Plans by Luton and BedfordshireCouncils to meet their housingtargets by building thousands ofhouses over the Hertfordshire GreenBelt have been withdrawn bydevelopers, Bloor Homes.

But local MP, Peter Lilley, who originallyexposed the plans, has warned that thisis just a temporary reprieve. “They arereeling from the credit crunch” he says“but we should not drop our guard – theywill return, possibly with even biggerplans.”

Peter is fighting what he calls “Luton’sattempted land grab of Hertfordshirecountryside” since he discovered that

Government officials had held privatetalks with developers and Luton Councilabout building up to 7,000 housesbetween Luton and Hitchin. This wasdone without consulting with theauthority most directly involved, NorthHerts District Council. “This wasoutrageous and I protested to ministers inthe strongest possible terms.”

“These plans threaten some of the mostbeautiful parts of the County. I will fighttooth and nail alongside the CPRE and localprotest groups against any moves toexpand Luton into Hertfordshire. Anyonewishing to help the campaign pleasecontact me at the House of Commons.”

DON’T BE FOOLEDBY DEVELOPER’SRETREAT – WARNS LILLEY

ReportWINTER 2008

MEMBER OFPARLIAMENT FOR HITCHIN & HARPENDEN

Peter Lilley’s Westminster

Dear Constituent,Even the darkest clouds have silver linings. The credit crunch has brought us a

breathing space as developers have shelved plans to build Luton out into

Hertfordshire. But don’t be fooled; they haven’t gone for good as I warn on this page.

Government house building targets rise inexorably (see page 2) and will continue to

do so as long as we encourage mass immigration which is why I have backed the new

all-party Balanced Migration group (see page 3).

Happily I can report a more lasting victory as NHDC rejected all six possible gypsy sites

in North Herts (see page 3) though the threat still blights several sites in St Albans

District. So, ‘consultation’ – despite understandable cynicism – is not always a sham.

The National Air Traffic Control System has also consulted about plans to route

planes over the least populated areas – very welcome in Harpenden, less so in

Wheathampstead. I urged NATS’ to tweak the route to take more planes away from

Wheathampstead and welcome their promise to consider this (see below). Tesco have

also responded positively to my pleas for a store in Wheathampstead (see page 2). On

the other hand the Post Office agreed to save Whitwell post office yet ignored equally

powerful arguments to retain the branches in Station Road Harpenden and St

Ippolyts as well as Hexton, and Blakes End (see page 3). Following the Buncefield

Inquiry into the oil terminal fire we wait to see whether they genuinely listen to

concerns about rebuilding near residential homes (see page 3).

‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’ – yet one local family appealed to me fearing loss

of their house after a fraudster downloaded title deeds, took out a mortgage and

absconded. By calling a Parliamentary debate I managed to end such frauds (see page 3).

You can see what I am doing about these and other issues by visiting

www.peterlilley.co.uk

I hope to meet many of you at my regular House Meetings (why not host one?) or my

coach trips to the House of Commons (see page 4).

Yours sincerely

Peter Lilley, MP for Hitchin & Harpenden

To contact your local MP: call 01582 834344 or email feedback@peterlilley.co.uk

INSIDE

Could SomeoneSteal YourHouse?

Peter Lilley MPHouse of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

PROTEST MARCH |Peter Lilley joined localresidents andcouncillors in theirProtest March.

INSIDE

Good Newsfor VillageShoppers

Peter Lilley welcomed the deci-sion by NATS – the National AirTraffic Service – to considerhis call to bend the proposedflight path to reduce flightsover Wheathampstead.

The main aim of the NATS pro-posals to take flights away frombuilt up areas is welcome. But peo-ple in Wheathampstead had rea-sonable concerns about how theplans would affect them especially

as the published plans were prettybroad brush. After repeatedenquiries Peter Lilley establishedthat the precise route would notpass over the village but wouldfunnel planes in a narrow path justsouth of Wheathampstead. So heasked NATS to consider ‘tweaking’their plans to take the route furthersouth over open countryside.

“I am pleased that they areconsidering this improvement.”

ROUTE FEWER PLANES OVER BUILT UP AREAS

UNDER THREAT |Peter Lilley joined

the threatenedresidents of

Thomas SparrowHouse in

Wheathampsteadat their

Christmasfestivities.

If MPs vote to transfer moreresponsibilities to Brusselsthey should take a pay cut,Peter Lilley told Parliament. Ina speech which won plauditsfrom the commentators if notfrom all his colleagues, heintroduced a Bill to relate MPs’pay to their responsibilities.

“In most jobs pay reflectsresponsibilities,” he argued. “So ifwe give power away to Europe – asproposed under the LisbonConstitutional Treaty – our payshould be reduced. But if (as I hope)Parliament ever regains power thatshould be reflected positively.

