The main political parties have picked the candidates they hope will be MP for Hertford and Stortford after the next General Election. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has indicated he expects to go to the country “in the second half” of this year. The latest date for a poll is January 28, 2025.
In the meantime, the Indie has invited the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green Party and Reform UK hopefuls to introduce themselves to our readers before the campaign proper begins. Over the coming months, with a column every two or three weeks, they will be trying to connect with the electorate.
Our brief to all five was “not to parrot your party’s national position, but take the opportunity to tell our readers – your voters – about your personal principles” and talk about local, national and international issues. We also included a caution not to ignore “the elephant in the room”, and to address controversies affecting their party openly and honestly.
Cllr Nick Cox, the Green Party candidate and a member of both East Herts district and Stanstead St Margarets parish councils, writes…
My primary campaign since being elected to our district council in May 2023 has been to try to prevent a major environmental disaster happening to East Hertfordshire’s rare chalk streams.
Thames Water continues to pump untreated sewage into our rivers plus we don’t have enough water for chalk stream regeneration and for the new housing that’s planned.
Guidance recommends that rivers should not exceed phosphate concentrations of 0.1mg per litre, but levels have hit 0.56 mg per litre in the River Stort at Spellbrook Weir, just downstream from Bishop’s Stortford.
These issues are causing significant harm to biodiversity and destroying irreplaceable habitats. It’s got to stop.
I’ve been campaigning for urgent intervention by Natural England to improve water quality in our district.
I’ve also challenged the Environment Agency – which has a statutory duty to ensure our water bodies achieve good ecological status – to protect the Lee Valley Ramsar Sites [wetlands designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention], Special Protection Areas and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, including the extremely vulnerable Hunsdon and Eastwick Meads between the River Stort and the Stort Navigation, by declaring our district severely short of water.
I’ve been encouraging East Herts Council to serve a statutory nuisance abatement notice on Thames Water.
I want to see a holistic implementation masterplan, including an integrated sustainable water system aimed at achieving water neutrality for new settlements.
A higher priority should be given to improving sewage treatment and separating non-biodegradable materials, like heavy metals, so that it can be returned to the land.
The practice of discharging into the environment sewage and waste that has not been fully treated must stop.
Our Government – and our current MP, Julie Marson – have failed to act. Marson has consistently voted against improving environmental water quality, saying ‘There is a lot of misinformation floating about’. Unfortunately, it’s not the only thing floating about.
If elected as MP for Hertford and Stortford, I will lobby to ensure that water and sewage services are nationalised and illegal dividends are recovered from shareholders and the company auditors.