Susan Gaszczak

Conservative-controlled Herts Highways, responsible for managing and maintaining Hertfordshire's road network, has today been forced to admit to a major blunder that is likely to cost the county council about £1.26 million.

The ill-starred bus lane in Moor End Road, Hemel Hempstead, is a key element in the town's traffic management intended to reduce congestion and keep buses running on time to destinations such as Chesham, Berkhamsted and Tring. After a false start with rising bollards that had to be removed, the council settled on a more conventional bus lane which went live on 25th July 2011. It was enforced with an automatic camera. Penalties were issued from the 8th August 2011 onwards.

It was immediately clear there was a problem with the clarity and visibility of the signage and an exceptionally high number of penalties were being generated. Between 19th and 23rd August 2011 local Liberal Democrat county councillor, Nick Hollinghurst, alerted fellow councillors, council officers and the Conservative Executive Member for the Highways and Transport, Cllr Stuart Pile, to the growing problem.

No action to correct these problems was ever taken and the county council decided early on to reject all criticism of the technical shortcomings of the scheme. Nevertheless today's Herts County Council Cabinet meeting sounded the retreat and agreed to repay the wrongly collected fines.

Nick Hollinghurst, who has been campaigning on the issue since the middle of last year, said today: 'As ever, the Tories at Herts County Council fail to listen when they don't like the message.

'They were clearly wrong on the issue, remained wrong, denied they were wrong and even said they were surprised people were saying they were wrong at the point when they finally got into serious trouble with a legal tribunal.

'Money does not grow on trees. Had they listened to me and the countless members of the public who protested, they could have saved their reputation - and more importantly over a million pounds of precious public money.

'There must be some political responsibility here. This lies with Cllr Stuart Pile who must consider his position: he has let down Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire and Hertfordshire's taxpayers and should now resign.'

Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.

The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:

• The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
• A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
• 21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
• Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
• Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.

The Conservative Cabinet of Herts County Council will be meeting on Monday, March 19th, to decide whether to sell off yet another care home. In a close echo of the sell-off of Jane Campbell House in St Albans, the Hyde Valley Residential Care Home in Welwyn Garden City also has an occupation rate approaching 100%, and in addition the Council's own report clearly states that 'it is a very popular day service'.

A new online system for reporting Highways problems, meant to be an "improvement", has come in for sharp criticism from Hertfordshire's Liberal Democrats. The new system, rolled out recently by Conservative-run Herts County Council, now requires a compulsory registration process, which includes a check against the electoral register.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.

The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.

Fairer taxes, promoting green jobs, protecting your civil liberties - these are just some of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government.

We're building a freer, greener and more liberal country - and stopping some of the worst excesses of the Conservatives. Find out more in this infographic.

Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg MP, met leaders from business, education and local government last Thursday to discuss how Hertfordshire businesses are faring as a result of the recent recession.

The meeting, which took place at West Herts College in Watford, centred around the challenges facing local businesses.

The Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), a new business-led partnership responsible for growing the local economy, was represented at the meeting by its Chair, John Gourd, of Johnson Matthey, its two most recent recruits, Peter O'Gorman of Santander Corporate Banking and Andrew Percival of VINCI plc and fellow LEP Board Member, Dan Dark of Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden.

John Gourd said: "This was an excellent opportunity to discuss with Nick Clegg how well the public and private sectors are working together in Hertfordshire to make a positive difference to businesses and residents alike across the county, such as recent joint efforts to secure government backing for the delivery of the Croxley Rail link.

"The Deputy Prime Minister recognises that local businesses are vital to our economic prosperity and that it is crucial that the Government engages with them and listens to their concerns.

"Now that the Hertfordshire LEP has its full Board in place we can forge ahead with our plans to promote growth in the county, which include bringing superfast broadband to Hertfordshire and improving infrastructure."

Dorothy Thornhill, Elected Mayor of Watford, who hosted the meeting, said: "I was delighted to facilitate a roundtable between the Deputy Prime Minister and key local businesses. It is fundamentally important that our political leaders are given the opportunity to appreciate the reality of how the wider economic downturn has affected businesses. Nick was glad to hear its not all bad news!"

School allocations for 2012/13, announced yesterday (1st March) by the County Council, have received a "B-" from the local Liberal Democrats, who have highlighted a range of problems which the statistics reveal.

Although the overall rate of "Ranked Allocations" - instances where a child from Hertfordshire was allocated a place in their 1st,2nd or 3rd choice school - is at a respectable 94.7%, that figure drops to 80.6% once children from outside the County are included. It also marks a 1% drop from the 95.7% rate last year; 154 fewer children than last year got into their first preference school.

Hertfordshire Lib Dems have been puzzled by the silence from the County Council's communications department after permission to make a major planning decision - whether to move Southfields School - was taken away from the council by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on Tuesday. The school is next to New Barnfield, the site of the proposed incinerator in Welwyn Hatfield, and any delay in the move of the school is likely to delay approval of the incinerator being built there.