New Year's Message

I wish all my constituents and their families a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

I wish all my constituents and their families a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Just over a year ago we witnessed the awesome tragedy of the Asian tsunami which touched many families, including some in St Albans. Last year saw many disasters unfold such as; the July bombings, terrible flooding in New Orleans, catastrophic earthquakes in Pakistan, continued global conflict and closer to home the massive explosions at Buncefield and its environmental impact. Yet in St Albans I have seen much outpouring of good will from all sectors of our community whatever their ethnicity and generous charitable acts that demonstrate what a warm and welcoming community I serve, and I thank them all.

I will continue to speak up on behalf of the citizens of St Albans against inappropriate development; I will closely monitor the impact of the new licensing Act. I will continue to have regular meetings with the council, police and health authorities to draw your concerns to their attention. I will also continue to vote against badly thought out laws that threaten civil liberties and will closely scrutinise legislation.

My New Year's resolution is to attempt to introduce a ten minute rule bill to try to trigger automatic delivery of information about benefits for those who are diagnosed terminally ill.

HAPPY NEW YEAR"