The Hive Café at Chelmsford Museum has won a prestigious award from VisitEngland. The café is based in the original Drawing Room of Oaklands House, which houses Chelmsford City Council's museum, and was recognised by the national tourism agency with a Visitor Attraction Accolade for its Quality Food and Drink.

Cllr Stephen Robinson (council leader) and Cllr Rose Moore (cabinet member for greener & safer Chelmsford) have released a message in which they talk about booster vaccines, masks, and the exhaustion everyone is feeling at this stage of the pandemic. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLbCD4GnUxg

New accommodation for people who are homeless is now available in Chelmsford. Lib Dem-led Chelmsford City Council has worked with local charity CHESS Homeless so that they can increase their total of bedspaces from 32 to 66 (62 of these bedspaces are in Chelmsford).

Cllr. Stephen Robinson, Leader of Chelmsford City Council said, "The City Council is committed to preventing homelessness, supporting those who are homeless and working to end rough sleeping. We provide homeless households with housing and also support to permanently change their lives for the better. No-one needs to be sleeping rough in Chelmsford."

Chelmsford skateboarders can now enjoy the skate ramps at Central Park well into the evening with new floodlights.

The floodlights were funded by contributions that the Lib Dem-led City Council extracted from local developers and are programmed to turn on when it gets dark and turn off automatically at 10pm. One of the lights will stay on for 10 minutes longer to give skaters time to pack up and go home safely.

A blue plaque in honour of prolific Essex architect Charles Pertwee (1833-1905), has been unveiled at the Cemetery Lodge on Writtle Road by the Mayor of Chelmsford, Jude Deakin.

Charles Pertwee (born 1833), a local architect, was responsible for the design of Cemetery Lodge and the laying out of the cemetery, built between 1885-1886. In addition to this, he also designed many well-known buildings within the city, including several on New London Road; the Essex and Chelmsford Infirmary, Oaklands House, The White House and numbers 180-188, the Co-Operative building on Wells Street and part of the former National School on Moulsham Street. He was also well known for his non-conformist chapels across Essex, including Christ Church; Stock, and more.

New analysis from the cross-party East of England Local Government Association (EELGA) shows that Essex and the wider East region has missed out on key Government funding.

EELGA represents all 50 local authorities across the East and they wrote to HM Treasury prior to the Chancellor's Autumn Budget, outlining five key priorities for the region and making the case for further investment into the region's diverse communities.

Liberal Democrats have and always will support public health protections that work but the use of so called "vaccine passports'' provides a false sense of security.

The Government has lost sight of why they put forward these measures in the first place - to reduce transmission of the virus. The vaccines being given in the UK are highly effective at reducing the severity of Covid symptoms, the likelihood of admission to hospital and against the risk of death. But even those who are fully vaccinated can still spread the virus.

With Christmas just around the corner, there are lots of activities on offer over the festive season. Chelmsford City Council leisure centres and community activity leaders have been busy planning a programme of events which include the Yuletide Stride, festive ice-skating sessions and Christmas parties and sessions.