Three Rivers Voices

Welcome to Three Rivers Voices, stories of life in Three Rivers over the last 50 years or so.

In a programme shared between Three Rivers District Council and Three Rivers Museum, we'll collect and present the experiences of local people involved in life round here. This is Fabian Hiscock of Three Rivers Museum, as we start in July 2026 with an imminent change of Prime Minister, the World Cup and national and international pressures of all sorts. But let's explore our own area and our own people.

KM: I'm Keith Martin, Chairman of Three Rivers District Council.

I'm an elected councillor. Just for context, one of the councillors is chairman each year and this year for the municipal year, 26-27, it's me. Three Rivers District Council, along with many other district and county councils, will be abolished. We're not sure of the date yet. It looks as though it's going to be April 2028. So in the meantime... We set up a project called Three Rivers Voices to record the voices of the people of Three Rivers, be they local businesses, school children, whatever. We don't have any type of boundaries on the people we want to record. We want to get the thoughts of everybody we can within the community and we will keep those with Three Rivers Museum so that people can access them in future. So we're putting together as many of those as we can. For the sake of context, it's 23rd of June, 2026. In the news today, the biggest item is that Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, resigned yesterday and we think that Andy Burnham will replace him. We have a heatwave. We don't normally have heatwaves in June and schools have, for the first time, as far as I'm aware, been given the option not to open because of the heat because it's dangerous to the children. And we are currently in the World Cup group stage. England are playing Ghana tonight. It's the second of their three group games. and we really hope they'll win.

Today I am interviewing Chris Lloyd, who is a councillor for Three Rivers District Council.

Chris, would you like to say something about yourself?

CL: Yeah, I was born in Watford in 1957, but I actually lived in Three Rivers. My father came to the area in the 1930s. But then during the war, he was in the RAF. And in 1940, both my parents got out of France. So if I ever have a bad day, I think, well, my parents got through the war and survived. So I'm glad to be here. I went to Rickmansworth School.

I got interested in local history when I was doing a Scout project. And I was looking. at the building just outside, Basing House and seeing that William Penn had lived here so i was a member of the local history society from about year nine as you call it now it was the third year of secondary school and I used to take my dad along and say, “You'll be young compared to the rest of the audience.” So and then from there I went to Bristol University where I studied chemistry and environmental chemistry. I had a year as student union treasurer. I met my wife there. We lived in Bristol when we first got married. And we came back to Croxley Green because I was a councillor in my early 20s.

And when I went, there were daytime meetings of North Avon District Council. And I used to cycle 10 miles each way to get to meetings. But when I said, “Do you give time off?” (because I worked at Rolls-Royce at the time) and they said “No”, and no jobs. Materialized, so we came back and we were nearer both lots of parents which was great bringing our children up - they went to local schools. As our parents got older it was great to be on hand to support them, and I worked in the IT industry. I worked for Rolls-Royce in Bristol, for Hitachi and then in the telecommunications industry with T-mobile, with EE and finally with BT. But now I would say I'm involved in the community that I live in.

KM: Thank you. And when did you first become a Three Rivers District Councillor and why?

CL: The main motivation in 1991 was I wanted to get us doing doorstep recycling and we were the first council in Hertfordshire to do that. It was quite a challenge, because I then got on a project which based me in San Francisco. And back in those days, you didn't have emails. So I'd ring my wife up and there would have been several phone calls. And I had to say, “well, I need to do this and that…”. Because if I was away for a month, it actually made being a councillor quite challenging. Whereas when I worked in Germany, I could do my emails. I could do absolutely everything the same as if I was at home. So I couldn't have done my role as a councillor without the support of my wife.

KM: There are 13 wards in Three Rivers. Can you tell us about the one you represent? Yeah, it's the one I represent currently. Currently, there are 39 councillors with three councillors in each ward. When I first stood in Croxley, instead of the two wards with three councillors in each, Durrants and Dickinson, we had Croxley Green Ward, which is what I represented. It was Croxley North, which had two councillors, and Croxley South. So, as I say, there were 48 councillors in those days. Durrants Ward is basically from roughly the New Road all the way across to Little Green Lane at sort of high level.

