Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats are celebrating International Women's Day, and many local groups and organisations have been marking the occasion.

The Women of Bedford group has had a busy schedule of events in the lead-up to the event. They are campaigning and fundraising for the installation of a statue of Amy Walmsley, which would be Bedford's first, long overdue, statue of a woman. You can read more about how they brought Amy Walmsley to life in a collaboration with The Place Theatre for International Women's Day in the Bedford Independent, here. Meanwhile, you can read more about Women of Bedford and their campaigns on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BedfordWomen.

At a meeting of Bedford Borough Council's Environment Committee the Government has been slammed for 'hoarding speed camera fines in Whitehall' rather than returning them to the local area for further road safety measures. The comments from Liberal Democrat Environment Committee Spokesperson Cllr Tim Hill came during discussion of the average speed cameras programme in Bedford Borough, which was the first area in the country to install the technology on local roads when Mayor Dave Hodgson introduced it in 2012.

This year we honour the women who are paving the way for future generations.

We celebrate Kamala Harris: the first female, first Black and first Asian-American Vice President of the USA. We celebrate Zara Mohammed who just became the first woman to be Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain. We celebrate Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman and the first African person to head the World Trade Organisation, and we celebrate Prof Sarah Gilbert, the lead professor behind the Oxford coronavirus vaccine.