Emergency health services are at breaking point writes Cllr Maggie Kellman, our Chesterfield Lib Dem spokesperson on Health and Wellbeing. Record long ambulance waits are leaving vulnerable patients waiting for ambulances to arrive, and then often getting stuck in queues outside hospitals for hours, waiting for the treatment they need. People are being left scared, panicked, and often with worsening symptoms.

Maggie points out that "Ambulance staff, like all NHS and health workers in Chesterfield do an amazing job working tirelessly to keep us all safe every day of the year. And this is against a back drop of unprecedented demand, enormous staff shortages, a chronic lack of hospital beds and a crisis in adult care provision.

But the Government has run ambulance services into the ground. They have completely failed to act on warnings that ambulance services are struggling to maintain a safe and timely service. Our wonderful health staff are under immense pressure, and things are only continuing to get worse. This is unacceptable."

National NHS guidelines say patients should be transferred from an ambulance to an emergency department within 15 minutes. This clock starts ticking when the ambulance arrives outside the A&E department and ends when the clinical handover of the patient to A&E staff has been completed.

• New figures reveal 77,300 car thefts and 63,500 bike thefts went unsolved last year

• Only 3.9% of car thefts lead to someone being charged, down from 6.8% five years ago

• Conservatives accused of allowing criminals to steal vehicles on "an industrial scale"

Shocking new figures have revealed a "vehicle crime epidemic," with over 140,000 car and bike thefts going unsolved by police last year.

Time for a radical re-think as Marks and Spencer announces move from the town's market square

Howard Borrell, the Shadow Liberal Democrat spokesman for the Town Centre and Visitor economy, commented about the recent announcement by Marks and Spencer that they will be re-locating to Ravenside.

He felt "it was both a disappointment and a vote of confidence. So many town centres, with much bigger populations than Chesterfield - such as Birkenhead and Bournemouth - have seen their store close completely. Yet here the company has decided to expand and grow their range of products to meet demand, even though it's moving a short distance, to the edge of the Town Centre. However the closure at a key site on the Market Place means that there is now an urgent need to look for new ways to broaden the town's appeal.

In summer 2020 after being notified by local resident Norma Fanshaw that the park was due to be removed with no plans for a replacement, Councillor Katherine Hollingworth formed the Friends of Badger Park .

Local school children were invited to submit ideas and vote on their favourite design. The Friends of badger Park raised £5,000 by holding a Christmas raffle, Easter egg hunt and joining with the Borough Council to take part in the year of outdoors and planting daffodil bulbs. This was matched by funding from Viridor and enabled the refurbishment of the park for the children of Brockwell.

The Conservative Government is failing to deliver the promised 283 more police officers for Derbyshire.

Derbyshire's Liberal Democrats have slammed the government for failing to keep their promise to communities, adding that there needs to be a return to full and proper community policing.

Walton Councillor Tom Snowdon said "We were out door knocking and talking to local residents last weekend and policing issues were brought up by several people. We need more Officers available to respond to every day crime, but the Government are not hitting the numbers they promised at the last election".

Paul Holmes, Leader of 17 Liberal Democrat Cllrs says "Although Covid is easing, residents face a very difficult year with huge energy price increases, rising tax and rising inflation. Labour politicians are always calling on the Government to do something about this."

"Now they can put their money, or rather taxpayer's money, where their mouth is. They can actually do something instead of just trying to pass the buck to others all the time."

At the Cabinet meeting on Tues 18^th Jan, Labour Cllrs voted to increase car park charges by more than inflation in order to take an extra £143,000 from Town Centre shoppers. Liberal Democrat Cllr Paul Holmes voted against this, telling Labour Cllrs that:

"The effects of Covid are not over yet even if things may soon start to ease. If we want the Town Centre to recover, then we should not be putting shoppers off with any increases this year - let alone such above inflation increases."

PACKED PUBLIC MEETING DEMANDS COUNCIL THINK AGAIN OVER CONTROVERSIAL ROAD PLANS.

A meeting organised by Chesterfield Civic Society was packed to full capacity last night with over 250 residents attending. Local County Cllr Paul Niblock was among those addressing the meeting. Paul was elected in May this year when the supposed County Council consultation was already underway. He told the meeting that whilst knocking on doors on Chatsworth Road and the adjoining side streets he found barely a single resident who knew anything about the proposals.

Budget leaves many in Chesterfield worse off

The Liberal Democrats have said the Chancellor is "living on another planet" after he claimed in interviews that changes to the Universal Credit taper amount to cutting taxes. Even the Institute for Fiscal Studies says the gap between the "generosity of the furlough scheme and the meanness of our out of work benefit system could hardly be more stark."