“The government admits thatalready ‘around half of all [UK] leg-islation, with an impact on busi-ness, stems from Brussels’. Lastyear the EU passed 177 directivesand 2,033 regulations.

“Few people realise how muchpower has been transferredbecause ministers insist that theystill retain those powers.

“They even defend and acceptresponsibility for Brussels’ legisla-tive progeny in whose conceptionthey often played little part. Theyprefer to claim paternity ratherthan admit impotence – the fate ofthe cuckold across the ages!”

GOOD NEWS FORVILLAGE SHOPPERSPeter Lilley welcomed Tesco’s plans toopen a Tesco Express in WheathampsteadHigh Street.

“I and Gill Clark have been urging Tesco togo ahead with this proposal for some time. Ithink the fact that there was all party sup-port for overcoming any access problemsencouraged Tesco to go ahead. Villageslike Wheathampstead need a range ofshops to make the High Street attractiveand vibrant.”

NEW TESCO’S | Peter Lilley and Gill Clarkin the One Stop Shop which is soon to betransformed into a Tesco Metro.

MP’S PAY SHOULD MATCHRESPONSIBILITIESSAYS LILLEY

Westminster Report Winter 2008

Visit Peter’s website – www.peterlilley.co.uk

The government has acknowl-edged that its housing targets– 83,000 in Hertfordshire by2021 – can only be met bymoving Green Belt bound-aries. To compensate for thisthe East of England Ministerhas promised to designatemore land as Green Belt elsewhere.

In Parliament Peter Lilleyargued that a flexible Green Beltis absurd. Its wholepoint is to pro-

vide barriers to stop built upareas merging into one another.

“To suggest we can replacelost green belt in Hertfordshire bydesignating land in areas wherethere is less pressure is absurd. Itis like saying we can let rarespecies become extinct as longas we replace them by addingsome more common species tothe list of protected creatures. Mygreat fear is that Harpenden andHitchin will gradually be mergedin to Luton and Stevenage.”

FLEXIBLE GREENBELT IS ACONTRADICTION INTERMS SAYS MP

BREACHWOOD GREEN PROTEST MEETING | Peter Lilley joined KevinFitzgerald, Director of Herts CPRE, to address a meeting at BreachwoodGreen to oppose the development East of Luton.

PUT RESIDENTS’ FEARSTO REST, LILLEY TELLSST. ALBANS COUNCIL

VISITS TO PARLIAMENT ARE A HIT

After visiting residentsof three sets of old peo-ples’ flats threatenedwith closure by St AlbansDistrict Council, PeterLilley criticised a badlyhandled consultationwhich caused residentsunnecessary anxiety.

“I met residents and theirrelatives at Breadcroft andLeacroft in Harpenden and

Thomas Sparrow House inWheathampstead after severalpeople expressed concernabout the Council’s plans toclose and refurbish their flats.It became clear that residents’concerns had been aggravat-ed because the Council beganconsultation without havingany concrete proposals ordetails of how existing ten-ants would be affected. This

frightened and confused vul-nerable residents.

“The Council’s underlyingaim is to improve accommo-dation and adapt it to chang-ing needs. They plan toresume consultation in thecoming months. When they doso it is vital that they take intoaccount the disruption anduncertainty which change willcause for existing residents.

Peter Lilley, Member of Parliament for the people of Hitchin & Harpenden

Every year Peter Lilleyinvites scores of youngpeople down to visitParliament which haveproved a great success.So much so, that theirparents started to askif they could come too.

So Peter started to organise visits foranyone ward by ward. These have provedsuch a hit that now several hundred local

people have made the visit.It is a myth that people –

young or old – aren’tinterested in seeing howthey are governed.

If you would like to join atrip from your part of theconstituency let us know on

01582 834344, by email onfeedback@peterlilley.co.uk or tory-herts@btconnect.com

“Thank you so much forthe invitation to theHouse of Commons lastThursday. I very muchappreciate the fact thatMr. Lilley gives up histime in this way”

Mrs B of Hitchin.

COULD SOMEONESTEAL YOURHOUSE?A local family brought this nightmarish problemto Peter Lilley’s advice session: someone hadstolen their house!

They had let it out; the tenant downloaded the titledeeds from the Land Registry; fraudulently transferredthem to his own name; took out a £140,000 mortgageand disappeared with the cash. The true owners onlyfound out when the mortgage company tried torepossess the house.

“I often say ‘safe as houses’ because I assumed thiswas impossible,” Peter told fellow MP’s when he raisedthe issue in Parliament. He succeeded in getting theLand Registry to admit liability so that his constituentsgot their house back free of mortgage debt. He alsopersuaded ministers to change the rules to make thissort of fraud virtually impossible.

