I was lucky enough to visit Moscow, just for one week at the beginning of the 1990s, around the time of the fall of communism. One of the things I remember is seeing elderly people crying openly in the streets – my friend told me they were crying because the world they knew, the state that did everything, was collapsing around them. Who was going to sweep the streets? Cut the grass? Look after their grandchildren?

In this country things have never got so bleak, and we have never been so state dependent in the first place. However, there are real questions being asked, like the ones above, following the cuts to County funding in areas such as youth provision, libraries and some buses. I worry about these things, and I’m sure you do.

Yet, the answers are right under our noses, and they are strong Liberal Democrat ones. As neighbourhoods and parishes, as thriving localities, we have the expertise to do many of these things for ourselves. And this is beginning to happen at the level of groups of parishes. Parish councillors are your friends and neighbours, each is a part-time volunteer, and all have different jobs and areas of expertise. There is a responsibility upon them to spend your money (the parish precept) wisely, sometimes creatively, and with more wide-reaching consequences than ever before. The thinking at the moment is to work with other, neighbouring, parishes to solve some of the funding gaps. The wheels of local government rarely run quickly, but be assured that these questions are being posed, and concrete solutions are germinating. The solutions are not ready-made, and cannot be parachuted into place, but they will come, and your help, your expertise, could be a part of that.