Upper High Street Development Site on the Agenda Again
Tesco, the owners, have applied to renew a planning permission which is due to expire shortly. It will be debated at the 16th April meeting of the Planning Committee.
Tesco, the owners, have applied to renew a planning permission which is due to expire shortly. It will be debated at the 16th April meeting of the Planning Committee.
Anyone who attended the recent Town Hall meeting about Epsom Hospital, hoping to hear a clear statement about its future, came away disappointed. There was very little hard news - but at least none of it was bad.
It's not often that we, as the official opposition, commend our borough council, but in the case of the recent snow, the staff from Epsom & Ewell's Operational Services Department were positively heroic!
The vacant seat in Ruxley ward was taken by the Conservatives with a margin of 201 over the RA. Labour took the seat in Court ward with a margin of 34 over the Lib Dems.
Next week an exhibition begins to appraise and consider management plans for the five hospital cluster Conservation Areas. These areas were created when three former hospitals were developed for residential housing, with two more due for development in the coming years.
The borough council is to host a public meeting on Epsom General Hospital on Wednesday 4th March at 7.30 pm in the council chamber.
Less than a year since they took the decision to maintain the service until 2011 the Tory administration at County Hall has decided to axe the very popular Pegasus buses from the end of the current school year. The decision to discontinue the service has been made without consultation with parents or the schools.
The outgoing Interim Chief Executive of Surrey County Council, Mr Michael Frater, has issued a damning hand-over report to his successor about this Tory-led council. His report describes the council as arrogant, bureaucratic, lacking in vision, direction and strategy, obsessed with itself, inefficient and unsophisticated, with a culture of blame and bullying plus a lack of leadership - and in denial about its own shortcomings.
Despite massive public support for the Surrey Police, the government has won a vote in parliament confirming a spending "cap" that will force the police to shed a further 48 jobs, including 31 front line police officers. Astonishingly, although some Surrey MPs spoke against this move, when it came to a vote not a single Conservative voted against it. That was left to the Liberal Democrats, supported by two rebel Labour MPs and one DUP member from Northern Ireland.
Liberal Democrats at Surrey County Council have called for improvements in the way the County Council plans and prepares its budget. They criticised the Conservative administration for its unrealistic and short-term approach to budget setting, which has resulted in some council services underspending - whilst others overspend their budgets, year after year.
The Liberal Democrats have gained seats in Reigate, Spelthorne, Tandridge and Woking, despite losses in Godalming and Guildford. The new Lib Dem group will number 13 and the Lib Dems will remain the main opposition party on Surrey County Council.
"Support the Lib Dems next Thursday", says The Observer. As well as its Editorial, an article by Andrew Rawnsley praises Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats in the run-up to the elections for the European Parliament and the County Council as the one party that has consistently advocated Constitutional Reform and the one that has come out of the expenses scandal much less sleazed than either Labour or the Tories.