Daisy Cooper MP has taken Thameslink commuters’ concerns directly to the Transport Minister in Parliament by asking him when he plans to fix the service. It comes after a survey named St Albans City the worst station from which to commute into London.

The “On Time Trains” website ranked 30 stations within an hour of the capital for punctuality, speed, frequency and value, and found that St Albans came last on the list.

It was one of only four stations to see their performance drop compared to 2018, the last time the survey was carried out.

It found that one train, the 1821 from St Pancras International, arrived on time in St Albans only 11 per cent of the time between May and December 2022.

Passengers have also complained directly to Daisy about the service and the conditions on Thameslink – which is why she has taken the complaints to the House of Commons.

In a debate in Parliament, the Liberal Democrat MP put her concerns to the Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper. She raised the issues of punctuality, cancellations, and the price of tickets.

Following a statement about the West Coast Main Line operating firm Avanti, Daisy Cooper flagged up the Thameslink issues to the house:

“The Secretary of State seems to be celebrating a 4% cancellation rate on Avanti. May I invite him to look at the cancellation rate on Thameslink trains from St Albans City station, which is 8%? In fact, only 47% of our trains run on time, and our tickets are almost a third more expensive per mile than the average London commuter route, which means that St Albans is now rated the worst commuter station into London. Will the Secretary of State look at those cancellation rates and tell me when the prices affecting my constituency will go down and when reliability will go up?”

Mr Harper replied:

“We look at the performance of the rail network overall but, as the Chairman of the Transport Committee said, we need more transparent information. The most important thing is that lots of the issues to do with the performance of train operating companies are partly to do with infrastructure. Passengers do not care what causes the problems, which is why GBR, with its new regional structure, will ensure that we deliver a more joined-up system and better overall performance, which is what is ultimately important for the honourable Lady’s constituents.”

Daisy says that answer isn’t good enough.

“Delays and cancellations cause so much disruption and stress to people’s lives and this survey highlights just how bad the situation is here in St Albans.

“Whether it’s children trying to get to school or college, hospitality or health workers doing shifts, patients getting to appointments or parents rushing back from work to do the school pick up, people are just trying to get on with their lives, and are fed up of the late trains and extortionate ticket prices.

“As a daily commuter myself, this survey reflects both my own experience and the complaints I receive from residents.

“I’ll keep pressing the government to deliver.”

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After months of campaigning, St Albans MP Daisy Cooper has welcomed a major decision which could mean more money for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Hertfordshire.

The Liberal Democrat MP has been trying to get the government to investigate and fix a huge shortfall in central funding for SEND support.

In 2021/22, funding for SEND in Hertfordshire worked out at an average of £430 per pupil. The average figure for neighbouring counties was £601 per pupil – a huge £171 difference.

Now, after fifteen months of campaigning by Daisy and Hertfordshire Liberal Democrat County Councillors, the government has agreed to look into it.

After first raising the issue in a meeting with the relevant Minister in December 2021, Daisy has spent months trying to secure the relevant financial information from Hertfordshire County Council.

On 9 January, Daisy wrote to the Minister again and asked all other Hertfordshire MPs to join her in lobbying the government.

The Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing Claire Coutinho MP responded to Daisy on 21 February to confirm that an investigation will be launched into the data used to arrive at the funding decisions.

Daisy Cooper MP said:

“I know from my constituency surgeries that parents in St Albans often face an uphill battle to get their children the right SEND support.

“Insufficient funding is a huge part of the problem and it’s just unfair that pupils with SEND in Hertfordshire are missing out – even compared to those in neighbouring counties – because of the government’s flawed funding formula.

“This decision by the government to investigate this is very welcome, and a big step forward.

“Now I’ll be pressing for a meeting with the Minister to ensure that children in St Albans and across Hertfordshire have a fighting chance of getting the help they need.”

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Mead Quilters in Wheathampstead are a group of sewing enthusiasts who have been meeting for more than thirty years. Their quilts, which record events in local history such as the Covid pandemic, have been displayed at national shows.

But this month they’ve been sewing cushions for breast cancer patients at St Albans City Hospital and Welwyn’s Queen Elizabeth II Hospital. And they’ve broken their own record, creating more than two hundred cushions already.  

They have put out an appeal for new members to help with their next charity projects – and to find friendship and a warm welcome at the group.

St Albans’ Liberal Democrat MP Daisy Cooper has added her voice to the appeal. “It was wonderful to see the Mead Quilters at work creating beautiful gifts for women in and around St Albans, sometimes in their time of real need. There’s real love and care in these cushions and quilts, and they will brighten up the days of people who really need it.

