I do not believe that Conservatives and their forbears have ever failed to win a single council seat in the St Albans parliamentary constituency. Well the impossible happened last Thursday when the Liberal Democrats won every single county council division lying wholly or partly within the St Albans constituency boundaries. As Herts County Council’s own website shows, there is a splash of yellow across the middle of the county.
The picture above shows seven of the eight LibDem councillors from the St Albans constituency with the road and pavement dossier which has become a metaphor for Conservative failures in Hertfordshire.
For the remarkable result can’t just be explained by the current St Albans MP’s tangle over expenses. The simple fact of the matter is that our critique of the current Conservative administration in Hertford really hit home. An absolutely abject performance on roads and pavements. Failure to plan ahead for school places. An Adult Care Service which had a starring role on Panorama (not for good reasons). Inadequate youth services. £28 million thrown away in dodgy Icelandic investments. Council tax doubled in just ten years. And a chief executive paid more than the Prime Minister (though perhaps performance related pay would mean that virtually everyone should earn earn more than Gordon).
No wonder St Albans was not the only place in Hertfordshire where LibDems made gains off the complacent Conservatives. For the first time we are the main opposition party. Now we need to really hold their feet to the fire.
I think it was less to do with Anne Main’s
expenses and more to do with the ‘Six to Fix’ campaign, which was clear and
well covered by the St Albans literature.
It’s D Day for the Main chance // Aug 13, 2009 at 9:38 am
[...] June’s county council elections, the St. Albans Liberal Democrats made a clean sweep for the first time at any set of elections, winning all eight of the county council seats lying [...]