June 2015

June 2015 Newsletter

The Annual Meeting of the Parish on Wednesday the 6th of May, where parking in Knebworth was one of the more burning issues under discussion. Opinion in the village is sharply divided between those who welcome the increased space available for shoppers, and those who worry about availability of parking spaces for those who work in the village, and those whose vehicles need to be near their place of work. I am in discussion with NHDC to see if the balance between the needs of residents and local businesses can be improved. Parking as a wider issue in the village has not disappeared from the agenda. I am trying to revive KPIG, the Knebworth Parking Initiative Group, but I will have to wait until the portfolio holder for transport is announced before I can make much more progress with this. Fairly extensive changes have been made to parking in the village, and the District is reluctant to deploy resources to change things even more, unless there is compelling evidence that this will improve matters. Clearly, the best outcome would be a new, large, free carpark near the centre of the village, but reviving KPIG will not deliver this. There were no District or County elections this year for Knebworth. However, there were a number of seats contested elsewhere in the District, and your new Council will have a significantly different composition to that of the civic year just ended. Responses to the consultation on the emerging Local Plan will continue to be processed by hard-pressed officers until August or September, but when the report is ready I am sure that the Local Plan will once again hit the headlines. The Annual Meeting of the (NHDC) Council is scheduled take place on the 21st May. After this I will know which committees I am on, and who the chairmen and vice-chairmen are of the various committees the make up the District Council. I will be on the Southern Rural Committee, as this is the one that deals with matters relating to the villages in the south of the district, but I do not know yet which other committees (if any) I shall be on. June will be a month of fêtes and festivals. Do not forget to put the details of the Knebworth Festival in your diaries. Full details can be found elsewhere in this issue. I will be attending most of the events and look forward to seeing you at them.

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