“It’s even more impressive that they’re creating these quilts and cushions from scraps of fabric that might otherwise be thrown away.

“But they need new members and donations of spare fabric- so if you can sew, do drop them a line!”

The Quilters also rely on donations of fabric for their cushions and quilts, and would urge anyone with unwanted material to get in touch.

Their work for local hospitals has been inspired by members of the group who have themselves received treatment for breast cancer. Other members are NHS nurses who know the difference the gifts make to patients.

And this is not the only charity project the group has taken on. They also make small quilts for premature babies at Watford Hospital’s Maternity Unit, as well as quilts for women and children at St Albans Women’s Refuge. They’ve also donated quilts to the group Herts Welcomes Refugees.

If you can donate fabric, or if you would like to join the Mead Quilters, you can contact them via their website at https://meadquilters.org.uk.

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For decades, Dan Snow MBE has lived and breathed history.

Just in the last few years alone, he’s been inside Tutankhamun’s tomb, found Shackleton’s lost ship off Antarctica, and been on our TV screens tracking down the best dinosaur fossils ever found in America.

His History Hit podcast is one of the most-listened-to history podcasts in the UK – and has evolved into the History Hit online channel of programmes, podcasts and more.

He has also lent his support to political causes in Britain and elsewhere. He has campaigned for voting reform; he is a patron of Humanists UK; and at the campaign group More United, he worked with St Albans MP Daisy Cooper to urge politicians from all parties to work together achieve their shared goals.

But when you have a head full of history… how does that influence the way you see the events in the news today? What does Dan make of the crises that are shaping our world? How can the war in Ukraine be ended – and stopped from spreading? What does he think the lingering after-effects of a once-in-a-century pandemic like Covid are – including the ones we can’t bring ourselves to face up to? Should we welcome the revolution in artificial intelligence – or fear it?

Daisy Cooper MP will put all these questions and more to Dan when he joins us in St Albans on Thursday evening.

You can hear their conversation – and ask your own questions – by buying your ticket now.

The event is on Thursday 23rd February at 7:30pm at The Sandpit Theatre in St Albans and tickets are on sale now at £25 each. The proceeds of the evening’s event will go towards Daisy’s General Election Fighting Fund, via St Albans Liberal Democrats.

You can find more details about the event and book tickets here:

The Sandpit Theatre | Booking

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People who live near Gloucester Park have been trying to preserve the land by having it listed as an “Asset of Community Value” (ACV).

Cllr Anthony Rowlands and Cllr Jamie Day, both Liberal Democrat councillors for Hill End, standing in Gloucester Park

Now St Albans City and District Council has confirmed that Gloucester Park has been given ACV status.

Gloucester Park, also known as Gloucester Fields, is an area of undeveloped land among houses near Highfield Park. It’s treasured by people who live nearby both as a green lung for the neighbourhood around it, and as a traffic-free path through to the larger green spaces of Highfield.

The ruling means that the land will be protected from any sale for at least six months.

Jamie Day, councillor for Hill End, says he’s pleased with the decision.  

“This is great news for everyone in Hill End and nearby who uses Gloucester Park. It’s particularly good news for the people who have it on their doorstep, who were facing real uncertainty over the future of the land bordering their homes.” 

He’s also being supported by fellow Hill End representative and Liberal Democrat county councillor for St Albans East, Anthony Rowlands.

The land, between Drakes Drive and Hill End Lane, was a legacy of the former hospital estates in the area. Decisions regarding the area have previously fallen to Colney Heath Parish Council, which had put forward plans to sell it, but new boundary changes will put decisions into the hands of St Albans City and District Council from April this year. The ACV listing means there can be no sale of the land during a six-month period.

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“The public should not be made to pay the price for months of Conservative chaos and inaction.”

Responding to the government announcing £250m to buy care beds as part of a new plan to tackle the NHS winter crisis, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

“It is unforgivable that plans to tackle the winter crisis in the NHS are only being announced in January. 

“Conservative ministers have been asleep at the wheel for months, while hospitals fill up to the brim and patients are catastrophically let down.

“The government must now declare a national critical incident and fast-track the rest of the £500m of funding to discharge fit patients into social care.

“The public should not be made to pay the price for months of Conservative chaos and inaction.”

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“Daisy’s supporters have ensured that this Christmas many more people can enjoy the small treats
that many of us are fortunate enough to enjoy at this time of year.“

Rukia Augustine, CEO of the St Albans & District Foodbank

Daisy Cooper MP met with staff from St Albans District & Foodbank to celebrate the runaway success
of the first part of her Christmas fundraiser appeal, which raised £15,115 for the foodbank.
Generous donations from St Albans residents saw the original target of £10,000 easily reached in just
over three days.

