Last night saw the 10th anniversary St Albans Cycle Campaign AGM.  STACC was founded by Liz Rutherford 10 years ago, and it has gadflied and prodded the city and county councils ever since.

The predecessor to STACC was St Albans Cycle Survey set up by David Hook in the 1970s.  I was a member of that too.  As well as congenial and social bicycle rides – one of which occasioned my first visit to Welwyn village and its strange connection with Vincent Van Gogh – we campaigned then for a better deal for cyclists.  I remember spending a Saturday morning at the Smallford railway bridge symbolically hacking at undergrowth filling the disused railway cutting as part of a campaign to turn the old line into a cycle path. It’s now the Alban Way providing a safe (though not very smooth) route between St Albans and Hatfield.

I still ride the same great black Puch 12-speed tourer as I did then.  STACC by contrast is a sleek machine and one of the largest (if not the largest) local cycle campaigns in the country.  And by heavens do we need it given that Hertfordshire Highways keeps making perverse decisions in terms of cycling.  The St Peters Street “improvements” have been much criticised for many reasons but narrowing the carriageway by one metre without making alternative provision made the centre of our city just about the most danagerous and difficult place to cycle in St Albans when it should be just the opposite to encourage people to leave their cars at home.

Hertfordshire spends 60 pence per year per head of population on cycling provision. London spends £8 per year per head.  But Amsterdam spends £20 per year and they have been doing that for 50 years or more.  As a result it and other Dutch cities are infinitely more pleasant than their UK counterparts – and their population is much more healthy and certainly less obese.

Cyclists take up less road space and certainly less parking space.  There are no greenhouse gas emissions to worry about.  The health contribution is self-evident.  Yet the UK government keeps under-valuing the contribution of cyclists.  When calculating the “cost of congestion”, the notional calculation for the worth of every journey minute saved is 44p for a car driver, 33p for a bus passenger and 28p for a cyclist.

As for two wheels versus four wheels, car-driving highway engineers who shove in random bollards and tight chicanes of railings forget that many pedallists have more than two wheels, with cycle trailers for children and shopping etc etc.

I hope that STACC’s 20th anniversary AGM will be able to record massive improvement in St Albans cycling provision.

And at least we could dress appropriately for the sunny weather whereas poor Kate was trussed up in full mayoral fig with fur trimming and tricorn hat, and the mace-bearer and town crier were scarcely less over-dressed.

We started at Kingsbury Mill at the “gonner stone”, bumped a volunteer child and lashed the stone with twigs – all very peculiar – and then proceeded in a stately and northerly direction to Stonecross and the Jolly Sailor where a bollard was similarly flogged.

From there to Key Field on top of the Tonman Ditch for more corporal punishment of innocent street furniture and a welcome refreshment break at the White Hart Tap.

Finally down through Cottonmill Crescent to the Ver, a bosky walk through woods and giant cow parsley, and then back to Kingsbury via the Fighting Cocks and some rather raucous onlookers in Verulamium.

A pleasant and barking mad way to spend a sunny afternoon but a further reminder that St Albans is very special.

A huge amount of paper – all recycled I hope! – has been delivered through doors and many of those doors have been knocked on. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the many conversations I have had on the doorstep.

Every ward has its particular local issues which will influence individual results.  On top of that people will need to judge which of the wider issues matter to them – having an efficient council which raises council tax by less than inflation unlike the county council; finding a way to deliver a new swimming pool for the city before the current one becomes unfit for use; fighting inappropriate planning applications such as the proposed Tesco; continuing the push for green policies, from recycling to reducing the council’s own carbon footprint.

I salute all the candidates from all the parties.  Their participation in the local democratic process is vital to the whole political fabric.  When there has been so much rightful criticism of greedy MPs abusing their allowances, spare a thought for the foot-sloggers at local level who see little or no reward. 

Now it’s time to vote! 

