All members are welcome to attend Folkestone and Hythe (formerly Shepway) Lib Dem Executive meetings.

Papers for the meeting are available to members on request to mail@shepwaylibdems.org.uk

In a letter to Tonbridge & Malling MP, Tom Tugendhat, Thameslink and Network Rail have advised that Thameslink trains will not start running from Maidstone East to Central London in December. No new date has been given for the introduction of these services.

This devastating news comes less than a year after the former Conservative Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, gave a written undertaking that Thameslink would be going ahead this December to Rob Bird, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats at Kent CC.

Our South East England Region MEPs, Catherine Bearder, Antony Hook and Judith Bunting will all be attending along with Tom Brake MP and Baroness Alison Suttie.

We are also delighted to announce that Sam Gyimah MP will be speaking at our Autumn Conference.

There will be training sessions from ALDC and the HQ campaigns team as well as fringe events and networking opportunities.

As part of their commitment to listening to and working with local residents, Tim Prater and Gary Fuller, the new Lib Dem District Councillors for Sandgate and West Folkestone, will be holding regular drop-in advice surgeries in the ward each month.

No need for an appointment - just turn up to discuss any issue you would like our help with. The surgeries are in a public place: if you'd prefer to speak to Tim or Gary one-to-one then please contact them directly and we can set up a personal meeting with you.

Kent County Council voted unanimously in support of the Liberal Democrat motion ^{[see below]} today. The motion was proposed by Ian Chittenden and seconded by Ida Lindfield, It was then accepted, without amendment, by the Cabinet Member on behalf of the Conservative Group.

Now the KCC officers need a constructive negotiation with the bus operators. Then we will need agreement at February's budget meeting. So there is still some way to go but it's a good step forward.

At tomorrow's County Council meeting Liberal Democrat, Ian Chittenden, will ask Kent County Council to consider allowing disabled persons and their companions to use their bus passes at all times. Currently they cannot be used in Kent before 9:30am.

Being disabled should not stop someone from going to work or getting to a medical appointment or doing so many things which most of us take for granted. But it does.

In connection with the Museum's exhibition 'Eurotunnel 25 years' which opens on Saturday 14 September, the Friends of Folkestone Museum are putting on a series of talks around the topic of the Channel Tunnel.

The first of these will be on Saturday 21 September from 2pm to 3.45pm in the Folkestone Museum's Education Room. The talk will be by Chris Johnson who worked for many years for TML and Eurotunnel and will cover the tunnel's history, construction and operation.

Despite repeated requests, the Department for Transport continues to refuse to confirm that Thameslink services will be running from Bearsted, Maidstone and West Malling to Central London by the end of December.

"Further delays to the introduction of this long-overdue service would be totally unacceptable", says Rob Bird, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at County Hall. "Local rail users, residents and businesses are fed up with the continued uncertainty."