Herts Live (2025)

13/10/2025

Tomorrow's weather forecast for Hertfordshire

13/10/2025

Parking charges are among the fees that Stevenage Borough Council are planning to raise next year.

Cllr Jeannette Thomas, cabinet member for resources and performance, told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday (October 8) that the changes are “a key part of the financial strategy to address ongoing budget pressures and support the sustainability of vital services for the community”.

Parking increases will include a 20% rise in the cost of a 30 minute stay at the town centre St Georges and Westgate car parks on weekdays and Saturdays – up from £1 to £1.20 – and a 10% rise in the charge for parking at Primett Road North car park in the old town at evenings and on Sundays, up from £1 to £1.10. Most charges at car parks will rise by between 4% and 7%.

Cllr Thomas said: “The charges are informed by inflationary pressures, service cost recovery and benchmarking, and were reviewed by the council’s cross-party financial security group, with the majority of proposals receiving unanimous support.

“The proposed changes are expected to generate an additional £314,000 for the general fund, and £24,000 for the housing revenue account.

“The council remains committed to maintaining affordable services while ensuring financial resilience and will continue to monitor inflation, demand and legislative changes to inform future charging strategies.”

Other charges that will go up include fishing permits, with an adult day ticket rising from £9 to £10, but some fees will remain unchanged, including those for allotments.

Most of the changes will take effect from January 2026 after their approval at cabinet on Wednesday.
The council’s medium-term financial strategy requires it to make savings for the general fund, which covers day-to-day spending, of £1m in 2026/27, on top of the £16.5m saved over the last 15 years.

Income from fees and charges currently contributes more than £23m towards the council’s general fund each year.

Councils are currently waiting to hear the outcome of the government’s Fair Funding Review, which is set to determine how much money they receive from central government in the coming years.

Further fee changes to be introduced by Stevenage Borough Council will affect taxi drivers, with the cost of a one-year hackney carriage or private hire driver’s licence rising from £105 to £169.

However, those driving zero or ultra-low-emission vehicles will benefit from the introduction of a subsidised fee. Zero-emission vehicles – such as those that are fully electric – will have a 50% discount on the licence fee, with a 25% discount in place for ultra-low emission vehicles.

Cllr Thomas said that current fees “fall short of fully recovering the cost of delivering the service”, and that the increases were being introduced “with the intention of ensuring sustainable service delivery”.

The changes will be implemented in a “phased approach over a two-year period”.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Christopher Day

13/10/2025

Today's weather forecast for Hertfordshire

10/10/2025

Highs of 17C tomorrow ☁

10/10/2025

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council is expected to have to find almost £1.3m in savings to produce a balanced budget for 2026/27, new figures show.

Cllr Astrid Scott (Lab), executive member for finance at the council, presented an updated medium-term financial forecast to a cabinet meeting on Tuesday (October 7).

She said: “The updates have been done at a time of significant uncertainty around government funding, with the Fair Funding review underway.

“Once the three-year settlement is announced, it will give the council some much-needed certainty into the medium term, but it is challenging to forecast currently with the widely varying outcomes possible.

“Some of the national data that will be used to distribute funding has not been released yet, and the overall quantum of funding for local government is unknown.”

The current forecast is for the council to need to find £1.288m of savings in its general fund budget for 2026/27, a further £1.362m in 2027/28 and another £1.249m in 2028/29.

A report prepared for the cabinet by officers showed the extent to which council finances will be affected by the government’s ‘Fair Funding’ review, with a best-case scenario showing the council receiving £8.62m in funding for 2026/27 compared to a worst-case scenario of £6.41m.

The same council report said that it will be “extremely challenging” to meet the required savings targets for the coming years, and that “a range of options” will be considered for meeting it, including using reserves, maximising income and reducing costs.

The cabinet agreed to approve the proposed savings target ahead of continuing work on bringing forward a budget for 2026/27.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Christopher Day

10/10/2025

A cloudy day today with highs of 19C ☁

09/10/2025

Sunny spells, highs of 19C ⛅

09/10/2025

The Beam theatre project in Hertford has dealt East Herts Council another financial blow, with an expected £200,000 income for this financial year turning into a projected £70,000 loss.

It comes after consultants earlier this year slashed the new £30m theatre’s predicted income over the next nine years from £19.5m to £4m.

Cllr Carl Brittain (Grn), executive member for financial sustainability at the council, said the latest hit, made based on forecasts after the first quarter of the financial year, was “largely due to the delay in recruiting a chef”.

He told an executive meeting on Tuesday (7 October): “An appointment has now been made, a food offering is now available, and this should significantly improve the financial results going forward.”

The theatre opened to the public in August last year.

Around £184,000 of the total £270,000 projected change in 2025/26 annual income following the first quarter of the financial year stems from the delay, with other financial pressures from the theatre, including £47,000 from ticket sales and £32,000 from utilities costs.

In response to a question from Cllr Ian Devonshire (Con) about the delay in appointing a chef, Cllr Brittain said he understood that the new theatre director – Steve Sargeant – had felt it would be “detrimental to the business as a whole … if we tried to do too much”.

Cllr Brittain continued: “The idea was to put on hold the food offering while we got other aspects of the business up and running in a better way.

“It was probably just that the original plan was possibly too ambitious, and now we’re in a position that we can build it up.

“Any new business takes a while to build, and we were possibly just a little bit optimistic about how quickly we could build it up from scratch.”

Executive member Cllr Vicky Glover-Ward (Grn) said it “should be remembered” that it was only in March that Stage Two at Beam opened “and getting the bookings for that had to take precedence … over a chef and food”.

She added that the “soft launch” of food offerings had “gone really well”, and that a “full food service” is now being offered.

