The Joint Enforcement Team set up by the District Council this year has quickly established itself as an invaluable resource in Mole Valley District Council’s efforts to address anti-social behaviour and low-level crime quickly and effectively.

The Team’s three enforcement officers have responded to a wide range of Anti-Social Behaviour cases since April, most of which have involved abandoned vehicles and fly-tips.

In an effort to further address and put measures in place to prevent Anti-Social Behaviour, the District Council will soon be introducing 15 cameras at identified fly-tipping hotspots to deter individuals from illegally dumping waste and potentially capture footage of perpetrators who choose to do so regardless.

We are delighted at the very positive feedback we have received from local communities about the way in which the JET has been in responding to and investigating reports of Anti-Social Behaviour and believe that it is important that residents feel that they can report anti-social behaviour to the District Council and have the confidence that something will be done.

Mole Valley District Council joined forces with City to Sea, the founders of the Refill Campaign, in September to tackle avoidable plastic waste with a local initiative, Refill Mole Valley.

This has resulted in an increase in the public availability of drinking water as businesses across Mole Valley have signed up to support the scheme – the 50^th business to become a Refill Station being Tanhouse Farmshop at the Leith Hill Tower.

The development of this infrastructure of Refill Stations offering free drinking water means that residents and visitors to our area can easily find somewhere to fill up their re-usable bottles rather than having to purchase single-use bottled water.

The Refill Stations can be found either by coming across an establishment displaying a Refill sticker in their window, or by locating businesses on a map hosted on the Refill app, which can be downloaded for free from a device’s app store.

East Surrey MP Sam Gyimah and popular local campaigner and Parliamentary Candidate Paul Kennedy have launched the Liberal Democrat snap general election campaign in Mole Valley at the Barn Hall in Bookham.

The Mole Valley seat is expected by experts to be a close fight between Paul Kennedy and the Conservatives after the Liberal Democrats took control of the District Council and topped the poll in the European elections in May.

Sam Gyimah said, “We will be fighting the election as the strongest party of Remain. We are excited to be taking our positive, pro-European, liberal vision to the country and are real contenders to win the Mole Valley Constituency having topped the poll here in the European elections in May.

“We continue to support a Peoples’ Vote now that electors know the detail of the Withdrawal Agreement but if we secure an overall majority we will regard this as a mandate to revoke Article 50.”

Paul Kennedy added, “We also have a clear programme to stand up for Mole Valley residents:
• to protect our Green Belt from development except on land that no longer meets the function of the Green Belt and where residents support the development;

• to oppose additional runways at both Gatwick and Heathrow with the flightpaths for both airports routed over the area;
• to provide fairer funding for our health service, schools and the police;
• to build affordable housing for local residents to buy or rent;
• to take urgent action to tackle climate change; and
• to promote the local economy to boost jobs and businesses.”

Paul Kennedy, who is a senior member of the Liberal Democrat team on Mole Valley District Council, has also played a leading role in a number of successful campaigns in our area over the last year including our campaign to keep the Dorking Tip open and reopen the Leatherhead Tip on Fridays, to save the Performing Arts Library from closure, to maintain services at all our local hospitals, and to prevent unacceptable development in the Green Belt.

The County Council announced yesterday, with the publication of the papers for the Cabinet Meeting on 29 October, that the Dorking Tip is to be kept open three days a week but that it will only accept recyclable materials and wood.

The campaign to save the Dorking Tip was launched by County Councillor Hazel Watson as soon as the County Council announced in the Autumn of 2018 that the Tip could be closed and she presented a petition to the County Council in January 2019 with more than 2,000 signatures calling for the Tip to remain open.

Following the presentation of the petition, the County Council has reconsidered its proposal to close the Tip and looked in depth at the waste disposal services provided across the County. In addition, the County Council has listened to public opinion which clearly called for the Tip to be kept open.

Whilst it is excellent news that the Dorking Tip will remain open, the Tip is an essential service and it really needs to be open for 7 days per week and to accept a wide range of waste so that residents can dispose of their waste in one trip, locally. We will continue to press for it to open seven days a week and to accept black bag waste.

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 will be considered by the County Council’s Cabinet and which recommends that all four of the Surrey Tips which are currently under the threat of closure should be kept open. The report also recommends that charges for small quantities of wood and rubble should be discontinued.

We are delighted that the importance of the Dorking Tip is now recognised by the County Council and that it is being recommended that it is retained. The petition the Liberal Democrats delivered to County Hall at the beginning of the year opposing its closure along with the objections of many local residents have clearly had an influence on the County Council.

The Dorking Tip, which is currently only open for 3 days per week, needs to be open for 7 days per week and to accept a wide range of waste so that residents can dispose of their waste in one trip, locally.

Furthermore, since the Dorking Tip was restricted to taking only recyclable material, residents with a mixed bag of materials have been frustrated by the Tip only taking some of their items and then having to travel to the Leatherhead Tip to dispose of the rest.This is unreasonable: residents from Dorking and southern Mole Valley should not have to drive miles to the Leatherhead Tip to dispose of their waste.

In short, having a local Tip is an essential service and the County Council should be making it easy for residents to dispose of their waste responsibly, not more difficult.

