2025 local elections: Focus on Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead is the second-largest town in Hertfordshire - only Watford has a bigger population.

The Hertfordshire county council elections on 1 May will see people across the county given the chance to elect 78 councillors.

The county has 10 district and borough councils, which are not holding elections this time. These authorities are run by Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and the Conservatives.

One of the more interesting towns is Hemel Hempstead. It has a Labour MP in David Taylor, but the Tories control the county council and the Lib Dems the district council.

What do people living there think about it and how it could be improved?

'The town is in need of a lot of love'

Bruce Ball says the town is great for pubs and friends and family, but needs a "lot of love"

Pole tester Bruce Ball lives in the Leverstock Green part of town, which he describes as "quite a nice area to live in".

He says Hemel is "great for pubs and friends and family" but that the town "is in need of a lot of love".

Mr Ball says he is puzzled as to why "a 'Dutch-style' roundabout is being built in Hemel as he "does not see many cyclists", and feels the "money could have been spent on other stuff that would benefit the town".

'Getting to A&E is murderous'

Janet and Gary Meacock like living in Hemel, but worry that it does not have a hospital

Janet and Gary Meacock say they like living in Hemel. Janet says it has "really good motorway connections and lots of nice green surrounding areas".

However, Gary highlights the fact that the town does not have a hospital with an accident and emergency department. The BBC recently reported that work on upgrading its general hospital had been delayed until 2032 at the earliest.

"Our nearest A&E is in Watford, which is right next to the football ground," he says.

If you need to use it on a match day "it is murderous to get there - absolutely terrible," he adds.

'Hemel needs more facilities for young people'

Nurse Ava Peart says enjoys taking her children to the riverside in Hemel, but says more facilities are needed for young people

Nurse Ava Peart says the best thing about Hemel is the riverside area, because she can "go for walks with my children or jog" there.

However, she says the town needs to provide more facilities for young people as she feels there is a lack of "somewhere the children can go and play".

She says she has seen "a lot of young people hanging around the streets with literally nothing to do."

She also says parking in the town is "too expensive" but adds there is "no way of getting around that".

Some facts about Hemel Hempstead

The Jellicoe Water Gardens in Hemel were restored, thanks to National Lottery funding and Dacorum Council

Hemel Hempstead is located just off junction eight of the M1 motorway and, in the 2021 census, had a population of 95,961. It has existed in one form or another for centuries, but was designated a new town at the end of World War Two.

It is famous for its Magic Roundabout, officially called the Plough Roundabout, where traffic from six routes meets at an interchange at the end of the town centre, and has a railway station on the West Coast mainline.

The Marlowes shopping centre was opened in the early 1990s

The Marlowes shopping centre opened in the early 1990s and was followed by the leisure complex at Jarman Park, which featured indoor crazy golf, climbing walls and an athletics track.

There is also an indoor snow centre located nearby, and Hemel has a football team in the National League South.

Its old town area featured extensively in Netflix TV show After Life, written, directed by and starring Ricky Gervais.

'The town is friendly and vibrant but needs some TLC'

Julie Bruvelis has great memories of living in Hemel in the 1980s and calls the town her "roots and home"

Julie Bruvelis, who is retired, says she has lived in Hemel for a long time and considers it her "roots and home" as all her family and friends live there.

She has great memories of living there in the 1980s, when she used to go to the Living Room nightclub, which she describes as "just the most amazing place".

She says she would have loved for her son, now in his 20s, to have been able to visit the club, but it has now closed.

She describes the town as "friendly and vibrant but needing some TLC" and says the loss of its demise of its Debenhams store was a "huge loss" to her personally.

'It's getting tougher to run a business'

George Phillips worries that rent and rates might put off people from opening a shop

George Phillips, who runs a convenience store in the Bennetts End area of the town, says he "absolutely loves" living in Hemel because of the community.

He describes work to redivert a chalk stream at Gadebridge Park to improve vegetation and habitats as "amazing" but jokes that he had to "remortgage to park" in the town on the day he spoke to the BBC.

He suggests a site for free parking could be created at the top of the town in an area he says is doing "absolutely nothing" at the moment.

As a business owner, he says, he worries that "rents and rates" would deter anyone from opening a shop, when "every online business can have a warehouse that can send anything to anywhere".

He says it is "definitely getting tougher" to run a business, but that his shop "holds its own" because it has "been there so long".

'The town centre has changed quite a lot'

Nicole White runs a charity shop in Hemel, but says Aylesbury has a better selection of shops at the moment

Nicole White runs a charity shop and has lived in Hemel for 30 years.

She says she has seen the town centre "change quite a lot", saying it has "lost quite a few major shops and there are some empty premises".

She adds that she travelled to Aylesbury recently and felt the selection of shops there was "really good" compared to what was on offer in her home town.

'This used to be a really lovely town'

Barry Merridan claims flats are being built without parking spaces

Barry Merridan, who was born in Hemel Hempstead, says it "used to be a really lovely town".

But he says its Pavilion theatre was never replaced after its demolition, despite promises it would be.

He says flats are being built without parking spaces, and that a friend of his who lived on top of a shop had "nowhere to park his car".

Mr Merridan adds that it is now costing his friend "£50 a month to park in a car park" instead.