Welcome to the latest edition of Rickmansworth This Week e-news. If you would like to receive this by email, please contact me at rwstruck@gmail.com to get your own regular delivery. Feedback on this newsletter is always welcomed.

Road works
Parts of Riverside Drive, London Road, Harefield Road & Church Street will be closed for resurfacing the roundabout for up to three nights, starting tonight, 7.30pm to 6.30am.

Development Control Committee
The Committee meets at 7.30pm Thursday 22nd May at Three Rivers House, open to the public.
Items of local interest include:

The Cottage, Homefield Road, Chorleywood WD3 5QJ
http://snipr.com/trdc0282
Erection of two pairs of two-storey semi-detached dwellings (4 houses) with detached garage.

38 Highfield Way, Rickmansworth WD3 7PR
http://snipr.com/trdc0666
Erection of detached timber framed triple garage with first floor storage and roof lights with access from track to north-west.

152 The Drive, Rickmansworth WD3 4DH
http://snipr.com/trdc0704
Demolition of existing dwelling and erection of two, two storey dwellings with basements, detached garage, new vehicular access and associated driveways and landscaping.

9 Park Close (opposite Batchworth Heath), Rickmansworth WD3 1QH
http://snipr.com/trdc0720
Demolition of existing dwelling and erection of two storey detached dwelling with basement level and room in roof and single storey detached triple garage.

Land to rear of Woodlands, Dell House, Barnstead Down, Old Chorleywood Road and rear of 137a The Drive
http://snipr.com/trdc0775
Removal of unofficial Builders Yard and erection of three detached dwellings with basement level, using existing access off Old Chorleywood Road and associated tree works and alterations to access.

Watersmeet
Tuesday 20th to Saturday 24th. 7.45pm (plus matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday only)
The Sorcerer. Gilbert & Sullivan opera performed by PHEOS Musical Players. Tickets £13 (concessions available). Further info from 01923-285882 or www.pheos.co.uk

Welcome to the latest edition of Rickmansworth This Week e-news. If you would like to receive this by email, please contact me at rwstruck@gmail.com to get your own regular delivery. Feedback on this newsletter is always welcomed.

Scores on the Doors

Ever wondered how clean your local pub or café’s kitchen is? I have been pushing for 6 or 7 years for the Council’s environmental health reports to be made publicly accessible on the website - and at last it has been done. (There were legal obstacles, apparently.) According to the Food Standards Agency, up to 5.5 million people in the UK are affected by food poisoning each year.

Pubs, restaurants and cafés range from excellent standards of hygiene (five stars) to poor (no stars). The new Scores on the Doors initiative provides a snapshot of how clean premises were at their last inspection by environmental health officers. We hope people will find it helpful when choosing where to eat out.

The ratings for sheltered housing, school and business canteens, supermarkets and other food shops are also available on-line.

The scores will protect the public and put added pressure on unhygienic venues to clean up their act. The Council has already taken court action against two food outlets this year. One local pub was fined £6,500 by the Court, reduced to reflect the early guilty pleas. The Council also recovered £3,700 in costs.

Development Control Committee - Thursday 20th March, 7.30pm Three Rivers House. Members of public welcome to attend.

Items of particular interest locally:

Diversion of Public Footpath between 165/167 High Street and 18/20 Ebury Road

This is the footpath (to be called Farr’s Alley) which was re-opened last year. The developer of the scheme at 18/20 Ebury Road is applying for a diversion to bring it into line with the approved plans - these plans are still on the council’s website http://snipr.com/trdc2209

2 Moneyhill Parade - Hambling’s Butchers shop http://snipr.com/trdc0109

Change of use from A1 (retail) to A5 (hot food take-away) for a pizza operation. The planning officers recommend approval. The agenda for the meeting lists 4 objections and 7 in support.

Old seats put to good use

Watersmeet has been fitted out with comfortable new seats. All the seats have folding arms and seats which flip up when people stand up creating more leg room and easy access to walk through the rows. The seats all have good sight lines and the auditorium now has an increased capacity of 515.

The old seats have been put to good use and are now being used by congregations at St. Mary’s Church and The Baptist Church, Rickmansworth.

Watersmeet Film Society

Wednesday 26 March at 2:00pm and 7:30pm The Last King of Scotland (15) 121 mins. Based on the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin’s regime as seen through the eyes of his personal physician.

Anyone know “Brain” or Brane”?

Crimestoppers, in conjunction with Three Rivers District Council, are offering a £100 reward to anyone who rings in with the name or names of who is responsible for the graffiti tag ‘Brain/Brane’ leading to their arrest and conviction. This graffiti has appeared over recent weeks in Rickmansworth and Croxley Green.

If the offender is a friend of yours, help prevent them getting into more serious trouble as the Council will attempt to recover the costs of removing this criminal damage from the perpetrator. The cost of removing similar damage recently caused by one individual came to more than £250,000!

If anyone knows the person or persons responsible for this unlawful damage, they can ring 0800 555 111 to claim the reward.

Welcome to the latest edition of Rickmansworth This Week e-news.If you would like to receive this by email, please contact me at rwstruck@gmail.com to get your own regular delivery. Feedback on this newsletter is always welcomed.

Reducing Packaging
Thank you for the feedback on last week’s item - most of you were very supportive of this idea. I should have mentioned that the Council meeting is open to the public (of course), and that you may register to speak in the debate, either “for” or “against” the proposition. All speakers (including councillors) will be limited to 3 minutes. The debate is on the agenda near the beginning of the meeting, which starts at 7.30pm tomorrow (Tues 11th Dec) in Three Rivers House.
Meanwhile, Three Rivers continues to score well in the recycling league tables compiled by Defra. Thanks to the effort of local residents, Three Rivers is 19th amongst collecting authorities for the percentage of waste that is recycled - and top amongst those councils that still carry out weekly collections.

William Penn Swimming Pool
Significant progress has been made in recent weeks. The pool is due to be “test filled” before Christmas, to test for any signs of leakage.

Aquadrome Grant
Three Rivers Council has been awarded a grant of £70,000 under the “Aggregates Levy”, which is administered by Defra. The money comes as the result of a bid to carry out improvements at the Aquadrome.
Staff Sickness
Three Rivers has one of the best performances in Herts for the level of staff sickness. An average of 7 days was lost per employee at TRDC in 2006/07, compared with 11 in neighbouring Watford and Dacorum.