We hope that the County Council’s Cabinet Cabinet will decide to retain the Dorking Tip when this report is considered at the October Cabinet Meeting, will decide to open it for 7 days per week for a wide range of waste, not just recyclables, and will abolish the charges for disposing of household DIY waste.

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

Mole Valley District Council took a step in a new direction at an Extraordinary Council Meeting on Tuesday 18 June when it declared a “Climate Emergency” and committed to do everything in its power to play its part in the global environmental initiatives and become carbon neutral by 2030.
 
In adopting this approach, the District Council committed to review the way it, and those who provide services on its behalf, operates as the world strives towards achieving carbon neutrality.
 
It will now drive ahead with policies and programmes that will ensure that our area plays its part in delivering effective measures to help safeguard our world from the damaging effects of global warming.
 
As first steps, the District Council has started investigating a number of practical measures, including:

• obtaining green energy supplies for all council consumption;
• assessing the emissions from Council buildings and ways to reduce them;
• considering how the council and its contractors can stop using glyphosate;
• bringing smart travel to the district, engaging with Surrey County Council to achieve this; and
• developing new web pages of practical advice for residents on how to reduce their own carbon footprint.

It will also be seeking to provide more electric car charging points in the area in order to promote the take up of electric cars amongst Mole Valley residents and will be looking to reduce the use of single use plastics in Mole Valley through the introduction of drinking water dispensing points where reusable water bottles can be refilled.

Overall, we plan to lead the District Council in finding real life practical solutions to mitigating the effects of modern consumer living. We believe that people are becoming increasingly aware of the imminent threat of climate change and we aim to encourage Mole Valley residents to support and join us in this critical endeavour.

We understand that climate change is a global emergency. We cannot just sit by and let it happen. We can be a leader in the fight against climate change, and to do this we have to act now to create a clean, green and carbon-free Mole Valley.

The Liberal Democrats won eleven seats – gaining nine from the Conservatives – and took control of Mole Valley District Council on 2 May. We now hold 22 of the 41 seats on the District Council.

Our District Councillors have already set to work laying out the changes we would like to make.

At the top of the list of our priorities is a review of the draft Local Plan – to ensure that our Green Belt is protected whilst new homes can be built on non Green Belt sites.

We will be making the necessary changes to the draft Local Plan to achieve this before it is published for consultation and to enable us to do this we have postponed the public consultation until October / November.

We will be seeking to provide more electric car charging points in the area and to introduce drinking water dispensing points in a bid to reduce single use plastics.

We will also be reviewing car parking charges with a view to encouraging more people to come into our towns.

Our agenda seeks to fix the problems caused by the complacency that has overshadowed the running of the District Council in recent years. We intend to run a council that is active, that seeks positive solutions to problems, that is in touch with local residents, and which supports both our market towns and rural areas.

Liberal Democrats are winning the campaign to stop Surrey County Council introducing new waste disposal charges with the Leader of the Council announcing that the introduction of the charges for disposing of construction waste and roofing felt will be deferred. In making this announcement he confirmed that more research will be done into the environmental impacts of the proposed charges.

This follows on from the announcement that the small CRCs (Tips) that were due for closure in the Spring would be kept open until October (albeit only taking items which can be recycled) whilst further assessments were made on the viability of keeping these Tips open in the long term.

The campaign to protect our services is gaining momentum and gradually the proposals to introduce new charges and close our smaller Tips are being reviewed. But the campaign is not yet won. We will continue to press the County Council to withdraw these new charges and to confirm that all our Tips will be kept open and accept “black bag” waste.

Surrey County Council, having invested about £1.5 billion in property outside Surrey, is finally listening to the Liberal Democrats and is ‘pausing’ further out-of-county investments whilst the use of the Council’s existing properties is evaluated.

We are delighted that the County Council is pausing these investments. We have also called on them to go further and have demanded a commitment that all future investments will be made in county and into benefitting Surrey residents.

We believe that there should be a permanent restructuring of the County Council’s investment strategy and a permanent commitment to in-county property investment to support economic growth and develop prosperity in Surrey.

The Liberal Democrats have condemned the Conservative Government for slashing the Surrey County Council budget for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by £4,403.72 per pupil in real terms since 2015 … funding cuts that have resulted in a loss of the required specialist education provision.

This condemnation of the Conservatives’ approach came after the National Education Union, which published this statistic on 15 April, warned that local authorities have now reached crisis point in providing for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

It is undeniable that SEND funding is an investment in a child’s future. It can help someone with a learning difficulty or disability secure a higher paid job, security and independence in later life.

But despite this clear added value, the National Education Union has warned that, notwithstanding that children with the highest special educational needs and disabilities have a legal right to extra support, funding under the Conservative Government has failed to keep up with increasing costs and rising pupil numbers.

In contrast to these Conservative spending cuts, the Liberal Democrats believe that everyone deserves the best start in life, and education can be the make or break difference. As a result, we are campaigning for the Government to provide more money for those pupils who possess an Education, Health and Care Plan thereby freeing up money in school budgets to provide tailored in-school support for children with less complex additional needs such as dyslexia.