WELCOME GREAT NEWS FROM THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

Welcome to my first Blog specially to keep you up to date with what I am doing as the Climate Change Member for Mole Valley. I am very privileged to have this position and take my work very seriously. So much so, I have gone back to Uni. as a mature student and am studying Sustainable Development and Environment. Here are some of the things we have been moving forward with.

Congratulations from the Mole Valley team to our newest MP, Helen Morgan, who achieved a tremendous result in the North Shropshire by-election.

The Liberal Democrats are the party of empowering people and supporting parents and children is our top priority in the new fair deal we offer.

To deliver this we are calling for a £15billion investment in education to help a generation of young people whose education has been affected by the pandemic. A third of the money would go direct to parents to spend on whatever help their children need most: tutoring in reading, writing or maths; music lessons; swimming classes or other physical education.

Welcome to our local Mole Valley survey.

The Covid 19 pandemic has changed lots of things about our world and the way we live our lives. This has impacts in our local communities. So it's important for us to make sure we are up-to-date on what people are thinking so that we can respond appropriately.

There is no denying it: climate change is real - and if urgent action is not taken now it could be too late.

This summer saw more wildfires and flash floods across the world. Temperatures are rising year on year.

"It is clear that we must take this issue seriously," says Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP. "Yet the Conservative Government is delaying climate action and the Prime Minister still cannot make up his mind whether he cares about the climate or not."

Years of Conservative failure have left residents across the country facing a devastating cost of living crisis.

Families already struggling to recover from the pandemic face a triple whammy of tax rises, benefit reductions and record price increases.

The UK's energy crisis leaves many residents with a choice between eating and heating this winter - with even bigger price rises expected in the new year.

New Local Plan Puts the Environment and the Next Generation First

Mole Valley District Council published the final stage of the Local Plan on 7 September, prior to its debate in Council on 15 September 2021.

District Councillor, Margaret Cooksey the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Planning said,

"We listened to residents' comments on the previous, draft Local Plan and have revised it, so far as the Government will allow, to produce a Plan that protects what makes our area so beautiful and puts the next generation first."

Local opposition is growing to the plans of South Western Railways to restrict services on the lines from Mole Valley to London Waterloo. Over 1500 people have signed the on-line petition.

Train frequencies across all routes were reduced during the pandemic; the current proposals would mean that while other suburban routes are restored close to their pre-pandemic levels, the routes to Epsom, Ashtead, Leatherhead, Bookham and Dorking remain at 50% of their pre-pandemic levels.

Mike Hebberd, who stood in the recent local elections as a Conservative candidate for Dorking North, has joined the Mole Valley Liberal Democrats.

Mike who was only with the Conservatives for a short while said, "I realised quite early on that my values for local community matters matched the Liberal Democrats much more closely. Whilst the Conservatives are always knocking the Lib Dems about the Green Belt, it was misrepresentation really. It seemed to me that protecting the Green Belt whilst providing more affordable homes is more likely with the Lib Dems than the Conservatives. The local Lib Dem Councillors have also taken local action to mitigate climate change with lots of initiatives, such as electric vehicle charging points. They also seem to be a hard-working group, helping residents all year round. I was told on doorsteps, more than a few times that Conservatives only put in an appearance at election time."

Epsom and Mole Valley Liberal Democrats have launched a petition to restore South Western Railway (SWR) rail services via Epsom and Mole Valley to pre-pandemic levels, and to abandon proposals, published "in partnership" with the Conservative Government, to make pandemic cuts to these services permanent from December 2022.