A future fair
for all with Labour

Or change for the worse with the Tories

Sure Start

Labour's Sure Start scheme is so good that Tory councillor Jane Pitman issued a press notice last year, celebrating its success in Hertfordshire.

Advice and support for parents and carers of children between 0 and 5, offered by the Sure Start centres, aim to give all children the chance of a good start in life.

But Tory plans will cut the number of children's centres, so that the one near you may go under a Tory Government.

Labour will increase the number of centres from the present 3,000 to 3,500.

Local Government Structure

Hertfordshire has a tiered local government system - the County Council and local District or Borough Councils. There are also either town or parish councils covering most of the area of each District Council.

Hertfordshire County Council

Hertfordshire County Council is controlled by the Conservatives, who regained power in 2001 from a Labour-led alliance with the Liberal Democrats. In the North East Hertfordshire constituency, we lost one of our two county council seats in 2005 and the second in 2009.

Policies for the Labour Group on the Council are set by the County Labour Party, to which representatives are sent from all the consituency parties in the county. The County Party also organizes the selection of candidates for the County Council election which is held every four years. The next election will be in 2013.

North Hertfordshire District Council

Most of the constituency is in the area of the North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC). The Letchworth Town, Baldock and District and Royston and District branches are all in the NHDC area.

The council is controlled by the Conservatives, who gained control from Labour in 1999. There are three Labour councillors representing wards within the constituency - Letchworth Wilbury , Letchworth Grange  and Letchworth East  - and five other Labour councillors from wards outside the constituency. For contact details of our three councillors, click on Councillors.

There is a North Hertfordshire District Labour Party, with representatives from the relevant constituency parties.

Elections in North Hertfordshire are on a rolling basis, with elections every year, except the year of the County Council elections.  One-third of the councillors are up for election each time. However, there were ward boundary changes in 2007 and, as a result, all the seats were up for election in May 2007.

East Hertfordshire District Council

The wards covered by the East Hertfordshire Rural branch are in the area of the East Hertfordshire District Council.

The council is Tory controlled. Until 2003, the number of Labour councillors on the council since its formation had varied between one and eight. However, since the 2003 election there have been no Labour councillors.

There is an East Hertfordshire District Labour Party, with representatives from all the branches in East Hertfordshire.

There are elections every four years for all the seats on the council. The next election is in May 2011.