I’ve just finished my first seven months as Mayor. It is such a honour to have been elected to this position. I know that residents have put their trust in me to make Watford an even better place.

Since being elected, I’ve helped more than 1,000 local residents with their problems. I’ve also visited hundreds of our wonderful local community groups and it’s been a real privilege to see the work that they do for our town on a daily basis. Every day I have met people quietly getting on with improving our town.

As you have seen in this week’s newspaper, there’s been much discussion about development in the town and Watford’s transport infrastructure. I’m really excited to finally see some progress in improving Watford Junction station, due to start next year. People often complain to me about the difficulties of using the station and at the moment it has a poor entrance to the town for the 9 million people who pass through it every year. These changes should help regenerate the area, provide better facilities for passengers and make the area easier to access.

Read more: Watford Junction - the future

With unprecedented pressure from central government to provide more homes, we need more projects like this to improve our infrastructure in our town. That’s why I’ll be working next year to deliver a new cycle hire scheme for Watford, as well as a new on demand bus service. I want to see these schemes up and running by the end of next year. These will help people get round our town, encourage people out of their cars and help make sure our infrastructure keeps up with our growth.

However, we won’t just be delivering better public transport in 2019. We will also be investing in new play facilities and cafe for Oxhey Park and working on plans for Woodside Playing Fields. We will be building much needed new council houses for local families in our town that really need them the most and Watford will become an even more dementia friendly town.

I’ve really enjoyed my first few months as Mayor. My number one priority in 2019 will be making Watford an even better place to live, work or visit.

  • Peter Taylor is Elected Mayor of Watford