Cllr Brittain also pointed out that “theatre is a seasonal business … the summer months tend to be quieter and between September and December we can expect the theatre to be much busier”, especially with the Beauty and the Beast pantomime from December.

“Hopefully, that will be successful this year and going forward we’ll start to see that it’s bringing in some income to the council,” he said.

The council’s revenue budget is now forecast for an overspend of £789,000 across 2025/26 as a whole, with other pressures coming from a loss of rent at Rapier House in Ware and lower than expected car parking income.

Councils are legally required to set a balanced budget for the year, with East Herts forecasting a surplus of just £6,000 when it set its 2025/26 budget.

Cllr Brittain said: “The pressures within this report are being scrutinised to ensure that the same pressures are not fed into the 2026/27 budget-setting process.”

In better news for the council, there has been a £698,000 reduction in the amount of aged debt it owes.

According to Cllr Brittain, the figure includes settlement of a “large debt” and “it is anticipated that this figure will continue to reduce as more work is done to resolve old debts”.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Christopher Day

09/10/2025

Lots of sunshine around today ☀

08/10/2025

Lots of sunshine forecast tomorrow, with highs of 18C ☀

08/10/2025

Watford businesses are currently voting on whether to continue with the town’s Business Improvement District (BID) scheme, with the possibility of a “second BID area” being set up too.

The scheme, created in 2016, aims to allow business and organisations in the town centre to come together to improve the area.

At a meeting of Watford Borough Council’s cabinet on Monday (October 6), elected mayor Peter Taylor (LD) said the BID team is “incredibly effective” and supported the continuation of the scheme for a third term lasting until 2031.

Any property with a rateable value of £12,000 or more within the BID area has until Thursday (October 9) to vote on whether to continue the scheme.

Those properties include nine council properties – such as Watford Town Hall, the Colosseum, the Town Hall car park, and the Avenue car park – which will all vote in favour of extending the BID.

If more than half of the around 500 eligible properties back the scheme continuing, properties above £12,000 rateable value will be liable for a levy of two per cent of their rateable value.

There will be a reduced levy of 1.75% for ratepayers in the Harlequin Shopping Centre, and a levy of just 0.25% for organisations that have business rates relief.

A report prepared by council officers said: “Over the past five years, over £3m additional funding will have been invested in Watford town centre, as a result of Watford BID, and this is expected to continue over the next five years should the ballot return a yes vote.”

Mr Taylor added that the council is aiming to make sure the BID is “financially viable in the long run” and continued: “In light of local government reorganisation, it’s really important that the BID is on a sound financial footing.

“Separate from this, there is a look at possibly a second BID area as well.”

Cllr Jennifer Pattinson, Liberal Democrat group leader at Watford Borough Council, said the BID does “a lot of amazing things”.

She said: “When you walk through Watford town centre, it looks great and it feels safe, and I think that’s actually what matters to people and the BID supports that.

“It’s all very positive and, I think, it makes our town a better place.”

Mr Taylor said there was a “stark contrast … if you compare it to other town centres that aren’t a million miles from here”.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Christopher Day

08/10/2025

Plans to make it easier to create new residents’ permit parking zones in East Herts have been approved by the district council’s executive.

At a meeting yesterday (Tuesday, October 7), councillors in the Green-Liberal Democrat administration agreed to proposals that will reduce the requirements for new permit zones to be established.

Previously, zones could only be introduced in areas where more than 40% of spaces were taken up by non-residents at peak times, and there had to be enough kerb space for three-quarters of households to park one vehicle on the street. Those figures are now set to be cut to 10% and 50% respectively.

Cllr Tim Hoskin (Grn), executive member for environmental sustainability, said the changes would allow for “a more holistic assessment of local context”.

It comes after East Herts Council last year agreed to review its parking strategy, with Citisense commissioned to recommend potential changes.

Their report said that the 40% requirement for a residents’ permit zone (RPZ) to be created “may unnecessarily restrict the council’s ability to introduce schemes in areas of clear need and can be a barrier to effective parking management”.

Cllr Hoskin’s report said the current threshold of forty per cent “can prevent necessary schemes in areas with clear parking stress”, and that reducing the kerb space requirement would “reflect the reality of historic, high-density or mixed-use areas where available kerb space does not correlate with the number of households”.

Cllr Chris Wilson (LD) said non-resident parking is a “big issue” in his ward of Bishop’s Stortford All Saints, given the closeness of Stansted Airport.

He said: “It was quite obvious that at least a couple of roads had this problem where they really could benefit from an RPZ [but] the policy kept leading to that proposition not being fulfilled.

“This change of policy will give them an opportunity to have what they need and what has been, from a common sense point of view, a pragmatic point of view and a holistic point of view, needed for a while, for a couple of the roads at least.”

He raised concerns about “people who are … leaving their car for two weeks in a residential area and flying off from Stansted”, and was told by Cllr Hoskin that they would consider “spoiler hours” where permits would be required for a single hour during a day.

The planned reduction in the forty per cent requirement for non-resident parking was also welcomed by Cllr Sarah Hopewell (Grn), who said: “That’s been quite a sticking point for a couple of areas where they could have benefited from an RPZ, so hopefully this will unlock that challenge to putting one in place.”

A Ware resident who spoke at the meeting, Mr Bailey, called for the requirement for 50% of eligible respondents to be reduced, describing it as “unrealistically high”.

But Cllr Hoskin said it would be “odd” to “give the minority control to expose others to expenditure which they may not be able to afford”.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Christopher Day

Herts Live

13/10/2025

13/10/2025

13/10/2025

10/10/2025

10/10/2025

10/10/2025

09/10/2025

09/10/2025

09/10/2025

08/10/2025

08/10/2025

08/10/2025

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share