Anne Main welcomes apparent further concessions on garden maintenance

Anne Main has welcomed today's announcement that the District Council may reconsider plans to charge for garden maintenance for elderly and disabled council tenants.

The announcement came from the Liberal Democrat Candidate for St Albans during today’s Live Election Debate with Jonathan Vernon-Smith on BBC Three Counties Radio, and means that the charges – £2.16 a week or £216 annually for around 600 tenants – look set to be scrapped.

Anne said:
“I welcome the announcement that St Albans District Council has apparently performed a U-Turn on garden maintenance charges for vulnerable council tenants. I met the Head of Housing at the Council last month to push her to reconsider this plan, and it appears the Liberal Democrat council has finally bowed to pressure.

I know many local people were concerned about these charges and it is, therefore, good news for them that the Leader of the Council will be reconsidering their cases sympathetically.

We had already secured concessions, but it is welcome that the Council has further relented, even though it was a slightly odd choice to announce this in a live election debate. I certainly hope he hasn’t got his facts wrong, as that would be very disappointing.

As I observed in the debate, this is valued service. I know if you ask local people they would prefer money to be spent in this way rather than in expensive publicity wraps around the local newspaper to, heaping self-praise on the local council.”