The funds raised will help supplement the foodbank’s standard three-day emergency food parcels for
Christmas week with essential fresh fruit and veg and a few festive treats such as crackers and
biscuits.

In the last year alone, St Albans & District Foodbank distributed nearly 10,000 three-day emergency
food parcels – and almost half were for children. It’s also seeing more schools and community
agencies becoming referral partners.

Along with Lib Dem Cllr Jacqui Taylor, Daisy visited the foodbank’s Redbourn warehouse to meet the
team and hand over a cheque with the amount raised.

Rukia Augustine, CEO of the St Albans & District Foodbank, said: “We are seeing more and more
families having to turn to the food bank for help due to the rise in the cost of living. Soaring food and
fuel costs are affecting us all, but for families on the very lowest incomes this crisis means so much
more.

“It means having to make impossible decisions between putting food on the table or affording
internet access for the children to do their homework. Too many people are being left with no option
but to use a food bank because their money simply won’t stretch.

“It is our belief that everyone should be able to afford the essentials, and no one should have to make
choices between eating or keeping their homes warm.

“Daisy’s supporters have ensured that this Christmas many more people can enjoy the small treats
that many of us are fortunate enough to enjoy at this time of year.

“We’re very lucky that here in St Albans, there are many generous donors to keep us well-stocked. If
anyone out there reading this needs our services but is hesitating to use the foodbank – please don’t. We have plenty to go around, and the service we provide is discreet and confidential.”

Daisy said: “I’m simply blown away by everyone’s generosity – a huge thank you to everyone who
donated. Your contributions are going to help make so many people’s Christmases that much better.

“I know first-hand through my work just how vital the foodbank is to our community, and that this
year, so many more people across St Albans are turning to the foodbank perhaps for the first time in
their lives. Quite frankly, it’s a travesty that in 2022 foodbanks are still needed at all, but I’m so
grateful to everyone who has rallied round to make sure that that our local foodbank is well-stocked
and to all the foodbank volunteers for their hard work and dedication.”

Daisy closed the fundraiser shortly after the target was hit in late November. She’s now started
another appeal, this time in aid of Small Acts of Kindness, which has so far raised £9,600.

The Hertfordshire-based charity helps older people combat loneliness and isolation, and also provides
‘Warm in Winter’ bags containing products to help the recipient stay warm, as well as providing
resources and information to help them reach out in their local area for help and support.

With the charity estimating another 2,000 bags will be needed in January, Daisy is aiming to raise
£10,000 of the £50,000 needed for this. Donations to this fundraiser can be made here.

If you need more info on how you can be referred for foodbank’s services, please get in touch with
them by visiting https://stalbansdistrict.foodbank.org.uk/get-help/ or by calling Citizens Advice St
Albans District on 01727 811 118.

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“It’s immensely disappointing that Herts County Council is proposing to agree the sale of the land it owns, and it’s a damning indictment of the Conservative government’s approach to local democracy and our greenbelt.”

St Albans MP Daisy Cooper has described news that the Conservative-led county council is to formally decide whether to sell land in Park Street that would enable the build of the government-imposed Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) as a “damning indictment” of the government’s approach to local democracy and our greenbelt.

She has also written to Hertfordshire County Council to demand that residents’ voices are heard before the final decision is taken.

Last week, Herts County Council formally proposed selling land it owns to SEGRO, the developers of the proposed SRFI. A vote on that decision will happen on 1 December.

Since she was elected in 2019, Daisy first set out her opposition to the interchange in Parliament, in her maiden speech, where she described how “a significant chunk of our green belt is at risk from the monstrosity of a rail and lorry freight terminal.”

In September 2020, she secured a Westminster Hall debate specifically about the SRFI, where she appealed to the Conservative government Minister to change its position. In another debate about planning in the greenbelt, she raised the issue again in relation to housing targets.

Daisy said: “This issue began almost 9 years ago in 2014, when the designation of this site for a Strategic Rail Freight Interchange was made by the Conservative government, and specifically the former Housing Secretary of State, now Lord Eric Pickles.

“This means that the traffic alterations were approved eight years ago – and a lot has changed since then. I wrote to National Highways and Herts County Council in February this year to ask them to review these traffic alterations.

“I also asked the housing minister if he would hold discussions with the county council on the idea of the land being developed to support community initiatives or facilitate local regeneration – but the Conservative government has been clear that they made their decision on a freight terminal in 2014 and are sticking by it.”

