Essex County Council has finally agreed to a full review of the notorious Army & Navy roundabout. Last week, in a dramatic about face, they closed the flyover indefinitely, after Chelmsford Liberal Democrats published a video showing that the structure was more damaged than the Council had admitted. One of the support columns appears to have moved, since the flyover was closed in August. Watch the video here.

Essex County Council has been asked about plans to tackle the problem of loneliness across the County. Lib Dem Councillor David Kendall (Brentwood South) asked the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care what new initiatives are planned.

Reply from Leader of the Council

'People of all ages are impacted by loneliness and isolation, but this is particularly evident in older people, young parents and people with mental health issues or with disabilities. Social isolation has been shown to impact more on risk of death than AN8 blood pressure, being overweight or moderate smoking. As such I fully recognise the absolute need to address this and the new Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy strongly advocates for this.

More and more care homes are closing down nationwide and in Essex, leaving frail residents and their families worried about their future home. Councillor Mike Mackrory (Leader of the Lib Dem Opposition at Essex County Council) asked the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care what contingency plans are in place to accommodate displaced residents from the care homes which are being closed.

Essex County Council has been challenged to ensure that careless motorists - not taxpayers - should pay for repairs when they damage Essex CC equipment.

Cllr Mike Mackrory (Leader of the Lib Dem Opposition at Essex CC) asked the Cabinet Member for Highways about the council's policy for recovering costs of damage to highway items caused by road traffic collisions.

Chelmsford residents showed their unhappiness with the Government's Brexit plans, in a poll in the High Street on Saturday. Chelmsford Lib Dems were out and about asking residents for their views. Many signed up to the Lib Dem campaign for the public to have final say on the Brexit deal, not a Westminster stitch-up.

The Local Government Association has released a 'Green Paper' on Adult Social Care. We need urgent action to save the services caring for older and disabled people from collapse.

Cllr Mike Mackrory, Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition at Essex County Council, welcomed the Green Paper. He said, "This nationwide consultation must kick-start a desperately-needed debate on how to pay for adult social care. These services are at breaking point, following years of cuts by councils and rising demand and rising costs for care and support."

A Brentwood councillor has questioned the state of the pavement on the town's High Street and believes the failure to maintain it is causing a serious trip hazard.

Liberal Democrat David Kendall, who sits on Essex Country Council for Brentwood South and Brentwood Borough Council for Pilgrims Hatch, has called on Essex Highways to solve the problem.

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of former Braintree and Witham, local party Chair, Gill Collings. Gill died suddenly at home on Sunday the 12th of August 2018.

Gill joined the party after her retirement. She brought with her invaluable organisational skills and quickly earned herself the affectionate title of 'Clerical Queen'. She was an indispensable part of Sir Bob Russell's 2015 and 2017 election campaigns, chaired the Stanway Parish Council and acted as regional secretary for some years.

The Liberal Democrats have pressed Essex County Council to ensure that the Council and residents are ready to deal with the impact on Essex of leaving the EU. The council has been slow to act.

Cllr John Baker (Lib Dem Councillor in eastern Colchester) asked at full council in July 2017 that main committees should have an item on their Agenda. This was agreed by the Conservative spokesperson. However, this did not happen, so Cllr Baker he chased it again.

It would appear that Essex Police are now involved in the ongoing saga of the 'temporary' traffic lights on the bridge accessing the A12 Southbound from Witham.

Commuters have had to suffer this for the last two years with ongoing failures of the lights meaning they get locked on red or turn red despite no traffic in the opposite direction. This realist in long queues and a two minute drive taking anything up to fifteen minutes.

Previous strategies used by frustrated drivers (turning the lights round) have been thwarted by the installation of CCTV but sadly Highways East did not see fit to actually fix the problem. Local Liberal Democrat campaigner, Helen Waring has taken regularly to Twitter to vent her frustration - once being assured that she would receive a response 'within 14 days' only to still be waiting over 2 months later. The Witham and Braintree Times have dedicated news inches to the problem and in the last week a Highways England van has been seen regularly on the bridge raising drivers' hopes of a solution. But sadly this Tuesday proved this was not the case as queues extended even further than normal. Twitter has informed us that Highways England are 'running a couple of logs' and 'awaiting further info from Essex Police'. All suitable fluffy with no certain end to commuter misery.