2009 November

Entries from November 24th, 2009

As new railfreight inquiry begins, have we uncovered a fundamental flaw in Helioslough’s traffic modelling?

November 24th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Hands off Herts, Sandy's blog, Uncategorized

Today was the first day in the new Public Inquiry into developer Helioslough’s appeal against St Albans District Council’s refusal of their application to build a massive freight terminal with a few railway sidings attached in the crucial Green Belt south of the city.
I joined the demonstration organised by STRiFE beforehand and then we all [...]

FCC Rail Agony Continues

November 23rd, 2009 · 8 Comments · Sandy's blog

The rail service just does not get any better. I think we are rapidly moving to the stage of asking whether First Capital Connect should be stripped of its franchise if it cannot run its advertised service.
Equally the drivers should be ashamed of wreaking disruption on a scale which far outweighs any strength of grievance [...]

Need for a total rethink on how the public sector stores personal data

November 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Sandy's blog

The loss of personal data because of theft of a laptop from St Albans District Council emphasises the need for a thorough overhaul of the way that public bodies collect and store such information. It’s not just St Albans. Sensitive personal details are held on overlapping databases across the whole public sector.
I have previously challenged [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Let the train take the strain??

November 11th, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog

I was interviewed yet again by BBC Three Counties Radio on the increasing shambles of the First Capital Connect train “service”. I was talking about yesterday’s sudden announcement of the departure of Jim Morgan as Interim Managing Director. Following the earlier departures this year of his predecessor Elaine Holt (to run the renationalised East Coast [...]

The Berlin Wall – my part in its downfall

November 9th, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog

No part at all of course. But it was travelling over and under it every day on my journey to work loading lorries with a gang of Turks and Yugoslavs in a Berlin aluminium anodising and assembly plant that helped form my passionate conviction that Liberal values must prevail.
It was 1972, I was living in [...]

Supporting the military covenant

November 8th, 2009 · No Comments · Uncategorized

For once I did not go to one of the formal Remembrance Sunday services today and went instead to the gentle celebration in Francesca’s Catholic church. It is extraordinary how a commemorative day which was beginning to die on its feet has found new vigour and purpose – not least because of the very real [...]

Honor backs Equitable pensioners

November 5th, 2009 · No Comments · Sandy's blog

Yesterday’s demonstration by Equitable Life pensioners outside Parliament represented another stage in the long march to justice for all the pensioners let down by the Government’s failure to regulate and even worse its failure to come clean when it became all too clear to those in the know that Equitable Life had a problem.
The Gurkhas’ [...]

Sandy 4 St Albans

Sandy Walkington is the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for St Albans