Councillor Martin Frearson, Liberal Democrat , St Albans South

My front-line role

I am the Liberal Democrat County Councillor for St Albans South division.  The ‘Your Community’ section provides local service information, news, events, and contacts about the area.

St Albans South consists of the Verulam and Sopwell District Wards, and extends from St Albans city centre at the Peahen junction to the A414 North Orbital Road (M10 as was) and west to the Hemel Hempstead Road. It includes St Albans cathedral, Verulamium Park, St Michael’s village, the Verulam estate, Sopwell, and the Cottonmill estate. The northern boundary runs along Verulam Road, then follows Blue House Hill. St Michael’s and St Stephen’s and St Bartholemew’s churches are within the division, as are St Michael’s, Abbey, Prae Wood, St Peter’s, St Adrian’s, Mandeville, Watling View and Marlborough county schools.
 
I represent the interests of around 10,000 residents of these communities and work closely with the six St Albans District council members for Verulam and Sopwell wards, as well as the many residents’ associations and similar groups such as the St Albans Civic Society.

Until May 2011 I had been a Liberal Democrat St Albans District councillor in Verulam for a total of 16 years since 1982, and had specialised in planning and licensing responsibilities for most of that time. For example from 1996-99 I was chairman of the Planning and Heritage committee and from 2006 – 2011 chaired the St Albans central area planning committee, when I became an Honorary Alderman of St Albans, which means I participate in civic events across the municipal calendar.

As is the case with every County Councillor, I have a locality budget of £10,000 a year to spend on community projects in the division.  Follow the links for more details of the scheme  and details of applications  I have previously agreed and declined.

My County Council responsibilities

I was elected to the County Council in June 2010 after the previous Lib Dem councillor died. Currently I am on the Education and Skills, Environment, Economy, & Community Safety Cabinet Panels and the Health Scrutiny Committee.  I previously sat on the Adult Care & Health, Children’s Services and Corporate Parenting, and Waste Management Cabinet Panels, so although only a county councillor for a short period of time I have gained experience of a wide range of county-level activities and responsibilities.

I continue to maintain my interest in planning as a regular substitute on the County Development Control Committee, which largely concerns itself with school developments and waste disposal sites such as the Barnfield incinerator proposal, now proceeding towards planning consent in Hatfield. I am also a county representative on the St Albans Disrtrict Joint Highways Panel, previously serving as a district member for many years.

Roles on outside bodies

I have been on various school governing bodies in my time in public life, over 21 years now at Marlborough School, St Albans College of Further Education (now part of Oaklands College) and currently at St Albans Girls School as an academy governor where I started in 1997. Last year I received a gold award for my services to governing in Hertfordshire totalling 20 years. I also represented St Albans district on the Herts Buildings Preservation Trust for many years, and the Hertfordshire chapter of the Council for the Protection of Rural England.

Personal, professional and political details

I first came to Hertfordshire as a lecturer in organic chemistry at the then Hatfield Polytechnic in 1969. I am a chartered chemist, member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and still teach chemistry to students in the School of Pharmacy as a visiting university lecturer.  As far as I know I am the longest continuously serving member of the UH teaching staff, having started lecturing HNC chemistry in September 1969 while the university was still the Hatfield College of Technology (it was designated a Polytechic in January 1970).

Previously I took my first degree in chemistry at the University of Cambridge in 1963, and my PhD in 1966 at the University Chemistry Laboratory under Lord Alexander Todd. I was in the USA in both Los Angeles and New England doing post-doc research from 1966-8, and at the Dyson Perrins Laboratory at Oxford University for a further year from 1968-9. I was a pharmaceutical chemist specialising in mass spectrometric analysis, as well as a chemical educationalist.

I have been married since 1967 to Sue and we have two children, Sonya and David, born 1975 and 1979 respectively and two grandchildren. Sonya and David attended schools in St Albans, Abbey JMI, STAGS, and St Albans School, where Sue taught Biology for over 20 years. We have lived in Verulam on the Verulam estate since 1976.

I first joined the Liberal Party in 1957 while in the 6th form of the local grammar school in Accrington, Lancs, where I was born and grew up. It was a State Scholarship which took me from there to Cambridge and my career as a chemist, and where I met Sue, a Cambridge local girl, when I was a research student. I have always been a Liberal and now Liberal Democrat party member and activist, and have campaigned for the party in every general election since 1959.

Now semi-retired my wife and I are active in environmental and conservation work and projects both in St Albans and more widely in Hertfordshire with the Herts Countryside Management Service and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds at their Rye Meads, Hoddesdon, reserve, and the Ver Valley Society. We are the core of the Netherway Green Friends action group and active in the Verulam Residents Association and the Friends of Verulamium Park.

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