Herts campaign hit Marshalswick on Saturday.
Like everywhere else in St Albans, Marshalswick clearly doesn’t want to be part of the London Borough of Hertfordshire.
Time is running out to make objections though. We have until March 9th – you can make your objection online HERE. Please [...]
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Park Street People Power
February 20th, 2007 · No Comments · Hands off Herts
Tonight’s meeting of the St Albans District Council Planning Referrals Committee was so uplifting. I bet it’s a long time since anyone wrote that about their deliberations!
It wasn’t the councillors of course, it was the sheer number of local residents and their quiet articulacy. And it was nice to see political parties burying the hatchet [...]
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Rainforest without Air Miles
February 16th, 2007 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
How do you visit a rainforest for half-term (with genuine torrential rain) and do it without mashing the environment with air miles? See my earlier thoughts on carbon footprint!
Answer: drive to see aged parent and brother in Devon and then go to the Eden Project. Eden is stunning – not least because of the spectacular architecture [...]
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Farmers’ Market shoppers support Hands Off Herts
February 12th, 2007 · No Comments · Hands off Herts
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A bunch of us set up a stall at yesterday’s Farmers’ Market in St Albans – luckily the sun shone between the deluges of Saturday and today.
There was an overwhelming response to the Hands Off Herts message.
People are deeply concerned to keep the rural character of Hertfordshire. They simply do not believe that the infrastructure [...]
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Long-Suffering St Albans Rail Commuters Squeezed Yet Again
February 9th, 2007 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
I see that First Capital Connect has decided to replace the previously free bank-branded automated teller machines (ATMs) at St Albans City Station with anonymous machines incurring a fee.
There seems to be no depth to which First Capital Connect will not stoop in their desperation to screw money out of the travelling public. First it [...]
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Snow Day Scam
February 9th, 2007 · No Comments · Sandy's blog
“Snow Day” seems to me a complete scam to give teachers a day off – at least given the relatively mild nature of yesterday’s snowfall.
I know the story is that parents will sue the school if their little darlings fall and hurt themselves in icy playgrounds.
But no-one seems to think about the situation where both [...]
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BAE Enquiry: Let’s end the cover up
February 7th, 2007 · No Comments · What I Think
{mosimage}I am really pleased that Lib Dem MP's used their allocation of time in Parliament today to try to persuade the Government to reverse their decision to end an enquiry into the Al Yamamah arms deal.
The abandonment of this investigation and the suppression of the report into Al Yamamah was unbelievably shabby. It undermined Parliament, [...]
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Housing plans not ’sustainable’ – BBC News Online
February 5th, 2007 · No Comments · Hands off Herts
Government changes to a plan intended to guide development in the east of England until 2021 have been dubbed "neither deliverable nor sustainable" – according to a report on the BBC Website.
You can read the full story here.
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