Paul Kennedy's statement on the Liberal Democrats policy:

"We need more trees, not more drilling in the Weald or runways at Gatwick and Heathrow. 🌲🌳🌴🌲🌳
That's why I'm backing Lib Dem plans to plant 60,000,000 trees every year. These will help improve environmental health, air pollution levels, give opportunities to improve mental health, reduce hillside run-off and flooding... the list goes on.

Skills Wallets are a plan to allow every adult in England to access training throughout their lives, after leaving full time education.

A £10,000 fund for each person will give them the opportunity to retrain and upskill for jobs that we can't even imagine yet.

It can be expensive to develop new skills later in your career. The cost of courses and qualifications shuts too many people out. Neither Labour nor the Conservatives have any answer to this - their 20^th century and 19^th century policies don't work in the 21^st century.

Paul Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mole Valley, is backing the Friends of Ripley Primary School (FoRPS) campaign to reopen Ripley School, which was controversially closed by Conservative Surrey County Council last year. If elected as Mole Valley's MP, Paul will strongly oppose any attempt to sell off the land for housing.

Please help Paul by providing your input.

The extreme likelihood of a general election taking place later this Autumn has forced Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) to review and delay the public consultation process for the Local Plan.

During any election period Councils have a statutory obligation to enter a period of 'purdah'. This severely restricts the Council's abilities to communicate with the public and would therefore completely disrupt the planned comprehensive programme of consultation making full and meaningful dialogue with residents impossible. In discussion with the relevant officers at MVDC it became clear that the Lib Dem administration would need to delay the consultation until early 2020 in order to comply with the regulations. The delay was formally confirmed at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 24 September 2019.

The Dorking Tip, which has been under threat of closure by the County Council, could be saved.

This follows the recent publication of a report which recommends that all four of the Surrey Tips which are currently under the threat of closure, including the Dorking Tip, should be kept open. The report also recommends that charges for small quantities of wood and rubble should be discontinued.

Surrey County Council has just granted UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) planning permission for four extra production oil wells and a water reinjection well (11^th September). The Planning and Regulatory Committee failed to take into account both government policy on climate change and their own recent declaration of a Climate Emergency. Furthermore, the recent worrying spate of earthquakes around Newdigate were not deemed valid in terms of planning objections; earthquakes apparently come under the jurisdiction of the Environment Agency and the Oil and Gas Authority, bodies which did not object on these grounds. Consequently, they were afforded no weight in the planning decision.

The Lib Dem administration considers the problem of roadside littering in Mole Valley to be a critical issue that needs a comprehensive solution.

At the Council meeting on 9^th July the opposition proposed a motion to adopt the 'Don't be a Tosser' Keep Britain Tidy campaign from January 2018. Whilst well-meaning, this is an inadequate yet potentially costly response. Furthermore it does not reflect the Council's existing activities including support for local litter picks, the need for fuller engagement by Surrey County Council as Highways Authority, or indeed the need to keep our recycling centres free and open for household waste.

At the Council Meeting on Tuesday 9^th July the Lib Dems supported the opposition motion to positively celebrate local diversity in Mole Valley. We made some amendments to ensure proper management and effective use of limited council resources and agreed to promote inclusion in all appropriate future communication.