The Liberal Democrats have set out a bold plan to end rough sleeping within five years, spanning social housing, welfare, local authority funding and legal changes.

Shadow Housing Secretary Tim Farron declared that "nobody should have to spend a night sleeping on the streets" and announced a package of measures to prevent rough sleeping, including:

Rough sleepers in Bedford Borough will be able to access emergency beds every night throughout the winter, not just when temperatures drop below freezing.

This means that for the second successive year in Bedford Borough accommodation will be available every night throughout the winter to 31st March, rather than just offering basic emergency beds in very cold weather.

Earlier today Mayor Dave Hodgson visited the Christmas Tree Festival at St. Paul's Church.

This year sees the 19th Christmas Tree Festival and it runs from today until this coming Sunday (8th December). The festival is organised jointly by Bedford Hospital Charity & Friends and St. Paul's Church.

I was delighted to once again visit Bedford Soup Fest, now in it's third year.

SoupFest is a festival of soup celebrating Bedfordshire's talented chefs and raising money for the homeless at the same time. Local businesses and volunteers pull together in order to set up and run the one day event, selling homemade soup and bread to the public to raise funds for the homeless.

Ahead of this week's Homelessness Awareness Week, Bedford Homeless Partnership launched a Charter that was co-produced by organisations and people with lived experience of homelessness to bring together businesses, educational establishments, organisations, politicians and the general public to help end homelessness in our borough.

It is Bedford's Homelessness Awareness Week next week, with lots of varied events.

On Monday, The Place Theatre has a production of On Hold, inspired by real-life experiences of families in temporary accommodation. Tickets are just £5 and available here.

On Tuesday, the ever popular SoupFest returns to Harpur Square between 11.30 and 3.30pm. More details here.

East Midlands Railway (EMR) consultation branded a complete disgrace as the Conservative's downgrade of Bedford's trains from December 2020 is confirmed.

Claims of a "more frequent service" were branded complete nonsense by Henry Vann, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bedford and Kempston, as slower trains - all stopping at Luton and Luton Airport - are proposed in the return of EMR services, completing the Conservatives' betrayal of Bedford's already hard-pressed rail users

Today is Fuel Poverty Awareness Day, the national day to raise awareness of the issue of fuel poverty and the solutions available.

Fuel Poverty Awareness Day is coordinated by fuel poverty charity National Energy Action and is the national day to raise awareness of some of the issues faced by those living in cold homes and the solutions available.