Demolition is continuing to take place at the Buncefield oil depot in Hemel Hempstead after many offices and business units were destroyed in last month's explosion.  | | People look on as the smoke billows. |
Efforts are also being made to restore confidence to the town's industry, and the Conservative leader of Dacorum Borough Council, Andrew Williams, told us how the clean up operation is going and how they are trying to give assurances that the town is a safe location for business. How is the clean up operation getting on? Andrew: It's obviously in its initial stages and the estate is looking a little bit tidier but there is obviously quite significant demolition and reconstruction for the business community to carry out. But I think it's very important to emphasise that for the 400 businesses, the vast majority are trading as normal, but for the roads most severely affected I think it's going to be some time before those businesses will be back and trading in Hemel
Hempstead. How can you restore confidence for businesses and their customers? Andrew: We need to encourage businesses to return to Hemel Hempstead and be confident that they will be safe to continue trading in that location. It's about encouraging companies back into Hemel Hempstead. Obviously we have been enquiring and looking at the incident at the depot and we need to build that into any plans for the people who feel confident that trading in Hemel Hempstead near to the depot is a safe thing to do. What can the Council do? Andrew: We've already had a vision for Maylands Avenue to improve the image and market the size of and the location for business such as its links to the motorway and London and all of the other aspects that modern businesses look for.  | | The huge plume of smoke |
We're holding a meeting early in February for businesses to push forward that vision. But obviously this recent incident means that the amount of redevelopment and regeneration required is much greater than before but we will work with the business community to continue to market the area as a very good location. What are you doing to help the residents back on their feet - how much money have you dished out from the mayor's fund? Andrew: I'm not sure how many individual payments have been made from the fund. I think the fund has got off to a very good start and has been able to make payments to the community in the short term to get over the hardships that have been faced by the
situation, such as the loss of Christmas presents or other short term problems that people have faced with cash flow. It has made quite a number of payments that have significantly helped those families affected. After the shock of the blast in the first few days, is there a danger that unless somebody keeps putting this on the agenda, people will very quickly forget what actually happened in Hemel and forget that it needs some assistance to get back on track? Andrew: Yes - I think that's one of the key things that can happen with these sorts of incidents. There's a big influx of media attention for a few days as the initial problem is on going but once it has gone it tends to be a bit of a back burner issue. But we will not allow that to happen, we want to keep raising the profile. We have contact with the Deputy Prime Minister's Office, we have contact with the East of England Development Agency and other regional bodies so we keep pushing forward
the need for the Hemel Hempstead situation not to be forgotten and that the investment for regeneration that we need continues to flow, not just over the coming weeks and months, but over the coming years in order to recover from the situation. Has anybody actually given any concrete assistance? Andrew: Oh yes - the East of England Development Agency have given support and assistance to businesses who have had to relocate, helping them to find new premises and we've given Business Rate relief and Council Tax relief to affected properties. We're hoping to get some support from the Deputy Prime Minister's Office in terms of the costs involved to support business and maybe look for some sort of regeneration process whether it's business rate discount or relocation packages. We have indications and some money has been brought forward to give short term assistance. We now need to work to ensure we have a long term package in place to assist companies who want to remain in Hemel Hempstead and also to encourage people to relocate to Hemel. | 