Once again ‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’!

Peter Lilley welcomed the Royal Mail’sdecision to reprieve Whitwell sub-postoffice. “But there are equally powerful – and,in the case of St Ippolyts and 107 StationRoad Harpenden, very similar – arguments forsaving the other branches (including Hexton andBlakes Corner in Hitchin). So why close them?

“My mail bag has been full of letters defending thesebranches; and closely reasoned cases were deployed byvigorous local campaigns, culminating in a meeting I heldwith Post Office managers. I wanted them to appreciatethe serious impact closures would have, especially onpeople who need their services most – the elderly, theless well off and anyone without access to transport.But the managers made it clear thatthe Post Office has been given aquota of 2,500 post offices to closeacross the country. So we were luckyto save even one branch.

“The post office is much morethan a commercial operation. It liesat the heart of many villages anddistricts, and losing one can have farreaching social as well as economicand financial consequences.”

To contact Peter call 01582 834344

Westminster Report

Visit Peter’s website – www.peterlilley.co.uk

MP JOINS ALL-PARTY CALLFOR BALANCEDIMMIGRATION

MP HAILSWITHDRAWALOF GYPSYSITESPeter Lilley welcomed NorthHerts District Council’s deci-sion to reject all six pro-posed local gypsy sites.

“I knew from my correspon-dence and from public meetingsthat the locations under consid-eration were seriously flawed.Even gypsy representatives con-sidered them unsuitable.

“The Council were as opposedas local residents to buildingmore travellers sites in these loca-tions but were legally required togo through a public consultationabout possible sites. I am pleasedthat they concluded that none ofthese locations was suitable.Instead they will try to integratenew sites into new developmentsnear Stevenage.

“Sadly in St Albans District thesystem works particularly unfairlyas both Anne Main MP and Iprotested in Parliament. Thequota of sites a District is requiredto find is greater the more trav-ellers are already in the area – sobecause St Albans already hasmost it has to find the largestnumber of additional sites.”

WORK IS BETTER THAN BENEFITS – SAYS EX-MINISTERFormer Secretary of State, Peter Lilley recently returned to hisformer concerns – helping people off benefit and back intowork. He published research from five countries that use theprivate and voluntary sector to help people find work as wellas rewarding those who succeed.

“This approach could really help if we learn the lessons from othercountries. In Wisconsin they cut the benefit rolls by 80% over fouryears; in Australia they reduced administrative costs by two thirds;Germany got 1million people back into work; and Denmark and theNetherlands have shown the voluntary sector can take on this taskespecially for people with the most severe problems.

“When we help someone off welfare into work they benefit, thetaxpayer benefits, the economy benefits. At present the only peoplewho don’t benefit directly from that success are those employed to helppeople into work. We should reward their success and pay by results.

“I am delighted that the government responded positively to theseideas.”

“At last there is a sensibledebate about immigration,”Peter Lilley told local busi-nesspeople. “For too long ithas been based on carica-tures.

“On one side the tabloidsoften falsely portray immi-grants as scroungers, criminalsetc – whereas in fact the vastmajority are hardworking, lawabiding, decent people. Theother side has labelled anyonewho wants to limit mass immi-gration in to the UK as ‘racists’– whereas their main concern isabout numbers: England isalready the most densely popu-lated country in Europe.

“My own concern hasalways been based on housing– government figures showthat projected immigration will

account for about 40% of newhouseholds in Britain, requiringus to build a new Birminghamevery five years.

“So I was delighted when anAll-Party Group supportingBalanced Immigration wasformed – chaired by Labour MPFrank Field and ConservativeNicholas Soames and backedby Trades Unionists, a formerArchbishop of Canterbury, aca-demics and economists. Iturges limiting the number ofpeople allowed to settle herepermanently to roughly matchthose emigrating or returninghome. That would still allowquite large numbers of peopleto come here to work for a peri-od – just as many British peo-ple work for some yearsabroad.

WHITWELL POSTOFFICE SAVED – SOWHY CLOSE OTHERS?ASKS MP

POST OFFICE FIGHT | Peter joinedthe residents of Whitwell as theycampaigned to keep their PostOffice open.

SAFE AS HOUSES |The problem wasbrought to Peter’sattention by SoniaChohan, a member of the familyinvolved.

BUNCEFIELD BILLFollowing the massive fire at the Buncefield oil depot whichborders on Hitchin and Harpenden, local MP Peter Lilleybacked a Bill to protect communities from hazardousindustrial sites.

“In the case of Buncefield, there should be no question ofautomatically rebuilding the terminal. The safety of everyone in thearea should be the priority. The government must listen to concernsexpressed during the inquiry,” he urged.

