50 Years of East Herts District Council
It’s 50 years since East Herts District Council came into being which saw the end of Hertford Borough Council after hundreds of years. Factual information about its demise can be obtained from the internet or Hertfordshire County Archives, but more interesting is what really happened behind the scenes.
In the early 1970’s the Edward Heath government instituted local government reform across the country which saw the merging of smaller councils into much larger units. Hertford Borough and Hertford Rural joined Ware Urban and Rural Districts with Bishops Stortford, Sawbridgeworth and Braughing Rural District Councils to form a council serving over 120,000 inhabitants and covering approximately 120,000 acres.
You might guess the reactions of the newly elected councillors to their new authority, bearing in mind that they were from different towns, villages and rural communities and from different political parties and independents. DISTRUST!
If you look back at the late 60’s early 70’s you will have seen lots of development taking place throughout the country. New offices, swimming pools, leisure centres and land purchases by authorities about to be disbanded and hurriedly spending reserves rather than hand money over to the new bigger councils. Hertford and the councils of eastern Hertfordshire were no different. The old Castle Cinema site was identified as suitable for a new venue which became Castle Hall (then Hertford Theatre, now Beam). The matter of a shortfall in funding was left to the new council. Bishops Stortford bought hundreds of acres of land in Thorley using borrowed funds. Just two examples, though there were many more.
I was a young Hertford Borough councillor first elected in 1970. These were worrying times. The established council decided that Hertford needed massive redevelopment, demolishing the whole of the centre of the town, listed buildings and all, and erecting a shopping mall with offices above and car parking above that. Shopping malls were all the rage, Hoddesdon built one, the Tower Centre, about this time which has proved problematical ever since. A very large number of Hertford residents opposed this destruction and Hertford Civic Society was born – but that’s another story. I, a bit of a nuisance to the council, ran for election to the new authority and as an opponent to the scheme and was elected. Most of my Conservative colleagues, the architects of the Hertford central area redevelopment, were not.
So in 1973 the disparate elected representatives of the new council met. There was no controlling group or party so compromise and deals were the only way forward and the word I used earlier was obvious – distrust!
In my next post I’ll tell you of how the deals were done, or more often not done, and the problems of picking a name for the new council.
John Sartin served as a Hertford Borough then East Herts District Councillor in Hertford for 25 years, until 1995. He was Leader of East Herts District Council for the last 9 years of this period, but here he reflects on the early days of the Council.
Many thanks to John Sartin for sharing his memories of Hertford.
