THE new chairman of a Halstead business group has called on community groups to pull together for the good of the town.

Jonathan Lidster, 34, has been voted in as the leader of Halstead Town Team. Mr Lidster, who runs a financial services company, moved to the town from Wickham Bishops last year with wife Ashleigh and daughters Edith and Elsbeth.

He said: “I suppose one of the things I want to do is work more cohesively with other organisations in the town. The town team has done a great job of organising events and putting on things like the May Day celebrations, and encouraging footfall.

“But we need to find a more cohesive way of working with the town council and the district council and even Essex County Council and with other groups in the town such as Halstead 21st Century Group and the WI to look at how to bring more people to town.

"Halstead in Bloom is a wonderful organisation very much dedicated to the aesthetics of Halstead and Halstead Town Team really needs to focus on getting more people to shop in the high street and realise what the town has to offer.”

Mr Lidster said the traders he had spoken to were positive about the town and seemed to be doing well.

He believes Halstead should not compete with Sudbury, but should instead create its own identity.

Mr Lidster is supportive of Lidl coming to the town.

He said: “I think it will help encourage regeneration of the Kings Road area, which that area needs.

“It would be good for it to become a new economic hub away from the High Street. Lidl is one of the top three or four supermarkets in the country and I would support anything that would help make shopping cheaper for those who need it."