But I'm interested in supporting people, not just in Croxley. Someone thought I was their councillor in Abbots Langley, so I'm currently helping them on some educational issues. So I will ... will help and support anyone who contacts me.

KM: Do you have any specific roles or responsibilities outside of being a ward counsellor?

CL: Yeah, I've been lead member for leisure for more than a decade. I'm passionate about getting people of all ages physically active, you know, whatever it is, whether it's bowls, tennis, paddle, pickleball, badminton. running, walking. As a council, we put on a lot of activities in the summer for people of all ages. And I think it's really important to get people out walking and running in our community. We've got so much green space and I hope the government doesn't build over all of it because actually, as COVID showed, green space is really, really important for people's health and mental wellbeing. It was amazing to see whole families out walking. out with a friend recently and we said, isn't it such a shame that people have stopped doing that? And she was commenting on the fact that some people take the lift one floor at work in Watford General Hospital. In my view, if you're working in a building, you should walk up those stairs. That exercise is really, really important to you. You know, walk rather than take the car. But yeah, I'm really pleased to live in Three Rivers. I'm pleased that we have Watersmeet and The Arts. It's been such a privilege to be a lead member for Leisure. And during COVID, that included health, which when I was doing a full-time job was really quite challenging because it was weekly briefings. We really didn't know what was happening. I can remember Fabian interviewing me and it'd be quite interesting to listen to it. After COVID, he said, captured lots of people's different views of what COVID was like. He was capturing history just like you are today with this project that you're doing with the museum. It's really exciting. I won't be here in 100 years' time to listen and see what people make of what we've been saying, but I hope it just gives them an insight because in the old days, people would have written letters and people don't write letters in the same way and capture. So if we can... share what it was like to live in Three Rivers over the last 50 years. And people can use that as a resource in schools and just see what were the key things for us.

KM: Yeah, thank you. That's exactly what we're trying to do is to record the experiences of being in Three Rivers. And I think you're the longest serving councillor.

CL: Well, there is nobody else on the council who was here in 1991. Yeah, 35 years. I don't count the years. I mean, I was a councillor, as I say, in North Avon for a while and then came back home. But yeah, no, I care about the community I live in.

KM: And in that 35 years, what's been the biggest change in being a councillor from 1991 to today?

CL: I would even go back to the 1980s. I would say the planning powers have changed significantly. But within the last 12 months, the latest changes on planning, I think we really need to get across to the public to realise that if somebody puts in an application for over 150 houses, the government can call it in if we turn it down. So for the first time in over 40 years, I am no longer on the planning committee because I'm not going to rubber stamp things that I don't believe are the right thing. for our community. It's really important to keep Greenbelt.

We, you know, we have three chalk streams. That's why Water's Meet is, you know, the Chess, the Colne and the Gade, all meet here. That is why we're called Three Rivers. We've really got to respect and be passionate about it.

KM: But things that have changed?

CL: Well, one of the things that I changed was the whole process of secondary transfer. I went to meet six parents and 60 parents turned up. Three years later, having met government ministers, been on TV, worked with local headteachers, worked with the county council, we actually got a coordinated system of admissions, which meant that every child in March would be offered a place, as opposed to one child having six places and some having none. Then we also campaigned for more school places. So I would say that's important. What else have I done? I would say starting Park Runs and being stopped by people in the street to say, That is really, really positive.

That's something that's free. It's something that you don't have to run at. You can walk. So I will be walking with some friends at a park run this Saturday. I would say that is a huge, not just physical health, but mental health benefit for our community, having Park Runs in South Oxhey, in Leavesden and in Rickmansworth.

KM: What do you think the best thing is about living in Three Rivers?

