Mole Valley Liberal Democrats - Demand Better

For the Attention of

Councillor Townsend (Independent, Ashtead)
Councillor Curran (Conservative Bookham and Fetcham West)
Councillor Clack (Conservative Dorking Rural)
Councillor Hall (Conservative Leatherhead and Fetcham East)

Dear Councillors,

At the Surrey County Council Cabinet meeting on 29th January a decision was made to recommend closure of the Leatherhead Children's Centre and cut funding to the Dorking Children's Centre by 58%, two of the few "shining stars" in the Surrey Children's Services organisation.

Surrey Children's Services were rated as "inadequate" by Ofsted less than a year ago and a new Director has since been recruited to correct this appalling indictment.

These draconian and damaging cuts are being presented to the public by Surrey CC as a strategy to improve the service, while in reality are simply cuts to save costs.

However good the track record and qualifications of the new Director of Children's Services, it is not possible to make a plan to safely care for the most vulnerable children in our community in such a short period in post.

It is an accepted fact that the early intervention in the lives of children in vulnerable situations provided by Children's Centres, pays long term dividends and saves future costs in schools, probation services, police services and other public services to say nothing of the benefits to those children and their families.

The Surrey County Council Cabinet will bring this proposal to a full Council Meeting on Tuesday 5th February and I challenge you to join our Liberal Democrat Councillors and vote against these cuts.

Bob Vance
Chair Mole Valley Liberal Democrats

This open letter to Sir Paul Beresford, MP for Mole Valley, was written by Bob Vance, Chair Mole Valley Liberal Democrats, and printed in the current version of the Dorking Advertiser:

Dear Sir Paul,

Over the next few weeks you will make the most important decisions of your political career on behalf of the residents of your constituents of Mole Valley. We are members of different political parties but I believe we have more things which unite us than divide us. We both campaigned for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union. Based on the information available in 2016 and campaign arguments the majority of the Mole Valley voters agreed with us. However by a small margin the majority of voters in the United Kingdom did not.

I have two major concerns.

Firstly, that the UK will crash out of the EU by accident, which almost no one wants. I therefore implore you to do all you can in Parliament to remove the "No Deal" option from being possible. Secondly, that while the agreement negotiated by the Prime Minister may be a more logical and safer option than crashing out, many people are of the view that it will have damaging social and economic consequences which the electorate do not feel they have voted for. Therefore, in the interests of the cohesion of the nation, I ask you to put the good of the nation ahead of party loyalty and support a Peoples Vote, where we ask the electorate to confirm that, based on the terms of the Brexit withdrawal agreement which the Prime Minister considers is the best that can be negotiated, that a majority still supports leaving the EU, and if not that we should remain in the EU.

Bob Vance
Chair Mole Valley Liberal Democrats