As the land was approved for a strategic infrastructure project in 2014, it can’t be designated in the new Local Plan for any other purpose. This means that if the developers decide that they no longer want to pursue the building of a freight terminal, then the land would revert to be designated greenbelt. Any plans to build on it would be subject to the same stringent tests in terms of reducing the damage of any development to greenbelt land.  

Daisy continues: “It’s immensely disappointing that Herts County Council is proposing to agree the sale of the land it owns, and it’s a damning indictment of the Conservative government’s approach to local democracy and our greenbelt.

“As well as opposing the plans outright, I’ve been working hard to do what I can to mitigate the potential effects, should this go ahead – including meeting with SEGRO and securing a commitment from them to establish a residents consultative group.

“Just last week, I wrote to Herts County Council to reiterate my opposition to the rail freight terminal, and to demand that residents are given the opportunity to speak directly to the decision makers about their concerns, that residents who want to attend the meeting can, and that assurances are sought from SEGRO in advance of decisions being made about fulfilling their obligations to road improvements.

Park Street councillor Nuala Webb, who actively opposes the SRFI, says: “If the County Council decide to sell this land to the developers, it will be a huge blow to Park Street, Harperbury and Napsbury residents. Residents here are incredibly frustrated with this recent news, and I share their concerns.

“But it’s not just Park Street and the surrounding areas that this will affect – this will mean gridlock between the M1 and A1M and all roads around. It brings no benefits to our communities. 

“I’ll be continuing to work both with residents and other active groups to try and make this clear to SEGRO. It’s now or never.”

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“Ordinary folk who pay council tax end up subsidising these really big developers because councils aren’t allowed by law to charge more money to process their applications.”

Daisy Cooper, the MP for St Albans, has tabled a bill¹ in Parliament to remove the Government-imposed cap on fees that local authorities, such as St Albans District Council, are permitted to charge housing developers to process planning applications.

The Planning Application Fees bill would let councils charge big developers more to cover the cost of processing planning applications to build large housing estates – often resulting in huge profits for these developers.

Currently, local authorities are only allowed by law to charge a flat fee which was last reviewed in 2012.  That means it can cost many times more to determine an application than they are allowed to pass on to developers, encouraging speculative applications and putting the council’s planning system under immense strain.

Figures released by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities² show that it costs St Albans District Council up to £3,197,000 a year more to process planning applications than is collected in planning fees. For England as a whole, the shortfall is £1.93 billion.

Daisy Cooper MP said:

“We have a huge problem with the national planning system. Fundamentally, it is developer-led not community-led,” says Daisy. “It’s the big developers who choose the pieces of land they want to buy. They decide what kind of houses they want to build that’s going to make them the most amount of money. Then only at that stage, they put in their applications to local authorities.

“These plans are often targeted on green belt land, against the wishes of local people and without the necessary infrastructure in place, such as schools and doctors, to support a much larger community. Not only are councils forced to meet unrealistic government housing targets, but they just don’t have the financial resources or the staff to oversee these developers’ plans with the focus and detail required.”

“In effect, ordinary folk who pay council tax end up subsidising these really big developers because councils aren’t allowed by law to charge more money to process their applications.

“This is at a time when local authorities are really, really, struggling with their finances. The fees just don’t come close to meeting the cost of running their planning services.”

The huge shortfall in revenue also means that councils struggle to keep their planning experts from leaving for the private sector because they can’t pay them enough.

Leader of the District Council and lead councillor on planning, Cllr Chris White, said:

“A lot of these big companies can pay much more money to their senior planners. We’ve got a problem with councils right across the country, where senior planning officers who have the experience to know how to process these applications and work with private developers, are being recruited into the private sector on much higher salaries.  The result is that council are left without enough skilled people needed to actually process these applications.”

“The problem we have is that the entire national planning system is broken. It’s a real mess and I really hope the Government addresses it soon. What I would like to see is a community-led planning system that gives a lot more power to local people and local authorities. Removing the cap on fees for developers is a much-needed first step.”

Notes:

¹ Text of Planning Application Fees bill: Bill to amend the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to enable local authorities [in England] to determine the fees to be paid in respect of applications and deemed applications for planning permission; to require local authorities to set the scale of fees with a view to ensuring that the costs of determining applications can be wholly funded by application fees; and for connected purposes.

The bill issupported by Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire. It was read for the first time on Wednesday, 16 November, and will have its second reading on Friday, 24 March 2023.

² DLUHC General Fund Revenue Account Outturn.

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