Chelmsford has nearly 300 homeless families and at least 20 rough sleepers. Yet the Minister responsible doesn't know why.

Heather Wheeler MP says she does not believe welfare reform and council cuts are factors.

Read more here https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/mar/18/homelessness-minister-heather-wheeler-rough-sleeping-housing-first

Former Chelmsford Mayor Felicity Sturt passed away at her home on Saturday 2nd March 2019. Felicity was 85 years young and dedicated to the local community.

A major local innovation was when she and her husband Ronald produced the local Talking Newspaper for the partially sighted.

Chelmsford's Lib Dem Leader Cllr. Stephen Robinson commented, "We were all sad to hear this news. I followed Felicity some years later as a councillor for the Patching Hall ward that she used to represent. Felicity always kept us on our toes on local issues long after she left the council, especially related to her interests in libraries, arts and culture. She was always so kind and encouraging as well."

A motion to protect all 74 Essex libraries was voted down at today's Extraordinary Full County Council Meeting, the first in 25 years. That means Conservative proposals to close 25 libraries and possibly 19 more remain on the table.

The debate was preceded by well-researched and thought-provoking questions, which were asked by residents from a packed public gallery.

Essex has lost nearly 100 GPs (from 930 to 820) over the last three years and many of those have gone part-time, meaning even less availability. There is an even larger shortage of Occupational Therapists (35% of all OT jobs in Essex are vacant), and all other NHS staff types have around 15% of the jobs vacant.

An Extraordinary full meeting of Essex County Council will be held on 12th March at 10am to debate the future of Essex Libraries. The Lib Dems on Essex County Council have worked with the two other opposition groups to secure this meeting.

This follows widespread opposition to the threat of closure or downgrading of the county's 74 Libraries.

At peak times, the roads in most of our towns are almost completely full. So, more parking capacity would not really help - the roads to get there are full. Also, land in the centre of towns is in short supply and very expensive. So, more car parking there is unlikely.

However, we could provide more parking on the edges of the urban areas and provide Park & Ride buses into the central areas. The site at Sandon, to the east of Chelmsford, has proved very successful and other areas might benefit from similar services.

We are aware that parking is becoming more of a problem across the whole of Chelmsford and in particular in our area.Residents reinforced this to us on a recent visit to Longacre.

With the usual difficulties at the start and end of the school day, we now find that commuter parking is also becoming an issue. Since other roads close by will soon be part of the residents parking permit scheme, commuters and business vehicles are moving this way for free parking.

Some of the potholes in north Chelmsford that Stephen reported as needing action are scheduled to be fixed.

In particular, in Peggotty Close and nearby Oliver Way; in Queensland Crescent; in Wicklow Avenue, and on the Patching Hall Lane roundabout.