Plans for an ambitious project that will pedestrianise and reshape Tindal Square (at the top of the High Street) were signed off by Chelmsford City Councillors at the recent Cabinet meeting.
The redesign, proposed jointly by the Chelmsford City and Essex County Councils, will see the pedestrianised High Street extended all the way to the doors of Shire Hall, restoring the Georgian-era layout of the city centre. The historic square will feature seating, new trees and be available as a space for public performances.
In collaboration with the Liberal Democrat European Group, the Federal Policy Committee are organising regional events giving members a chance to shape our policy on Europe. We want to hear your thoughts on what our priority areas should be, what solutions you might have to problems raised and how we can continue to promote a close relationship with Europe.
The autumn party conferences traditionally mark the start of the new political season. They are a time to reflect on the past year and set out plans to succeed in the coming year.
Both politics and coronavirus have made it a tough time since the last round of conferences. But we can look forward to this new political season with confidence that if we continue to raise our game, we can prosper. We've seen signs of that already, including with Sarah Green's fantastic win in Chesham and Amersham and also with the latest net favourability leadership polling from Savanta ComRes:
The Federal Conference Committee recently met to discuss the Conference format for 2022.
We considered a number of options for next year's conferences and took the difficult decision to hold Spring Conference as an online conference and only returning to an in-person event for Autumn Conference. The dates of Spring Conference will be 11-13 March 2022 and we will announce the dates and venue for Autumn Conference in due course.
On Monday 18th of October the Board will hosting a surgery for all Party members.
This is an open invitation to everyone, whether you have a burning question for us, would just like to get to know the Board a bit better, or have an issue you'd like to raise. We are all ears.
The session will run from 18:00-19:00, please feel free to drop in and out as best fits your day, and you can register here.
As seats begin to elect new Parliamentary election candidates, now's the time to get your stationary stocked up.
After requests from a number of new candidates, we've worked with Election Workshop to put together a fantastic deal to ensure your candidate has a well stocked supply of letterheads for responding to casework.
Accommodation to stop ex-offenders from living on the streets when they are released from prison has been secured for Chelmsford. The Lib Dem-led City Council and two other agencies working in Chelmsford have secured £100,000 for this work.
Prisoners who are released without homes to go to after serving their time can end up sleeping in public places, spiralling quickly into difficulties and - in some cases - falling back into offending.
This Autumn, we say goodbye to Isabelle Parasram, our Vice President responsible for working with ethnic minority communities.
Isabelle has been a tremendous advocate, leader and example in the Party and she will be greatly missed. We wish her all the best in her new role as Chief Executive of Social Value UK, which has led to her making the difficult decision to step back from the demands of the Vice Presidential role.
The Federal Communications and Elections Committee met this week to discuss some key challenges and opportunities ahead for the Pary.
Campaign innovation
The Campaign Innovation Fund team, supported by ALDC and others, presented to us on the results of a set of experiments conducted to test what does, and doesn't, help us win campaigns.
