The next train ...

Broxbourne commuters on the West Anglia rail route will benefit from 120 new carriages and possibly some of the new £7.5bn 'Super Express trains' by 2015 or earlier, by 2012, advised the Secretary of State for Transport, Geoff Hoon when challenged.

The Cambridge to London Liverpool street route, passes through Audley End, Newport, Elsenham, Stansted Airport, Stansted Mountfitchet, Sawbridgeworth, Harlow, Roydon, Broxbourne, Cheshunt and Waltham Cross.

Charles Walker MP shares the line with Mr. Prisk and advises that "in the morning it is hell in Broxbourne, beyond hell in Cheshunt and simply miserable for commuters as they go into Edmonton and Enfield into London. I am delighted that there is to be new rolling stock."

Mr Walker and Mr Hoon have meetings set-up in order to progress the implementation.

100 Years of Scouting

One thousand one hundred children celebrating beside a lake, flanked by banks of woodland is a breathtaking sight.

Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers, Network and Leaders led by Frances Johnson, District Commissioner, East Herts District Scouts shared today's delights of Broxbourne's Birthday Lunch by the Lake at Tolmers Scout Camp & Activity Centre.

Lifestyles have changed radically since Baden Powell started the Scout movement in 1907 and Bear Grylls, Chief Scout will maintain the self discipline, respect for others and love of the outdoors whilst recruiting http://www.beargrylls.com/scout_association.html new talent to take the Scout movement forward - come on, boys and girls, dyb dob!!

Lowewood Museum is hosting an exhibition, a fascinating collection of photographs, artefacts and memorabilia from local scouting groups on Saturday, 4th July to mark the centenary.

You are warmly welcomed to attend. http://www.lowewood.com/exhibitions/scouts-centenary-exhibition

Tomorrow's World

Instantaneous news thesedays provides viewers, readers and listeners with blow by blow accounts of events around the world in real time.

Newspapers are now available online too, although a loyal readership purchase thousands of hard copies each day of several Titles: The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, News of the World, The Times Literary Supplement, Page3.Com, thelondonpaper - all produced and distributed at News International http://www.newsinternational.co.uk/ Park Plaza, Cheshunt.

News International - part of http://www.newscorp.com/ - welcomed students from Hertford Regional College who wrote in a thank you letter to me 'we were pretty bowled over' by the magnitude of the site and all that it achieves on a daily basis.

Robots collect and dispose of the refuse, efficiently and quietly - skillfully avoiding obstacles and expensive machinery, not least, people. Now there is a thought for residential refuse collections!

Bringing together businesses and young people is so important, not to fill the bucket but to light the fire given the likely budget* cuts of £55-£65bn from 2010, thanks to Labour.

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*But in fact much the largest cuts announced in the Budget have had almost no publicity at all. Look at paragraph 2.81, p35 of 2009 Budget http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/Budget2009/bud09_completereport_2520.pdf

This states: This Budget puts the public finances on a path to achieve a cyclically-adjusted current balance in 2017-18. The cyclically-adjusted current deficit falls from 6.7 per cent in 2009-10 to 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2013-14, an average improvement of over 0.8 per cent a year... A further adjustment of 0.8 per cent of GDP a year from 2014-15 would eliminate the deficit on the cyclically-adjusted current budget by 2017-18. What this says is that from 2014-5 to 2017-18, the 2009 Budget schedules fiscal tightening (tax rises or spending cuts) of 3.2% of GDP, that is to say, a little under £50bn. Because this is about addressing a structural deficit, it won’t be corrected by the economy returning to healthy growth – this 3.2% is the deficit even when the economy is growing well.

Get a LIFE

The Mayor of Broxbourne, Cllr Mrs Lynn White, Cty Cllrs Dave Hewitt, Terry Price and Chris Mitchell applauded graudates of LIFE as they strode onto the parade ground: standing proud in their personal protection equipment as their parents looked on.

Roy Wilsher, Chief Fire Officer, Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service inspected the graduates of the Fire & Rescue Service's Local Intervention Fire Education programme at Cheshunt Fire Station.

