Wendy Berriman in Bricket Wood has for several years organised an annual garden party to raise money for Keech Cottage. This year’s event raised over £2,000, the sunshine was glorious, and at its peak over 100 lunches were being consumed round Wendy’s Oakwood Road house and garden.

But this year’s entertaining twist was that Wendy had seen The Calendar Girls about members of the WI stripping off for a charity calendar and decided that Bricket Wood could do better. Luckily her friends agreed.

The photo shoot took place earlier this year in her garden with photographer Anita Mason giving her services for free. White Hawk Images printed at cost. Local businesses generously sponsored each page. The upshot is a superbly produced calendar retailing for the modest sum of £7. At the moment I am not sure where it can be prurchased but contact me via this website if you are interested.

My last two pictures show Miss April – I have promised not to identify her! And me looking like a cat with the cream standing with Wendy and some of those who appear in the calendar – but dressed this time as waitresses for the garden party – I’m sure there is another naughty calendar there.

There must have been a couple of hundred people there specifically for the rally – and then all the passers-by who were shopping at the French market.

I was pleased to be on the same platform as Roma Mills and Anne Main because there is nothing party political about this battle. We sink or swim together.

In summary I said (as I have said previously) that this proposal has perfectly horrible implications for Park Street and the villages but it is also a knife in the underbelly of St Albans.
In short I spoke about all the issues highlighted in my earlier blog on my formal letter of objection to the scheme. Now we have the hard work of mounting the technical arguments.

I hope to see lots of people at the St Albans District Council Planning Referrals Committee on Monday evening!

The reports and discussion were a fascinating snapshot of the pressures bearing down on the south of the district, with the threat of the Radlett freight terminal and the imminent start of the M25 widening project being top of the list.There was also a long discussion on roads and verges. The association reported 457 individual pot-holes to Herts Highways last year! This reflects a huge amount of walking by John Drinkwater and colleagues. Fly-tipping is a perennial problem and there was an interesting discussion on the role of mobile CCTV cameras at black spots. And selfish and thoughtless parking on verges – particularly near Mount Pleasant School at pick-up and drop-off time – is as much of an issue as it is at almost every other school in the district.

Some weeks ago Aislinn Lee took me to see the verge parking problem in Mount Pleasant Lane. It is truly bad, and a disproportionate number of the offending vehicles seem to be outsize 4X4s. So when shortly afterwards I attended a conference with the chief executive of Jaguar-Land Rover I asked him whether he felt that he had a responsibility to educate his customers that residential area grass verges are not an off-road test drive facility? I did not get a proper answer of course but I wanted to make the point.

Residents associations like these only flourish thanks to immense work from dedicated local residents. So my congratulations to Laurie Hart and his team, and the way they work so well with elected representatives at all levels.

PS Bricket Wood is special but even they must have been surprised by the way they were described in last year’s so-called consultation by the Post Office on branch closures. I quote: “St Albans is a relatively affluent area in Hertfordshire spreading out from the town of St Albans complete with its ancient Cathedral; the seat also includes the town of Bricket Wood in the south.” So now you know!