Hemel Hempstead Live is an independent news and information site for Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and the Dacorum district. We read the public record and publish what is in it, and we keep the everyday information accurate.
The three towns
Hemel Hempstead is much the largest, a new town designated after the war and built around the old town at its northern end, with the Grand Union Canal and the Gade running through. Berkhamsted and Tring are older and smaller, strung along the same canal and the same railway line towards the Chilterns, and both have kept their own character and their own arguments about growth. The villages around them, from Bovingdon to Wigginton, belong to whichever of the three they shop in.
Who is responsible for what
Dacorum Borough Council: planning, bins, licensing, car parks, housing. Hertfordshire County Council: roads, schools, social care. We name the right one in every story and link to its own record, because complaints sent to the wrong authority go nowhere.
What we work from
The borough’s planning register and committee papers, licensing notices, police.uk crime data, HM Land Registry sold prices, Food Standards Agency hygiene ratings, Environment Agency flood warnings for the Gade and the Bulbourne, and company filings in The Gazette. Where a record is unclear we say it is unclear rather than guessing at what was meant.
Reorganisation in 2028
Hertfordshire’s district and borough councils, Dacorum among them, are due to be abolished in April 2028 and replaced by a smaller number of unitary authorities. That will change who answers for planning, bins and council tax here. We will report each stage from the published documents and keep the reference pages pointing at whoever is actually responsible on the day you read them.
Tips and corrections
Email hello@hemelhempsteadlive.co.uk with a tip, an event worth listing, or a correction. Tips are treated in confidence, and corrections are made quickly and noted on the page.
Hemel Hempstead Live is published by Future Business Media.