Families to pay cost of fixing graves

COUNCIL chiefs have decided not to foot the bill to fix unsafe memorial headstones whose owners cannot be traced.
Nearly 1,000 headstones remain unfixed and these will be temporarily supported while further attempts are made to contact the families.
  Dacorum Borough Council's cabinet decided not to follow recommendations that £49,000 of taxpayers' cash be spent repairing the stones permanently.
The issue has arisen as a result of incidents in parts of the country where people have been killed or injured by unstable gravestones.
As a result the council, which could be held liable for such accidents, has been ‘topple testing' all the stones in its cemeteries.
The council tested 5,752 stones at Woodwells, Kingshill, Tring and Health Lane, and of these 1,633 failed.
Those failing the tests have been temporarily supported with stakes until permanent work takes place.
Many plot owners have carried out this work or have signalled an intention to do so.
However, 874 owners cannot be traced, so a council committee had recommended the work be carried out and the costs recouped later.
But at a meeting of the cabinet, council leader Andrew Williams said he was not prepared to spend taxpayers' money doing this.
“We will continue temporary staking for a period of 12 months and send those who are not responding letters sent by recorded delivery,” he said.
Community safety and public protection chief Nick Tiley said: “I think this whole scenario has been blown out of proportion.
“The average gravestone doesn't cause a catastrophe.”
The council is urging plot owners to make sure their contact details are up to date.

Pupils say farewell to popular trio

THREE staff at a Tring school who have been working there for more than 80 years between them have retired.
Grove Road Primary School said goodbye to three long standing staff members on Friday, July 21.
Jenny Skidmore who joined the school in 1973 is taking early retirement after a battle with cancer.
Deputy head teacher Fiona Masters said: "Jenny remembers coming to the interview for the job because she had passed her driving test the day before. She came to the interview in a mini-skirt and her mum said she wouldn't get a job in a skirt that short!"
Mrs Skidmore, 57, who often played the piano for pupils at the school, was
presented with a parting gift cheque which she plans to spend buying antiques.
Retiring teacher Andrea Allen joined the school in 1985 and was given a leaving gift of a sundial and a fountain pen.
Carol Davey, 62, joined the school in 1976 and worked in the school's office.
She has fond memories of book days at the school and during her time has dressed up as popular characters Noddy and Bob the Builder for the fun days.
Mrs Davey said: "It has been great being part of a team. It feels like being part of a big family here."
She was also presented with a sundial.”
Pupils at Grove Road Primary School have also been raising cash for charity. Youngsters have been buying reusable water bottles to fill up and keep them cool during the sweltering heat.
Each bottle costs £2 and half of that goes to help give homes and education to orphaned children in Africa through Berkhamsted based charity, the Faith Works Trust.

The summer recess arrives with a flurry of fundraisers and fond farewells School's out for summer

Mixed feelings for head

POPULAR Tring School head teacher Julia Trueman said cheers to staff and students during her farewell garden party.
Miss Trueman will leave the school after a decade of hard work at the end of the summer.
The early leaving party on Saturday, July 15, was organised by staff and governors at the school in Mortimer Hill.
The head teacher announced she was to leave the school earlier this year and is looking forward to more free time at her home in Ivinghoe.
But she admits leaving the school after such a long time is hard. She said: “It's very strange. I have mixed feelings but I know it is the right time to go. There will be so many things I will miss and it has been a wonderful, wonderful job.”
Miss Trueman will still be working within education using her teaching experience to give advice to other schools in Hertfordshire. She will be working with eight schools in the county.
Bedfordshire head teacher Julia Wynd will take over
at Tring School from September.

No more stalling as bypass safety work finally begins

Drivers wait one year for A41 improvements

WORK to make A41 slip roads safer have finally begun, a year after highways bosses first called for action.
Herts County Council engineers are installing anti-skid surfaces on slip roads from Kings Langley to Berkhamsted and upgrading warning signs in a bid to slash accidents.
In July 2005 a special safety action plan report by the county council recommended the changes after a three-year study of accident hotspots along the bypass.
During the study from April 2000 to March 2003, 93 accidents were recorded, of which 29 were serious or fatal. The short slip roads have been blamed for many  smashes over the years because they do not allow cars to speed up enough to join the bypass, or slow down sufficiently when leaving the A41.
The angle of the slip roads can also make it difficult for motorists to spot other cars when joining the carriageway.
Works to the slip roads are being done during off-peak times and are expected to take another two weeks.
It is costing Herts County Council £277,000.
The anti-skid surface that will be laid on the slip roads is made from calcium bauxite, a material that is very resistant to wear and gives good grip when braking, accelerating or taking bends in a car.
A Herts County Council spokesman said: “It is more resistant material than normal tarmac, so if you need to brake suddenly you won't skid.”
He added: “The works are responding to the specific accident history on the junctions.”
The county council hopes to reduce accidents by 40 per cent on the stretch of the A41 between Hemel Hempstead and Tring over a three year period.
Longer term solutions like lengthening the slip roads, which would mean purchasing privately owned land and installing speed cameras, are still being considered.
Since opening in 1993 the stretch of the A41 has claimed 12 lives, the last was a Berkhamsted nurse in March 2005. She crashed with another motorist when joining the bypass at Berkhamsted, heading towards Hemel Hempstead.

One of top lakes to view wildlife

TRING reservoirs have been named one of the top ten places in Britain to see watery wildlife according to a British Waterways guide.
The new guide - Go Wild - British Waterways' Top Ten Places to Spot Wildlife - highlights ten areas across the  2,200 mile network of canals and rivers that combine wildlife with the beauty and tranquillity of a historic waterway.
Hannah Groves, ecologist for British Waterways South East, said: “Tring Reservoirs offers a truly wild encounter with some of our best loved wildlife. During the summer you're likely to see young herons joining their parents on fishing trips to the water's edge. This is also the best time to spot dragonflies and damselflies hovering around the edges of the canal or orange tip butterflies along the hedgerows.”
The four man-made lakes that make up the Tring Reservoirs are a designated site of specific scientific interest that attracts birds on their spring and autumn migratory paths.

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