East of England Liberal Democrats

Councillors and residents have been horrified to learn that First Capital Connect intends to fell many of the trees alongside the car park on Ridgmont Road.

A letter was dropped to a small number of residents - but by no means all those who would be affected. Councillors were not consulted or informed.

St Albans police station is to become a half empty office block under plans sneaked out by the Police Commissioner just after the elections. There will be no front desk so if you need to hand in a document or speak to someone face to face, you'll have to drive to Hemel Hempstead.

Deputy Leader of the St Albans Liberal Democrat Group, Chris White said: 'There was a plan to get rid of large police stations and get the police closer to residents in shop fronts in various parts of the district.

Following internal elections, the Liberal Democrat Group on St Albans Council have a new leadership team.

Anthony Rowlands (Ashley Ward) is the new Group Leader with Chris White (Clarence Ward) as Deputy Leader. With 19 Councillors, the Lib Dems are the main opposition group.

Speaking after his election, Anthony said: 'I am honoured to have been elected Group Leader. This month's County Council elections demonstrated the continuing strength of the Lib Dem vote in St Albans. With elections to the District Council in 2014, the opportunity to remove the Harpenden dominated Tory administration cannot come too soon.'

On the proposal of Andrew DUFF (Lib Dem, UK), ALDE coordinator in the Constitutional Affairs Committee, the European Parliament called on the European Council to reject a request to amend the Treaty of Lisbon which would weaken the force and limit the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the CzechRepublic. With a vote of 574 to 82, MEPs for the first time used their right not to support an amendment of the EU treaties.

Contrary to reports in the Brentwood Gazette that our MP Eric Pickles has "forced a U-Turn" over the purchase of the Friars Avenue Car Park, Brentwood Council's senior legal officer has confirmed that "nothing has been agreed or signed".

This week's Brentwood Gazette said:

"BOSSES at Crossrail have come to an agreement with Brentwood Borough Council over controversial plans to occupy one of its car parks in Shenfield."

We have submitted a planning application for our brand new bus station for Bedford, and these are the first images illustrating how the planned development will look. Bedford has been let down badly by the bus station for many, many years, and that's why we are making sure that after so many false dawns and dashed hopes, a brand new bus station and improved environment in that area are being delivered for our town.

In August 2012, Lib Dem Mayor Dave Hodgson accepted a grant of £655,000 from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, following a successful bid by Bedford Borough Council.

The first major scheme to benefit from this funding is the lighting of the cycle route from Priory Country Park to Aspects, on National Cycle Network Route 51. This means that a route which was previously very dark and unwelcoming at night, is now well-lit and allows this path to be used all year round (see picture).

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have named their front-line team for the coming year including several new faces.

Maurice Leeke takes over from Kilian Bourke as leader with Lucy Nethsingha continuing as deputy leader.

Newcomer Ed Cearns, who takes his seat on Cambridgeshire County Council for Cambridge's Market ward following the recent elections, will be spokesperson for Localism, Climate Change and Social Justice.