Graduates then swiftly responded to commands and carried out impressive team tasks without a moment's hesitiation, putting out a house and a car fire in six minutes flat.

Management and maintenance of a fire engine, firefighting equipment and the fire station is a huge responsibility likewise workshops on fire safety, first aid and the consequences of making hoax calls and starting fires deliberately.

LIFE graduates had adopted a new set of values in one week, it was plain to see their co-operation, confidence and good communication skills.

Left behind them a history of offending or anti-social behaviour.

Let's hear it for our Cheshunt Fire Station Brigade and the LIFE graduates !!

Hugely well done !!

Twitchers' Twittering? Truly!

Nature has a way of healing, like no other.

Encountering Cheshunt's* 428.17 acres SSSI - just 14 miles from Charing Cross - is sublime: 'Northmetpit', is not perhaps the most endearing name, however, twitchers, ramblers, fishermen, boatmen, naturalists and leisure-seekers are drawn, in droves, to Cheshunt North's hidden oases that are Lee Valley Country Park's lakes.

Damselflies, dragonflies and orchids - it even feels good to write those words having experienced the blessings of a stroll alongside the lakes and River Lee in the sunshine.

Time stood still whilst a bargeman entered Lock No 47. 'Grace' is his retirement home - a stately longboat, his castle in Cestrehunt.

*Cestrehunt was a settlement on Ermine Street, the main Roman Road leading north from London. Up until 2004, Cheshunt was home to the famous Temple Bar, moved from London at the turn of the 19th Century, but the gateway was re-installed in London at Paternoster Square on the north side of St Paul's Cathedral.

Telling: Broxbourne is Blue

St Clements Church sits in an alluring setting, nestled by Lee Valley's lakes and trees and a Church School: wonderful venue for a Polling Station too.

The chill wind betrayed the sunshine's efforts to keep us warm, however, voters streamed in throughout the day to vote in the Local and Euro Elections.

Our Local Candidate, Cty Cllr Dave Hewitt arrived on his round to feed and water the Tellers. 'Coffee, tea, milk, sugar, chocolate bar?' he enquired. The coffee and chocolate treat surprise provided a powerful punch likewise his successful campaign organised like a military operation thanks to his leadership of Cheshunt Central Division, comprising Cheshunt North and Cheshunt Central which is a little confusing. Perhaps Cheshunt Central Ward should be named Cheshunt South?

Telling also provided me with the opportunity to observe life on Cheshunt Wash - a pastime I had never before considered - where, unusually, breaking news consumed the day ahead of the Conservatives holding all six Local Seats.

Road accidents and a serious motorway incident logjammed the roads whilst a Police helicopter circled and hovvered the sites within a few miles' radius of St Clements Church.

The Refuse Vehicle arrived to collect the rubbish closeby and provided news soundbites to a biker whose motorbike they had admired - they congratulated him on weaving through the traffic, a pleasure that had eluded them.

Immediately afterwards, the Fire Service arrived to rescue a young lad from a tall tree where his friends had gathered looking skyward, offering words of comfort.

Still the voters streamed into the Polling Station, greeted by birdsong and a purring cat.

My thoughts wandered to recording social history as Hertfordshire's Mobile Library edged out of the turning opposite the church into the traffic.

One family of a mother, father, son and daughter proudly walked together towards me, quickly followed by a grandmother and her grand-daughter, age and Downs Syndrome are no obstacle to voting.

One young schoolgirl asked me 'what are you doing?'. I explained in simple terms. She replied 'you have a spider on your shoe'. She then added 'can children vote?'... ... ...

As a mother and a toddler arrived - he pushing a buggy with Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Po and Tinky Winky snuggled together - quickly followed by elderly couples observed by two teenagers on a two-seater tricycle, yes, a two-seater tricycle.

Post 9-5pm dogwalkers, sprinted towards us. Wagging tails, panting and friendly barks and that is just the owners!

Working parents, working singles and young people filled the evening in several flurries of queueing lines, preferring not to take up postal or proxy votes.

Dusk had drawn down. The Count had began.