Mole Valley District Council continues to press ahead with the introduction of new services for residents.
 
New residents’ parking permits will be introduced in the District Council’s car parks from the end of March, with a permit costing £675 per year. For those who live in the town centres and who commute to work but need flexibility to park off peak in the early morning and early evening the off-peak permit will cost £175 per annum. The permits can be purchased monthly or quarterly and can be for just for certain days of the week and as “virtual permits” they can easily be purchased on-line.
 
The Garden Waste charges have been frozen again as the District Council continues the policy it has adopted over the last three years to bring the charges down to the levels charged by its partner authorities in the waste collection contract.
 
The Parking Enforcement Officers will patrol the areas where there is dangerous parking on yellow lines more frequently and will increase their patrols in the evenings and on Sundays when compliance with the parking restrictions is at its lowest.
 
The District Council’s car parks are to be improved with, where needed, new surfaces and markings for parking spaces and footways, new railings and with the installation of 90 Electric Vehicle Charging Points.
 
In addition to the above, further investment will be made in the online (& physical) Employment & Skills Hub so that it can continue its valuable work.
 
Whilst delivering these new services, Mole Valley District Council has also submitted its draft Local Plan to the Planning Inspector for public examination … a draft Local Plan which protects what makes our area so special and provides housing over the next fifteen years that will allow our children to live in the area in which they grew up.
 
The general arguments over the Local Plan have been whether to build a significant number of five and six storey blocks of flats in a concentrated area on the edge of our towns similar to the flats along the riverbank in Central London and in the London Borough of Sutton or seeking to keep the character of our market towns with very limited building in the Green Belt on the edge of our towns.
 
The Local Plan takes the approach that the best way to protect what makes our area so special is not to build a new residential quarter made up of moderate rise blocks of flats on the edge of our towns but to spread the development around the District with affordable houses albeit with some sites being developed in the Green Belt.

With new services and the draft local plan, the Liberal Democrats are taking Mole Valley District forward to a bright future.