As we go into 2018, I’m looking forward to what will be a year of change and progress for Watford. As you go round our town, it’s impossible not to see the growth happening all around you. This includes the extension of the intu centre, which should be completed later this year and will bring jobs to the town. Starting this year as well is the Wellstones development, which make our High Street more pedestrian friendly and will help change the look and feel of the town centre.

However, all of this progress does come with challenges, and that is why we can’t have growth without improved infrastructure. We’re hoping to find out imminently whether the Met Line Extension will finally come to Watford, which, if Sadiq Khan supports it, will help connect our town with central London.

Watford must also still be a town that everyone can afford to live in. That’s not always easy, particularly when central government has taken away powers from councils that allowed us to force developers to include more affordable homes in their proposals. However, with schemes like the Riverwell development and the new homes in St Albans Road that have just been approved, we are still making sure that we are getting genuinely affordable homes for struggling families in Watford.

This is my last New Year as elected Mayor of Watford after 16 years in office. It has been an amazing privilege to have done it for all this time. My political resolution, if I were to make one, would be to be replaced by a Liberal Democrat Mayor who I hope will be able to bring a new energy and dynamism to the role. We may not have got everything right, and I have sometimes had to make very difficult decisions. However, as I always say, it’s better to be Mayor of a town which is moving forwards than one that is heading backwards.