Members ofHarpendenYouth TownCouncil wereentertained atthe House ofCommons thisyear.

If his youngconstituentscannot get toLondon, PeterLilley is alwayswilling to visit local schools and colleges and ispictured with three students from Haberdasher’s Aske’swhen he joined their sixth form for a discussion.

“NEW WOODWILL REINFORCEGREEN BELT”SAYS MP

WOODLANDWALK| Peterwelcomed BericRead at the end ofhis 166 mileSponsored Walkalong HertfordshireWay to raise moneyfor the woodlandproject.

NEW WOODLANDSITE | Peter Lilleyvisited the site withJames Cooper andToby Bancroft fromthe Woodland Trust

Promoted by G E Mitchell on behalf of Rt. Hon Peter Lilley MP, both of Riverside House, 1 Place Farm, Wheathampstead, Herts AL4 8SB. Printed by The Print Factory, Avro House, Harlequin Avenue, Brentford TW8 9EW. This publication is funded through the allowances available to Members of Parliament.

Need to contact your MP?

Please write to me aboutproblems that I may be able tohelp with or to let me knowyour views at this address:

House of Commons,Westminster,London SW1A 0AATel: 01582 834344Fax: 01582 834884Email: feedback@peterlilley.co.ukWebsite: www.peterlilley.co.uk

ADVICE SURGERIESIf you have a problem or wish to share yourviews with me please write to me or visit oneof my regular advice surgeries that I hold allover the constituency. I cannot always find asolution but I always try and I am there tolisten and give an honest response.

■ If you would like to share your views, youcan write to me at the House of Commons,Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.

■ To arrange an appointment at one of myAdvice Surgeries, please contact GeraldineMitchell in my Constituency Office on01582 834344.

These are held on Friday afternoons invenues from Sandridge to West Mill, fromRedbourn to Wheathampstead and ofcourse, in central Hitchin and Harpenden.

Westminster Report

Peter LilleyMember of Parliament for Hitchin & Harpenden

Visit Peter’s website – www.peterlilley.co.uk

Welcoming plans for the largest new woodland inBritain to be planted north of Sandridge, PeterLilley said that as well as being a valuableenvironmental feature it would virtually guaranteethe local Green Belt against development.

The Woodland Trust is to create a huge woodland over845 acres. Its 640,000 trees may be planted by individu-als. It will provide a huge habitat for woodland species aswell as a visitor attraction for local nature lovers.

For more details or to support this project, please goto www.woodland-trust.org.uk

After Chairing the GlobalPoverty Commission last year,Peter Lilley is taking a leadingrole in planning a newcampaign to give all lowincome countries realopportunities to trade out ofpoverty.

The Real Trade Campaignhopes to achieve for trade policytowards developing countrieswhat Make Poverty History andDrop the Debt did for aid policyand debt relief by mobilisingpublic opinion across thedeveloped world.

The developing countrieswhich have been most successfulin growing out of poverty havedone so by trade. It’s a toughertask for the remaining poorest

countries to follow in theirfootsteps since they have tocompete with low wage China andIndia but have still to acquire thecritical industrial mass to becompetitive.

So it is vital to remove theobstacles they face. We are callingon the EU, USA, Japan and otherrich countries unilaterally to opentheir markets to all low incomecountries, to remove damagingrules of origin, to end exportsubsidies and to help the poorestcountries to build up the physicaland commercial infrastructurethey need to be able to export.

Anyone wanting more informationor to get involved should contactme at www.peterlilley.co.uk

HOUSEMEETINGS

Would you letthis man intoyour home?We are fortunate to have anMP who is keen to meet usmonth by month – not just atelection time.

Peter’s first promise when hebecame our MP was that if anyone would invite theirneighbours (of all political views) to meet him over acup of coffee, or a glass of wine, he would accept. Thatis how his now famous House Meetings started. Theyhave proved a great success.

“I really enjoyed it – I am new to the area so I got toknow neighbours I had never met before” said HelenFeetenby of Harpenden. “We all found it much easier totalk to our MP and each other in this relaxedatmosphere. So everyone joined in the discussion. Andwith Geraldine’s help it turned out far easier to organisethan I thought.”

If you would like to know more about hosting aHouse Meeting, or to be invited to one nearwhere you live, please contact GeraldineMitchell at my constituency office on 01582834344, by email on feedback@peterlilley.co.ukor tory-herts@btconnect.com

Peter Lilley MP: Your voice in Westminster

MP CALLS FOR REAL TRADEOPPORTUNITIES FOR POOR COUNTRIES

DELHI SCHOOL VISIT | Peter Lilleyvisited a slum school in Delhi as partof his work as Chairman of theGlobal Poverty Commission.

Young Visitors