At the July meeting of Mole Valley Council, Claire Malcomson, Lib Dem Cabinet Member for Climate Change, proposed a motion to request the Surrey Pension Fund and its investments reach net zero by 2035; and that suitable interim carbon budgets are set. After much debate Full Council agreed to it unanimously. This makes Mole Valley the first Council in Surrey to do this.

Cllr Claire Malcomson, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Mole Valley, provides an update on recent activities and plans to deal with the climate change emergency.

At the Mole Valley Council meeting in July, councillors of all parties gave unanimous support to a motion proposed by Lib Dem Councillor David Preedy for the Council to write to ministers and work with local MPs to keep pressure on the Government to resolve the "anomaly" whereby many Park Home residents would not be eligible for the £400 per household rebate.

Whilst the Government's strategy for Net Zero has been found unlawful, and not fit for purpose, the LibDem administration at Mole Valley has been keeping up its momentum locally to mitigate Climate Change.

Claire Malcomson, the Cabinet Member for Climate Change, summarises the key achievements:

"Having declared a Climate Emergency when we took over the Administration in 2019, we instigated an Environment Forum consisting of local groups working to save the planet and a Cross Party Working Group to contribute to our Climate Strategy.

Constituency now on knife edge with Lib Dems 2% ahead

Recent constituency modelling by You Gov has shown that had a General Election been held on the day they sampled, the most likely result would the removal of Mole Valley's Tory MP by the Lib Dems.

The polling showed that the Conservatives would lose 26 out of 64 seats where the Lib Dems polled well at the last General Election. These include other Surrey seats Esher & Walton (Dominic Raab's seat), Guildford, Woking and Jeremy Hunt's seat, South West Surrey.

A recent YouGov MRP poll suggests that Mole Valley is one of 24 battleground seats that the Conservatives are set to lose to the Liberal Democrats in a General Eelection.

Other Surrey seats are also predicted as Lib Dem gains, including Esher & Walton. Guildford, Woking and South West Surrey, as well as Wimbledon and Carshalton & Wallington in South West London.

Local Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign demanding that the Government changes the arrangements for paying the £400 energy rebate announced by the Chancellor in May

Whilst the Government announced that the rebate would be paid to "all households", the current arrangements mean that many Park Home residents will be not receive it.

Click here to see the full results of Thursday's election results in Mole Valley.

Across Mole Valley, the Lib Dem share of the vote in these seats increased from 38.5% in 2018 to 45.3%

The following Lib Dem councillors retained their seats:

• Elizabeth Daly - Bookham South
• David Draper - Dorking North
• Margaret Cooksey - Dorking North
• Raj Haque - Fetcham West
• Clayton Wellman - Holmwoods

Cllr Claire Malcomson, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, updates on the recent achievements and plans for the environment in Mole Valley.

And see here how you can lower your own carbon footprint:

molevalley.gov.uk/goinggreen