Oil Drilling Must Be Tightly Controlled

We already have oil producing wells at Brockham and Albury, oil drilling at Horsehill, and a proposal to drill for oil on Leith Hill. As more oil has been found, there have been suggestions that we could have up to 1,000 wells drilled in clusters on around 100 sites of 2 to 5 acres across The Weald in the coming years as the oil reserves are exploited.

In response, Liberal Democrat County Councillors have called for a stronger planning regime covering plans to drill for oil across the South East of England to address the potential scale and environmental damage implied by this forecast.

We have called for Planning Authorities to receive full disclosure of the potential future development proposals for a site at the outset, not just details of the initial drilling work to be carried out, and are arguing that small initial developments should not be approved if it is clear that a more significant development is required for commercial oil exploitation.

The Liberal Democrats have also raised concerns about the potential risks of the processes that are likely to be adopted when extracting the oil reserves, the extra traffic that will be generated in rural lanes as the sites are built and then as the oil is transported away from the drilling site, and the potential contamination of our water source – the local aquifer, and want the Planning Authorities and the Environment Agency to scrutinise applications vigorously and impose strict conditions before any permission to drill for oil is granted.

Liberal Democrats Condemn Proposed 15% Council Tax Rise

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Liberal Democrat County Councillors have condemned the Conservative-run County Council’s proposal to increase the County Council element of the Council Tax by 15% – nine times the rate of inflation. If approved, this unprecedented increase would trigger a county-wide referendum on the proposals, with voters going to the polls on the same day as the county council elections on 4 May.

A yes vote will then add a 15% increase a year to bills for Band D properties and will still result in millions of pounds worth of cuts to essential services. A no vote will result in even more damaging cuts which is why Liberal Democrats have consistently called for a more appropriate level of funding from central government to the County Council to help avoid large cuts to vital services for Surrey residents.

The Liberal Democrats have opposed this huge increase in Council Tax as it would be unaffordable for many Surrey residents and as it would hit the elderly and those on fixed-incomes hardest. We believe that it is quite wrong for the Tories to try and shift this funding problem onto Surrey residents and will campaign for a “no” vote in the referendum.

The Liberal Democrats have also opposed this huge increase as it will still mean substantial increases in charges and cuts to services: the recent increase in social care charges, the cuts to grants awarded to voluntary organisations, and introduction of charges for disposing of household waste at the tips will not be reversed and the decision to close the County’s Alzheimer’s Centres will be implemented.

Furthermore, we believe that it is astonishing that the Conservative-administration thinks that Surrey residents should carry the can for their own financial failings and the government’s failure to properly fund services. The crisis in the funding of adult social care which is behind this increase needs a long-term solution from national government not a temporary sticking plaster, which is what a large Council Tax rise would offer.

The Conservatives that run both the County Council and the Government have clearly failed Surrey residents. A national solution is required for the funding of social care to meet the growth in demand and despite the Leader of Surrey County Council holding a prominent position in the Local Government Association and Surrey being represented in the Cabinet through three Cabinet Ministers, including the Chancellor and Health Secretary, the Conservative Party has failed to deliver an acceptable national solution for the funding of social care.

Part Night Streetlighting

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The County Council has adopted a Part Night Lighting Policy for its street lights which will commence in Mole Valley in early 2017.

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This new policy covers around the 50,000 (of a total 89,000) streetlights located in residential roads and these lights will be switched off between midnight and 5am.

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The streetlights which are not subject to this policy are:

* locations where traffic calming measures have been installed or formal pedestrian crossings are present – in such cases, some street lights in close proximity will be left on all night or the road itself may be excluded entirely;

* roads in close proximity to train stations or bus routes where the last train/bus arrives close to or after midnight will be switched off later than midnight depending on the specific circumstances; and

* the principal road network of traffic routes (A, B and C roads) and  roads in town centres.

The Part Night Lighting programme is expected to save at least £210,000 per annum.

