Many Meetings

This week has been so busy with many meetings sometimes several in one day.  However, amongst the most important ones was the County Council meeting on Tuesday where a whole raft of items were up for discussion.  Liberal Democrats had put foward a motion on the East West Rail link calling for the County to push the government to ensure the project is included in the next High Level Output Specification to be published in 2013.  This is the government's blueprint for investment in rail services across the UK.  We are keen to ensure that this important public transport corridor is part of the nation's transport planning for the future, and it will be of enormous economic benefit to our area.  Read more about it here.

Wednesday and Thursday I attended several briefings from officers on all the latest developments in childrens services, environmental and transport issues and the budget.  Then last night in Grove, we had another public meeting to discuss the latest library developments, in particular, the County Council's plans to bring in volunteers to help run local library services in areas which had previously been threatened with closure.  We had a lively debate and a few people did express an interest in coming forward.  However, there are still questions to be asked especially around the training and management of the various volunteers which will need to be addressed.