The Conservative leader of Brentwood Council shocked officers, the opposition and her own councillors alike last night when she announced that she was stepping down as leader in May.

This news follows the resignations of two other key councillors from their posts last week.

Cllr Barry Aspinell thanked Cllr McKinlay for her hard work over the last ten years and wished her well in her future endeavours.

We would like to say a very big thank you to the hundreds of residents who signed our "Save Our Libraries" petition across Brentwood. Your support and encouragement for our campaign has been amazing and it's sent a clear message to the Conservatives running Essex County Council (ECC) that you don't want your libraries closed and opening hours cut. The ECC libraries consultation has now closed and all the petitions have been handed in.

At peak times, the roads in most of our towns are almost completely full. So, more parking capacity would not really help - the roads to get there are full. Also, land in the centre of towns is in short supply and very expensive. So, more car parking there is unlikely.

However, we could provide more parking on the edges of the urban areas and provide Park & Ride buses into the central areas. The site at Sandon, to the east of Chelmsford, has proved very successful and other areas might benefit from similar services.

Conservative councillors Chris Hossack and Cliff Poppy have, today, resigned from their positions as Chair and Vice-chair of the Community, Health and Housing Committee.They cited the lack of information available to them to scrutinise the housing service as one of the reasons for their actions.

Cllr Barry Aspinell, Leader of the Lib Dem group said:

At the Essex County Council budget meeting, Liberal Democrats identified spare cash stashed away in the council's accounts and proposed the following projects for spending.

• £4 million extra for minor highways schemes across Essex
• £2.5 million for Public Health, to help reduce youth suicides, tackle smoking related illnesses and improve mental health
• £350,000 for the Youth Service, to help young carers, lunch clubs and outreach work
• £250,000 to help 16-18-year olds from low income families to get to college
• £250,000 to help reduce fly tipping
• £12,500 to enable street lights to be left on if recommended by local police
• £22,000 to develop a plan for solar panels on County Council property

Proposals to enhance and improve Essex libraries were rejected today by Conservative-run Essex County Council. At today's Full Council Budget meeting, Liberal Democrats proposed a full review of library premises, to consider commercial or residential additions, which would safeguard their future, rather than threaten the closure of 44 libraries.

A plan to investigate clean air zones across Essex's urban centres was rejected. Essex County Council Liberal Democrats called for the Council to take a lead on undertaking full assessments for clean air zones to tackle air pollution.

The proposal was simply to spend £22,000 to develop a business plan for this but it was rejected by the Conservatives. The Lib Dem proposals also included charging heavily polluting vehicles.

At a recent meeting at Brentwood Borough Council it was stated that Local Enterprise Partnership (SE LEP) monies are match funded by Essex County Council.

This was queried by Brentwood Lib Dem Councillor Barry Aspinell.

Cllr Aspinell asked the Cabinet Member for Finance, Commercial and Traded Services for clarity regarding the process of applying for the match-funded money. Cllr Aspinell also asked about the level of match-funding that the council would be committed to.