Surrey’s Tory Councillors plan Council Tax Bombshell for Residents

Liberal Democrat County Councillors in Surrey have expressed their dismay at Conservative plans to hike the Council Tax by a massive 16% in the County.

According to a report in the well respected Municipal Journal magazine, which covers local government issues, the County Council is seriously considering a proposal to hold a county-wide referendum with the intention of raising council tax by 16%. Under the current rules, the county council can only raise the tax by an extra 4.99% a year, 3% of which is ring-fenced for adult social care, and must hold a referendum if it wishes to raise a larger amount.

Liberal Democrat County Councillors on Surrey County Council oppose a proposal to increase the council tax above the threshold to trigger a referendum of Surrey residents.

Firstly, there is a national crisis in the funding of adult social care, which needs a long-term solution from the government not a temporary sticking plaster, which is what a large council tax rise would offer.

Secondly, a council tax increase would hit the elderly and those on fixed-incomes hardest – it would be quite wrong for the Conservative administration to try and shift this funding problem onto Surrey residents.

Rather than floating this ill-thought out proposal, the Conservative administration at county hall should concentrate on getting more funding for adult social care from the government and cutting its own wasteful spending. Surrey residents should not have to pick up the bill for the county council’s financial mess.

Surrey County Council fails on Broadband Target

Surrey County Council has announced that it has failed to meet its target to deliver a Superfast Broadband service to almost 100% of residential properties in Surrey. Furthermore it is planning to drop this target following a County Council report which has revealed that 20,000 Surrey properties are unable to access Superfast Broadband.

The County Council, however, plans to increase the number of premises able to receive Superfast Broadband through a second phase of subsidised infrastructure rollout but it will not achieve 100% coverage and the final rollout will be delivered two years late.

The original plan has been watered down to reflect the fact that insufficient funding has been allocated by the County Council to complete the necessary work and the introduction of value for money criteria which will now be applied when the County Council decides which properties will receive Superfast Broadband.

The County Council’s alternative strategy for those properties that cannot receive Superfast Broadband is to investigate satellite, wireless or mobile services or to co-ordinate and help self-fund a community initiative. This shows that the County Council still fails to understand the problem as rural areas without Superfast Broadband often do not have a mobile signal and therefore the alternative means of provision do not exist.

In this digital age, Superfast Broadband is a necessity to access Government information and services. It is a basic utility which we believe must be provided to all Surrey premises. Surrey Liberal Democrats have thus called for the County Council to provide more funding to enable 100% Superfast Broadband coverage in Surrey and for the work to be accelerated so that residents do not have to wait two years for this vital service.

County Council Fails to Provide Social Care to Residents

Thousands of requests for social care have been turned down by Surrey County Council in the last year with only 7,995 out of 35,565 requests for social care being successful according to the respected Leonard Cheshire charity.

The Charity has also shone a light on the declining number of people that Surrey has provided adult social care to in recent years. In 2009, Surrey County Council provided 31,095 people with social care but by 2014 it had reduced this number to 29,650.

These figures follow a joint statement released by The King’s Fund, Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation which has called on the government to address the funding crisis in adult social care. They point out the social care system is facing a £1.9 billion gap in its funding next year and that the government should urgently address this by providing more resources to councils.

Surrey Liberal Democrats continue to call for reform of social care funding and for the County Council to respond to the increasing demand for care services which has been rising steeply in recent years.

This failure to properly fund social care also put more pressure on the health service. It means that people have to stay in hospital when they are well enough to go home because the right care is not available. In turn that means delays in hospital treatment for others because of a lack of beds.

Sign the Petition for a Pedestrian Controlled Crossing on Chalkpit Lane: Create a Safer Walking Route to St Martins and The Ashcombe Schools

We have been seeking to install a pedestrian crossing on Chalkpit Lane near Triangle Stores to create a safer walking route to St Martins and The Ashcombe Schools since we lost the crossing patrol person (and were unable to replace them – partially as it was thought to be unsafe to have a crossing patrol at this location) in 2010.

