Bircherley Green car park is set for a major refurbishment from Monday 23rd January.

The 190-spaces at the car park, which serves Waitrose and other stores in the pedestrianised precinct, will be reduced to 80 during the £600,000 works.

The restrictions are likely to last until Easter and more of the spaces will be made available to Blue Badge users to ensure shoppers who most need to be close to the shops can continue to use it. More spaces will be opened up for general use as the works progress.

East Herts Council has been in consultation and discussions with Waitrose and the management company of Bircherley Green shopping centre to timetable the car park refurbishment.

Mike Carver, Executive Member with responsibility for parking, said: "We have to carry out this work and, while the easiest thing would have been to close it completely, we're doing all we can to keep the car park open to allow some use.

"This inevitably means the work period will take longer but the finished result will be a lighter and brighter car park which can continue to serve the town centre for many years to come."

The nearest alternative car parks are Gascoyne Way multi-storey and Hartham car parks.

Parts of Mill Road and Railway Street will close from Sunday for overnight resurfacing work.

The closures will affect the length of Mill Road between Ware Road and Hertford East where it passes Tesco; and Railway Street between Villiers Street in the east and South Street in the West.

Alternatives routes will be provided.

Story updated to show work starting on Sunday, not Monday.

Hertford Town Council has frozen it's budget for the third year in a row.

The council's precept for 2012-13 will be £1,059,555, the same as the last and previous years.

Unlike District and County Councils, Town Councils are not required by the Government to freeze their portion of the Council Tax. In contrast to the larger councils, Town Councils do not receive any financial contribution to their running from the Government, so must raise their funding locally.

Chairman of the Finance, Policy and Administration Committee, Cllr Chantal Geall, said: "Good management of our finances has been a priority issue for Hertford Town Council, enabling us to freeze the Council Tax for the second year running. Our budget is a sensible one, maintaining good levels of reserves whilst spending money on services and initiatives to meet the needs of our town and its residents.

Projects and services to benefit from funding for the coming financial year will include a range of projects to improve the town's cemetery in North Road, support for the town centre, including continuation of the Town Development Fund and ongoing funding of the 62 hanging baskets.

The Town Council's popular events programme at Hertford Castle will be maintained, as well as continued support of the very popular allotments at six sites in Hertford, Hertingfordbury, and Bengeo.

The owner of a listed building is facing prosecution if planning officers are given the go-ahead by councillors.

Late last year, the owner of 31 Fore Street installed a dormer window in the roof of the building, removing the many of the original timbers. Despite having conditional planning permission and listed building consent, the removal of the timbers had not been authorised and the installed window is larger than approved.

Planning officers are seeking prosecution as the roof cannot be return to it's original condition and therefore an enforecement notice would not be appropriate.

Hertford's former library could become offices and a design studio if plans by an Enfield company are approved.

Documents submitted to the District Council state: "The planned use of the building is very much in keeping with it's original use as an artists' studio and our designers can benefit from the fantastric quality of light provided in particular on the first floor".

The company is currently based in Enfield but two of it's directors live in Hertford.

There are no plans to alter the interior of the buiilding or change the existing access.

After over ten years in the planning, Hertford's new library opened today.

The new library is accessed from Maidenhead Street and features a children's area, larger stock and more public computers. The floorspace however is the same as the old library.

A formal opening ceremony will be led by Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey on Thursday 19th January.

BT wholesale arm Openreach have submitted a series of planning applications for fibre-optic cabinets in preparation for the launch of BT Infinity at the end of March.

The new service will allows broadband download speeds of up to 40Mb through the use of fibre-optic cables from the local exchange to the street cabinets.

The planned units are larger than the conventional green boxes, being 1.4m tall (4'7").

Locations include Warren Park Road, Old Cross, Highfield Road, Castle Street, Priory Street, Market Place and Ware Road.

Work has started on improvements to Hertford's Tesco supermarket in Ware Road.

The store's toilets are current being redeveloped whilst in the coming week's there'll be overhauls for the delicatessen, bakery, fruit & veg and health& beauty.

The existing customer service desk will be relocated to provide space for a coffee area.

Other improvements include resurfacing and relining of the car park and well as landscaping improvements.

Work is expected to be complete by 27th February

Police are appealing for witnesses and information after a hairdresser was burgled at the weekend.

Fringe Benefits in Market Street was broekn in to some time between 6.30pm Friday evening (6th) and 7.45am Saturday morning (7th). The offende(s) forced their way through the roof of the premises and stole products and cash. It is believed the offender(s) put the items in a black bin liner, also taken from the salon.

PC Charlie Phipps investigating said: "The town centre is very busy on a Friday night and the shop is close to the pubs and the taxi ranks and I am confident someone will have seen something which could prove vital as part of this investigation. “I would appeal to anyone who was in the town centre between the times the crime is believed to have been committed and saw anyone acting suspiciously or anyone seen with a bin liner to contact police. I would also like to hear from anyone who has been offered similar items for sale in suspicious circumstances.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact PC Phipps via the Herts Police via non-emergency number 101 or 01992 533617 quoting crime reference number A1/12/57.

A new operator will be running rail services at Hertford East from next month.

Dutch rail company Abellio will taking over the Greater Anglia rail franchise from 5th February. The initial franchise is for 29 months.

Abellio are the international arm of Nederlandse Spoorwegen, the Dutch national railway operator.

www.greateranglia.co.uk