Former councillor from Kings Langley passes away aged 84

Janet Anderson passed away aged 84 on March 17, and was remembered by son Alan Anderson – a current councillor in Dacorum – as a woman who dedicated her life to public service.

Mrs Anderson represented the Kings Langley division, including Bovingdon, Chipperfield and Flaunden, on Herts County Council from 1996 to 2003.

She worked extremely hard to win the by-election caused by the death of her husband Dr Iain Anderson in 1996.

Cllr Alan Anderson said of his mother: “Not many people spearhead major petitions whilst campaigning for a county election at the same time.

“It is a measure of the effort she put into things that she managed to hold onto the seat at that time, and prevent the development of Bovingdon Airfield.

“My mother then spent seven years really throwing her heart and soul into the role as a local campaigner, when others might have ‘wheeled and dealed’.

“She fought particularly hard on behalf of village parents trying to get their children into the villages school at Kings Langley, rather than schools in the middle of Hemel Hempstead.”

During her life, Janet also acted as governor for Kings Langley School, and was a Brownie pack leader when she first moved to the area in the 1960s.

She was one of the first chairmen of the Hertfordshire Waste Panel, which was a County Council committee setup specifically to tackle what to do with the burgeoning refuse problem and to maximise recycling.

Amongst other campaigns as a councillor, Janet worked to defend residents against the re-use of a chalk quarry in Flaunden as a refuse tip, and the introduction of a concrete crusher in Bovingdon.

Janet’s funeral will take place at St Johns in Boxmoor – where she volunteered for a while in the 1990s – at 12.30pm on April 11.