The County Council met with me in Chalkpit Lane on 14 September 2016 to re-review this proposal and this meeting has resulted in the potential scheme for a pedestrian crossing in Chalkpit Lane being added to the County Council’s Integrated Transport Scheme list for potential funding.

The next step is for the required funding to be approved by the Mole Valley Local Committee. To help the Committee decide in favour of funding this pedestrian crossing, please add your name to this petition. The more signatures we get, the more likely it is that we will get a pedestrian crossing where we used to have the crossing patrol.

The petition can be signed at: https://signme.org.uk/1266

Government Decides on New Heathrow Runway

The Government has announced that additional runway capacity in the South East should be provided at Heathrow Airport and in doing so the Conservative Party has broken its promise to Surrey residents not to build a third runway at Heathrow.

This decision is in direct contradiction of promises made by David Cameron, the former Prime Minister, who said in 2009 that: “The third runway at Heathrow is not going ahead, no ifs, no buts.”  In addition, the Conservative manifesto of 2010 promised no third runway at Heathrow.

The Liberal Democrat position is clear. We recognise the importance of both Heathrow and Gatwick to the economy of Surrey, but have consistently backed a “no expansion” policy for both airports as we do not see how Surrey’s infrastructure or environment can cope with such an increase in noise, air pollution and traffic congestion.

We also believe that an additional runway in the South East will make the quality of life for the people we represent much, much worse through additional air and noise pollution and will harm the natural environment of Surrey, one of the greenest counties in the UK.

We thus remain opposed to any expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted, and any new airport in the Thames Estuary and will continue to campaign against this disastrous decision to build a new runway at Heathrow.

Personally, I am delighted that the government have decided not to proceed with an additional runway at Gatwick. However, the airport has recently announced that they are considering going ahead with a second runway regardless of the Government’s announcement and I will continue to oppose a further runway at Gatwick due to the detrimental impact on Surrey residents and the Surrey countryside.

Open Up Our Youth Centres!

The County Council’s Youth Centres have a vital role to play in providing positive activities and support for young people. They also provide a safe space for our youngsters to meet and socialise.

To play this vital role, the cuts in Youth Centre opening hours, which have been implemented in recent years and which have left some of the Youth Centres in Surrey open for only a very few hours each week, need to be reversed.

At the same time, a significant increase in the opening hours needs to be implemented so that young people in our communities are not left on the streets with nothing to do whilst County Council owned Youth Centres are locked up.

In addition, the running of the youth service needs urgent improvement so that funding allocated to providing the youth service is actually spent on providing services and resources are not wasted through underuse.

Liberal Democrats in Surrey are clear: we need to invest in our youth services so that our young people get the best start in life. We need Youth Centres with sufficient youth workers to provide a proper service, and Youth Centres that are open for enough hours a week to meet the demands of our young people.

County Council Spends £67m on Property Outside Surrey

Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council have revealed almost £67m of public money has been spent on buying six properties outside the county, using a council-owned property company called Halsey Garton Property Limited, over the last year.

The properties purchased were mainly warehouses situated in locations such as Wiltshire, Bristol, Worksop and Salford. The most expensive acquisition was an office in Bristol, at the cost of just under £20million.

The Conservatives have justified the purchases on the basis that they were acquiring assets for investment purposes. But with property prices for commercial buildings close to all-time highs the decision to purchase these properties looks flawed … just as the County Council’s investments in Islandic Banks proved to be a few years ago.

The Liberal Democrats believe that the £67million would have been better invested in Surrey. Some of our town centres need investment to help regenerate the local economy and boost economic growth, our roads and footways are in urgent need of improvement, and we need investment in key worker housing.

Also, the County Council will soon be able to retain 100% of its locally raised business rates so it would make more sense for the County Council to invest in Surrey’s infrastructure and economy so that it can reap the future financial benefit.

When investment returns are high, there is increased risk that the investment will be lost. The Conservatives at County Hall do not seem to understand this. The Liberal Democrats believe that residents deserve better with money carefully invested where it is needed in the county; not frittered away on “too good to be true investments” outside Surrey.