Cllr Colin Woodward

“Election”, – by the time this article appears you will have made your choices for the three County seats due for election on 2 May and for the District/Town by-elections taking place at the same time. All of the political literature that has dropped through your letterbox should have hopefully found its way into your green paper box rather than black landfill bin as you continue to help Herts boost its re-cycling. Some of us will have also shed a few pounds of weight from all the walking in delivering of leaflets to thousands of homes and as we called upon as many houses as possible during our canvassing. So, at least we may confidently predict at least two good outcomes from the election – a boost to re-cyling and trimmer figures! Read the rest of this entry »

E Herts Council (backed by Herts CC) have the Local Authority Mortgage Scheme (LAMS) which may help 1st time buyers (if you know of any).

We now have five schemes in place with a total sum guaranteed of about £150,000. Total property value is £775,000:

We pledged £1million into a scheme to guarantee higher loan-to-value mortgages for first time buyers. Lloyds provides the mortgage under their normal criteria but in most cases they only offer 70% loan-to-value meaning that properties are out of reach for new buyers who can’t raise a substantial deposit. Our scheme enables them to borrow a further 25% so they can get a mortgage at 95% loan-to-value. The county started a scheme of their own soon after we did, as did other authorities. The schemes are broadly the same. If you know of anyone that may be interested in applying please send them to Lloyds in Hertford as there is still plenty in the pot

Despite widely advertising with our HRA newsletter the attendance was somewhat scant, (despite the All Saints Vestry bar being open!). Nevertheless, we had a quorum and so the AGM went ahead. Phil Tripp gave his Chairman’s report for the year including our very succesful Carol Concert with residents of Fuller Court, (we agreed to do it again at Christmas 2013).  He went on to record the successful outcome of campaigning with many others since 2007 for Footpath F53 through Hockerill College between Dunmow Rd and Stortford Hall Park to remain open and the still outstanding issue of the link to Manor Rd., which may have to go to a public enquiry. HRA had also sought support from BS Town Council for a notice board but had receieved a negative response from their CEO. We agreed to pursue the issue. Then Janice Elliott as Treasurer gave her update on HRA finances followed by her scheduled talk on the events that she has planned for her impending mayoral year, (starting on 7th May). Details of the events may be found at: Events for 2013. Read the rest of this entry »

Bishop’s Stortford West

Colin Woodward (Con) …….. 1,313

Adrian Baker (UKIP) ……… 949

Alex Young (Lab) ………… 516

Bob Taylor (Lib Dem) …….. 329

RESULT Con hold MAJORITY 364 TURNOUT 27.1%

So, 73% of electorate not troubled to vote despite Council Tax not increased for 4 years and hard work protecting services. Nearly 1k vote for a Party that has done nothing locally and did not exist here until a few weeks ago. Full results for all contested seats in East Herts here: Election Results May 2013

From and article in Bishop’s Stortford Observer by Eleanor Patmore:

VOLUNTEERS who help maintain one of Bishop’s Stortford’s natural gems were presented with certificates in appreciation of their hard work.

The town’s mayor Cllr Peter Gray did the honours during a visit to Birchanger Wood on Saturday morning (April 20). Warden Pat Forrest was among those to receive a certificate. A dedicated team of volunteers regularly give up their weekends to ensure the 69-acre ancient woodland on the outskirts of Stortford thrives. The wood consists of a variety of trees, including hornbeam, hazel, ash, birch, oak, sweet chestnut, cherry and holly, as well as a wide range of flora, such as English bluebells and wood anemones. A stream also flows through it.

Cllr Colin Woodward, who is a Birchanger Wood trustee and occasional volunteer, said: “We have a committed core of volunteers, including children who come along with their parents, who help with a wide range of tasks. Read the rest of this entry »

With 3 seats being contested in Bishop’s Stortford for County and 2  for Town Council; 1 for District; a lot of letterboxes will have received election literature from the candidates. In the County Division where I am seeking re-election, BS-West, I have with my team of helpers distributed three and in some cases four communications. So far I have not noted Labour or Liberal literature in BS-West and only a smattering of UKIP flyers. I have been really pleased to receive many positive messages on the doorstep and in particular to have had telephone calls from some who were most kindly just ringing to confirm that they had caste their Postal Votes and had voted for me.  In case some of our leaflets missed you or, ended too quickly in the family’s (commendable) re-cycling contributions here is a copy of the County wide message that was included in my distribution:  HCC 2013 address reverse

Blowback” was the word apparently inspiring a recent blog in our local Paper’s on-line edition from the Head of one of our fine local schools. Evidently it means “an unforeseen and unwanted effect, result, or set of repercussions”. Quite remarkably apposite for the Head to write on this when one reflects on the results of the decisions of Herts & Essex and BS High School Governors all those years ago to pull out of County control and then some decades later feel the need to inflict on the Town and the taxpayer the costs, (most definitely and almost unanimously, “unwanted”), of a protracted Planning Application; Read the rest of this entry »

Quite a varied week. More Inbox e-mails than the usual steady flow from residents due to getting responses to my 6.5k  election inTouch newsletters that popped through letterboxes. (More to follow next week as my campaign moves to another phase). Monday also involved supporting the launch of a new local business venture and Full BS Town Council followed by Brazier Trust. As well as the usual agenda of agreeing/commenting on Commitee Minutes and dealing with their Recommendations we considered grant applications. An award to the police for equipment/protective clothing related to their new quad bike was agreed amongst other grants. We had a few members of the public and Press in attendance until we had to go into closed session of BSTC to discuss a ‘pink paper’ report on a commercially sensitive item. Read the rest of this entry »