Frank talk with Lib Dem leader

LIB Dem national leader Nick Clegg is coming to Chelmsford next week.

Residents will get the chance to quiz him at a public meeting at the Central Baptist Church on Thursday evening, October 9.

Chelmsford Lib Dems say their boss is here to "listen to people's concerns with no speeches or planted questions."

Mr Clegg is travelling the country with his 'town hall' style meetings.

Before the public meeting at 6.30pm at the church in Victoria Road South, Mr Clegg will call in at Tanglewoods Nursery and Chelmsford prison.

Chelmsford is one of the party's parliamentary target seats.

Thirty years ago former Lib Dem council leader Stuart Mole came within a clutch of votes of defeating former Conservative MP Norman St John Stevas.

It's been a tougher fight through the Thatcher and Blair years but a boundary change at the next election creates a Chelmsford Town constituency where Lib Dem support is in theory stronger than in the present Chelmsford West with its Conservative oriented villages.

Chelmsford council is finely balanced following the 2007 and subsequent by-elections with the Conservatives just ahead with 30 members to Lib Dems' 27.

Mr Clegg said: "Many people I meet feel cut off from politics – left out or even ignored most of the time. Since I became leader I've held public meetings up and down the country where I meet ordinary people for an open discussion – just a frank talk between me and local people about issues, problems, and how we can solve them.

"Politics is so often about schoolboy fighting in the House of Commons – and far too little about listening. These meetings are about doing things differently, so that I can champion the causes that people really care about."

He will be hosted for the day by Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Stephen Robinson.