FH: For me, I just like getting out into the countryside. So I went, you know, I go running. I like to go running with other people. But we have the Grand Union Canal. So I've walked that from London to Birmingham. We have footpaths. We're in the edge of the Chilterns. You know, if you go to Sarratt, it's absolutely beautiful. We've got history, you know, the only British pope. I lived in Abbots Langley. We have William Penn. The house that I lived in in the first year of my life is the Dowager Dutchess’s Place, connected to Moor Park Mansion. And that's another interesting story. I should have been called Simon, but the people who lived there, there was a guy called Alan Whitney, and he was, I think, one of the last chairs of Rickmansworth Urban District Council. And because he was a teacher at the same school as my father and they just called their son Simon, that's why I'm called Christopher Simon. So, you know, I have that link to politics going back to when I was born: my name got changed. But I'm grateful that I'm a Christopher and a Simon.

KM: But an ultimate question: if you could change one thing about Three Rivers for the benefit of residents, what would it be?

CL: I'd like to see, and this is something which doesn't cost money and can continue beyond three years. I'd like to see people more physically active, whatever their age is, because I think as they then get older, they'll enjoy old age more if they can get out and about. So I would encourage people to consider walking or cycling rather than taking their car and thinking about other people in the community. I think it's really important to take care of our neighbours. So I will need to contact one of my neighbours. Because I know a project that's close to your heart. So one of our neighbours has recently lost his wife to sepsis. So that's somebody I need to go and see how we can support. So I think it's important that people support their neighbours.

KM: Very true. That's the charity. UK Sepsis Trust is the charity as chair that I'm raising money for this year. Chris, apart from being a district councillor, you obviously do other things. Would you like to speak about some of those?

CL: Yep, certainly. I'm a County Councillor. So that's one of the tiers of local government which will disappear along with the 10 districts and boroughs in Hertfordshire. So I'm the county councillor. I am deputy for health, deputy of the health scrutiny committee. I'm on the education committee, the development control committee. And the biggest amount of money - people might think it's education, they might think it's roads - it's actually adult social care. And we have got to look after and care for our older people.

I've been a school governor since 1990 at Little Green Junior School. Chairman of governors probably for more than 20 years. Both my parents were teachers locally. I'm passionate about... that every child should be able to read and that we are creating lifelong learners. I know that your wife worked in education for many years and I'm sure has similar views that education is really, really important. And to engage, to get people learning because we sometimes need to think how we can do that. I also do a little bit of running. So this year I set myself a fresh challenge and I ran... four marathons in 29 days: London, Milton Keynes, Leeds and Edinburgh, raising money for the Hertfordshire Community Foundation, which supports not just charities in Three Rivers, but as the name says on the tin, charities throughout Hertfordshire. And I had the opportunity to be interviewed on local radio, BBC Three Counties. There's also an independent radio station run totally by volunteers - I hadn't heard of it before - Mix, I think it's 92.6. And all of these interviews were sort of over the phone. I didn't actually get into a studio. So it would have been quite interesting to see where they were working. But, you know, they were supportive.

And then next year, I'm planning to walk the whole of the London Underground for the Linda Jackson Cancer Centre. And I've recently been involved in meetings where eventually the Cancer Centre at Mount Vernon hopefully will move to Watford, where it will be next to a newly built hospital in Watford, but I think we'll need to keep pressure on whoever the Prime Minister is to ensure that that happens.

KM: Last question, and this is, you've got to think of people who aren't watching a video here, talk about your t-shirts.

CL: Right, okay, so I will be doing the Moor Park 10k in September. It raises money for the Cancer Centre at Mount Vernon. This will be my 20th year of doing it. I missed it one year, because I had been walking the whole of the London Underground, overground, for the Linda Jackson Centre at Mount Vernon, and I got injured on the very last line doing the Jubilee line, so I thought I shouldn't run. But one year, the Abbots Langley Tough 10 was on the same day, so I did both of them, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. We're doing the same again this year. I'll be doing Shardlow's 10k, Moor Park 10k and we've kids races. So if you've got children or grandchildren, one of the best bits is that your vice chair, Reena Ranger, is always there volunteering, shouting and encouraging us as we're running around. And it's just the different people you meet when you're doing it. It's not just doing the run.

KM: I can imagine Reena shouting and encouraging. Yep, she's very good. Chris Lloyd, thank you very much.

CL: Thank you, Keith Martin.