Parking rage boils at public meeting

Two of the regular frustrations of life in Berkhamsted collided on Thursday night and almost brought a public meeting to a standstill.

One is Dacorum Borough Council’s treatment of Berkhamsted electors. If not cavalier disregard, then at least a certain carelessness characterises the borough’s dealings with the town. And DBC has a hand in the second of the night’s frustrations: the chronic absence of a coordinated plan for Berkhamsted’s growth.

The occasion for the row was a last-minute ‘consultation’ at the Civic Centre over plans for a multi-storey carpark on Lower Kings Road. Advance publicity for the meeting was hopelessly inadequate; and the topics open for debate seemed limited at this late stage to design and management details – the case for a three-storey 331-space structure on the site behind Waitrose appeared to be settled, although more by assertion than by empirical study.