About Chris White

Lib Dem County Councillor for St Albans Central & District Councillor for St Albans City and District

Chris White was born in 1959 in Coventry and lived at various times in Hereford, Doncaster, Pinner, Brussels, Northwood and Westminster. He moved with his wife to St Albans in 1985. He now has two children, both at a local secondary school.

Chris was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he read Literae Humaniores (Classics) and took an upper second.

Professional details

Chris qualified as a chartered accountant in 1984 and worked subsequently in accountancy training, much of it self-employed. He has also done consultancy work for the IDeA.

Political history

Chris was attracted to the Liberal Party as a result of the 1974 General Elections where he felt that the discrepancy between votes cast and outcomes was so vast that the electoral system needed reform. He remains of that view.

He was a relatively active Liberal at University but concentrated on the narrower field of his Junior Common Room, of which he was President in 1980. He joined the SDP in 1981. He was first a district council candidate in St Albans in 1986 and 1987 but turned to parliamentary elections in 1990. In 1992 he turned in a good second place in Hertford and Stortford. He stood in Hitchin and Harpenden in 1997.

In 1999 he was on the East of England list for the European elections and again in 2004 (where he was placed second).

Chris was elected to Hertfordshire County Council in 1993 and became leader of his group in 1994. In 1995 he was part of a joint Administration with Labour, taking the formal title of Deputy Leader of the Council in 1997. The Administration ended in 1999. Chris retired as Group Leader in 2003 but remained the Group Environment Spokesperson (and Chair of the Environment Scrutiny Committee) until May 2005.

Chris was a member of the Hertfordshire Police Authority from 1996-2003 and chaired its Audit Committee.

In 1997 he was instrumental in forming the East of England Liberal Democrat Group on the East of England Local Government Conference and thence the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA). He was been Group Leader and Deputy Chair of the Regional Assembly ever since. He introduced the process of all councillor voting for the Liberal Democrat places on Regional Assembly bodies. He was Chair of EERA's Europe Panel until 2004 and now represents EERA on Nations and Regions East.

Chris has also been increasingly active in the Local Government Association, chairing the Management Executive (2003-2004) and then the newly formed Regeneration Board (2004-2006). He now chairs the Culture, Tourism and Sport Board and is ex officio a member of the Local Government Association Executive. He is also a member of the Nations and Regions Group of London 2012.

He has held various party offices at ward, constituency and regional level.

Current position

Chris resumed the leadership of the Herts County Council Liberal Democrat Group in 2005 and was re-elected group leader on the East of England Regional Assembly in July 2005.

Chris continues his work at the LGA and was appointed as an Audit Commissioner on 1 June 2005.

Additional current roles include:

• Member of the St Albans Joint Member Panel for Hertfordshire Highways

• Member of the Strategic Planning and Partnerships Panel, HCC

• Chair of the Campaigns Committee of the East of England Liberal Democrats

• Member of the Federal Executive of the Liberal Democrats

Current issues and concerns:

• Saving Fleetville Library from closure

• Preventing the countryside around St Albans being swamped by thousands of extra houses.

• Seeking to return public transport to the public sector - deregulation of buses has been an extraordinary failure.

• Justice for commuters using St Albans City Station - who are being charged too much for a reduced service.

• Seeking to ensure that education remains part of the democratically elected system of governance rather than drifting off into quangoland.

• Working with the County Council to ensure that Herts Highways becomes more responsive to local needs especially on issues of safety.

Chris's interests include:

• The obvious: political history and biography, the Classics and economic development

• The less obvious: music, the kitchen but certainly not gardening

• Chris is a member of English Heritage, Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth. Chris is a reader in his local (Catholic) church.