When I hear the words "world-class visitor attraction" I tend to reach for my gun.  But the Eden Project in Cornwall is a truly fantastic place and if the dome and gardens of Clive Farrell’s Butterfly World can replicate a fraction of the Eden magic, it will indeed be a great experience.

My biggest caveat is the carbon footprint the project will generate. 
I accept the assurances that the buildings themselves will be built to the
highest standards of energy efficiency, and presumably the tropical butterflies will be flown in on normal commercial flights. 

But the 700,000 to 1 million
visitors per year will in large part come by car round the M25.  There
is no nearby rail link.  Lets just hope that we can come up with low
carbon personalised transport.

I do not know if there were any marriage proposals on the dance floor – but it was a great Leap Year occasion nevertheless. 

The event used to be held at the Alban Arena, now it seems to have
gravitated to Sopwell House.  Mayor Kate Morris used last night to
extend her really fascinating series of glimpses into St Albans heritage.  In this case it was exploring the 1720’s world of Edward Strong, master mason
and Christopher Wren’s right hand man in the construction of St Paul’s .  He was the former owner of New
Barnes which was on the site of the current Sopwell House.

The Air
Cadets acted as guard of honour, guests ranged from the High Sheriff to
the Dean of St Albans. Money was being raised for the excellent St
Albans Fund for the Future, which was founded by former Mayor John
Peters with all-party support to provide seed money for local voluntary
groups.

I was really surprised that our MP was not present.  Obviously
there will always be diary clashes but it seems strange that every
Labour councillor and every Conservative councillor except one had a
similar diary clash. 

When I was a St Albans councillor, I took it as a
matter of course that I attended every civic reception whether the
Mayor was Conservative, Labour or Liberal.  Indeed before the
Liberal-SDP Alliance first became the largest party in the 1980s and
changed the rules, there only were Conservative Mayors but we still
went to the annual receptions.

It is simply a matter of respect for the district we serve.

Indeed it used to be a very high risk job.  When the Speaker is selected, he or she has to pretend to be dragged reluctantly to the chair to witness the fact that so many of them lost their heads to furious monarchs in earlier times when they were standing up for Parliament against the Crown.

The job certainly does not carry the same risks today, and there are clearly plenty of perks.

My own view is that Speaker Martin is past his sell-by date and indeed should not have been chosen in the first place.  There has always been a convention that the speaker should at least be chosen from alternating parties (the LibDems and other parties typically do not even get a sniff).  And if he or she comes from the opposition benches, so much the better.

So Betty Boothroyd (Labour) succeeded Bernard Weatherill (Conservative), who succeeded George Thomas (Labour).  Indeed I remember being shown round the Speaker’s house by George Thomas and him telling us that he was the first Welsh Speaker since the last one had been thrown his post for corruption.

No-one is suggesting that Speaker Martin is corrupt.  But the various stories floating around are unfortunate in the wake of the Conway affair.  Leaving aside recent events there was an outstanding Conservative candidate to succeed Betty Boothroyd in the person of Sir George Young.  He and I often crossed swords in the most genial way when I worked at BT and I formed the highest regard for him. 

Sir George should have been Speaker under the previous convention.  But Labour backbenchers used their huge 1997 majority to bulldoze through the appointment of Mr Martin.  By common consent except for a few labour toadies, he has not been a great adornment to the Speaker’s Chair.  They are reaping the whirlwind now.

And what a damning comment about our so-called special relationship with the USA that we should only be told now about CIA use of British territory to carry out its illegal activities.

Former LibDem leader Sir Menzies Campbell specifically asked Prime
Minister Gordon Brown whether British territory or airspace had been
used for this activity.  The Government denied all knowledge.  Now they
are having to correct their answer.

It either shows a
US Government cynically indifferent to the UK or US secret services
totally out of control.  Both are damning admissions. We have breached
our moral obligations as a result – and possibly our legal
responsibilities as well. 

