Mole Valley Liberal Democrats

Surrey Residents and Liberal Democrats have campaigned for the County Council to improve its gritting of the roads throughout Surrey. As part of the campaign, Liberal Democrat County Councillors have taken an active role in the Task Group that has reviewed the County Council's response to snow and ice and welcome the increase in the number of roads to be gritted this winter, the new fleet of gritting lorries which will spread the grit more evenly across the road, and the new mini all-terrain vehicles which will be able to clear snow from more rural lanes.

Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council are asking "Where is Conservative-run Surrey County Council's Budget?"

Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition Cllr Hazel Watson says: "With only three weeks to go until Surrey County Council's 2012/13 Budget setting meeting on 7 February, the Conservative administration has not yet even published a draft budget for consultation.

The Government introduced the Feed-in-tariffs (FiT) to encourage early take up of renewable technology in April 2010. Surrey County Council finally approved a scheme to install solar panels on 25 buildings in July 2011. Yet when the Government announced a cut to the FiT rate, they still had not installed a single solar panel.

Conservative controlled Surrey County Council could have kept bus passes starting at 9.00 am and still underspent by £150,000 on this year's local buses budget!

£351,000: The amount saved by Conservative controlled Surrey County Council by cutting concessionary bus passes for the elderly and disabled from a 9.00 am start to a 9.30 am start.

Phase 3 of the Surrey programme of bus reviews takes place starting from November 1st. This phase covers Mole Valley and Guildford plus Epsom & Ewell and Waverley.

Drop-in sessions are scheduled for the following locations:

Fetcham Village Hall - 21 November 10am - 1pm
Leatherhead Library - 23 November 10am - 1pm
Epsom Library - 25 November 10am - 1 pm
Dorking Library - 28 November 10am -1pm
Ashtead Library - 30 November 10am -1pm
Guildford Library - 1 December 10am - 1pm
Godalming Library - 6 December 10am - 1pm
Farnham Library - 7 December 10am - 1pm
Haslemere Library - 9 December 10am -1pm

The result of the Bookham South by-election - won by Liberal Democrat Stella Brooks on 20th October - has important implications for the make-up of the committees where much of the Council's business is carried out. If the Conservatives had won the by-election, they would have become the largest party on Mole Valley District Council and the change would have led to a re-distribution of positions on these committees. By retaining their position as the largest party the Liberal Democrats are entitled to keep their strong representation on all these committees.

The complete withdrawal of the Conservative scheme to impose on-street parking charges across Surrey has been announced. The final defeat of this scheme is great news and a victory for all those who campaigned against it from day one. But residents are realising that they will pick up the bill.

It was the 26,300 strong internet petition launched by Liberal Democrat District Councillor Caroline Salmon that ultimately led to the defeat of this flawed policy. The Conservative majority in Surrey County Council (sadly including Bookham & Fetcham West Councillor Clare Curran) voted in May to ignore this petition but they must have known then that this was the voice of the people. They simply did not listen and went on wasting thousands of pounds of public money on developing a scheme no-one wanted.

Brightening up the Bank

By talking to Lloyds bank management Stella and her team have not only arranged to get the ugly graffiti (above) removed, but also secured an undertaking to repaint the building next year and help brighten up the village centre.

More car park spaces

Now that the corner of Lower Road car park is no longer used for recycling, Stella has arranged for the District Council to remove the barriers and thus achieve 2 extra car park spaces.

In a debate on the future of Surrey's libraries at County Hall this afternoon not a single Conservative councillor voted for the council to abandon its plans for Community Libraries and adopt a library policy that retains professional staff in all libraries.

However, following the humiliating U-turn by the Conservative administration this morning on on-street parking charges, there were hints that another U-turn may be in the pipeline.

In a victory for local campaigners and Liberal Democrats who organised an on-line petition with 26,300 signatures, the new Leader of Surrey County Council will this morning announce the abandoment of the County's on-street parking charge plans.

Cllr Hazel Watson, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council, says: