A very happy New Year to everyone, I hope you enjoyed time with family and friends over Christmas and that you are looking forward to 2012, our Olympic and Diamond Jubilee year.

I am delighted that at long last, the council’s Planning and Development Committee considered the plans for the regeneration of the town centre on 10 January.  This will be a key milestone in our efforts to secure the investment required from private investors. As I go around the town talking to people, I hear that you feel as strongly as I do that this refresh is long overdue and we want our town centre to be as vibrant and exciting as we remember it.  Once the plans are agreed, we will have an attractive scheme that is ready for developers as soon as the economic climate is favourable.

I know you will be as keen as I am to recycle our waste from Christmas; I have already brought my Christmas cards in for the recycling bin in the reception area of Daneshill House.  There are plenty of other places you can take them as you will see on the attached link http://www.stevenage.gov.uk/news-and-events/news/42960/ and you can also leave out your Christmas tree with your brown bin. 

If you want to keep your new year’s resolution to get fitter in 2012, Stevenage Leisure Ltd has a great new deal.  I’ve been over to the leisure centre this week to try out the running and cycling machines and was delighted to discover that you can use the gym, par 3 golf, swimming pool and racquet courts for an all inclusive price of £24.99 a month and with no contract to tie you in.

Many of you will have seen me in the early hours of 3 January greeting commuters at Stevenage Railway Station. They’re facing season ticket renewals of £244 this year - making the two year increase nearly £500.  People are already facing financial pressures because of increases in bills and inflation and many have had no pay increases for two years or more.  Rail services from Stevenage are still overcrowded, unreliable and the trains are not properly cleaned.  Our station is inaccessible, especially to those with mobility difficulties.  On top of all that, we already pay disproportionate fares to other places that are a similar distance from London.  So why should Stevenage commuters face such hefty increases?

The new train timetables saw the withdrawal of many of the Stevenage services to the North, including; York, Northallerton, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle.  These destinations had nearly twice the number of customers than Leeds in 2008/9. I have written a joint letter with the Transport portfolio holder at County Hall to East Coast asking them to revise their timetables and reinstate these services.

I would like to close this edition of my blog with a huge thank you to the Mayor of our twin town in Germany.  Dr Joachim Gerhard, who has been Mayor of Ingleheim for 12 years, stands down on 15 January.  He has been a great friend to Stevenage and in recent years a great supporter of our project to connect our young people with those in our German and French twin towns ‘Three Towns One Vision’.  He is succeeded as Mayor by Ralf Klaus and we wish Ralf every success as Mayor of Ingleheim.