I
have lived for two extended periods in the USA.  I love it as a
country.  But I have never understood why Mrs Thatcher, Tony Blair and
Gordon Brown have all felt it so important to nuzzle up to the US
government so uncritically – the fawning affection does not seem to
have been returned.

And my current stiffness as i typre this makes me appreciate the remarkable earth-moving achievements of our neolithic  forbears.

I had earlier had the privilege of seeing the Kingsbury barns at the bottom of Fishpool Street.  Formerly part of the Express Dairies site, they are now to be re-united with Kingsbury Manor in front of them, restored and used to store vintage racing cars. 

This is an excellent outcome which will require the least intervention in these wonderful wooden structures.  The older barn at the back of the site has been dated back to 1375 by dendrochronologists, it has remains of wattle and daub on the inside walls and the original great beams – and it does not even feature in Pevsner. 

St Albans is a truly remarkable place – and hats off to the Singer family for preserving this part of our heritage.

But the tractor-loads of poo being dumped on all sides at Westminster are not so easy to dispose of – nor do they offer any nutrients to the political system.

I hope the police are going to investigate Derek Conway MP.  It is not just a matter for the House of Commons or for the Conservative Party.  He was spending taxpayers’ money and the way he paid his student sons out of his parliamentary allowance looks dead dodgy.  Other MPs use their housing allowances to buy little pads for their children.  The rest of us don’t have these luxuries.  My student son helps me in my politics when he can – but for free.

Mr Conway blames his administrative incompetence – a strange hollow echo of Mr Hain’s feeble excuse.  And then they say they are fit to run the country.

There is something rotten in the state of Denmark.  It is clear we need far more transparency on how MPs spend their very generous allowances.

We now learn that Gordon Brown is trousering 38 pence of every pound that St Albans council home tenants pay in rent.  It’s a scandal.

The Labour parliamentary candidate recently complained about the lack of affordable housing in St Albans.  It’s a huge problem.  It’s her Government in power, they make the rules.  The most affordable housing of all is council housing – traditionally made available for the less well off. 

So why is her Government taking £7.6 million pounds out of the pockets of some of the least well-off St Albans residents? 

Council tenants pay their taxes like everyone else.  But unlike anyone
else – home-owner or private renter – they are effectively taxed for the privilege.

You pays your money and you pays Gordon Brown too.

The Government argues that the money goes to areas of ‘housing need’. 
“This seems to be shorthand for inefficient Labour authorities in the
north of England. 

Of course better-off people expect to
pay taxes to help the disadvantaged.  That is what tax is for.  But it
seems positively bizarre and unfair that the less well-off in our
community should be additionally taxed in this stealthy way.

Robin Hood  took from the rich to pay the poor.  Gordon Brown takes from the poor to pay the poor.
 

It is an even worse story when it comes to receipts from council house
sales. The Labour Government now confiscates 75 percent
of the proceeds.  How then can we build new affordable homes for the
growing housing need in our area?  How do we build new homes for our
children who can’t afford to buy property in St Albans?  Or for
incoming families working in key professions and sectors?

St Albans led the country with its “Eco-house” in Smallford, a
show-home for how traditional council houses can be brought up to the
highest standards of energy efficiency.  People have come to see it
from all over the country.  It has won a gold award in the prestigious
Green Apple Awards, putting St Albans on the map as an innovative and
ground-breaking housing authority. 

The idea was to learn the lessons in terms of cost-effective energy
conservation measures and then extend them to the rest of the council
housing stock – saving tenants money in fuel bills and reducing the
district’s carbon footprint.  But by grabbing St
Albans tenants’ money in this way, the Labour Government makes it
almost impossible for this sensible capital investment  to be made.

It seems ironic that a Labour Government should be so destructive of
the social housing concept.  But why should we be surprised when
nationwide the lowest-earning ten percent of the population – the
people most likely to be in council housing – already pay a higher
percentage of their income in tax than the richest ten percent under
Gordon Brown’s other taxation policies. 

It is just par for the course
from this Government – and the poorest and least advantaged among local residents literally pay the price.