Special Council Meeting will Decide on Free Swimming
A special meeting of the Leisure Committee has been convened for 7th September and will decide upon central government's grant toward Free Swimming.
5 Sep 2009
News
Epsom and Ewell News
A Date for your Diary
The Borough Council's Ranger Service will be giving a talk in the Elizabeth Welchman Garden, Downs Road, Epsom, on Saturday 12th September.
26 Aug 2009
Last Day of Plan E Consultation
The future of Epsom town centre could depend upon the results of the Plan E consultation, which closes on 24th August.
23 Aug 2009
HGV's could be Banned from Ewell Village
A new air quality report covering NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) levels in Ewell village has been published. It shows no improvement on the unacceptably high levels and an Action Plan is now needed to deal with the problem.
10 Aug 2009
A Tale of Small Businesses and An Empty Car Park
With Hook Road car park never more than half full and businessmen wanting cheaper parking in the town centre, the Lib Dems are brokering a marriage between the two.
7 Aug 2009
Lib Dems lead call for review of highways contract after projects come in 21% over estimate
Surrey County Council's local committee for Epsom & Ewell received a report that an overspend of £75,000 was incurred on a range of highways projects undertaken in the borough within the last financial year, so the funds available for the current year have been reduced accordingly. Questioning from the committee revealed that the 21% excess of costs over budget arose because prices quoted for projects are based on estimated costs. The contract agreed by Conservative-led Surrey County Council does not require the contractor to be held to this estimate and allows the contractor to charge whatever the work actually costs.
1 Aug 2009
Surrey County Council News
Liberal Democrats call for investigation into Surrey's Children's Service
The Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council have called for an independent investigation into problems within the Children's Service in Surrey. This follows a Channel 4 television programme "Dispatches: undercover social worker" broadcast on the 7 June, which filmed an undercover family support worker working for the Children's Service in Surrey.
8 Jun 2010
Special Conference passes 'Building a fairer Britain in government'
The Liberal Democrat Special Conference in Birmingham overwhelmingly approved the party's Coalition Agreement with the Conservative Party. It passed the following resolution:
16 May 2010
Petitions to the County Council
The County Council's Conservative administration has recently decided to allow members of the public to submit petitions at meetings of the whole Council, not just at committee meetings. This is something that the Liberal Democrat group at County Hall have requested many times in order to open up the Council, but which until now has always been refused by the Conservative administration, even as recently as March this year.
28 May 2010
Agency Staff Savings
The Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council have for many years regularly suggested that the County Council could make significant savings by reducing its reliance on costly agency staff by reducing the number of agency staff and using its own directly-employed staff instead. At last someone has listened.
25 May 2010
"School special" buses - an endangered species
Proposals to cut "school special" bus services, in some cases from this September, brought such strong public opposition from parents and schools that none of them will be removed before September 2011. However, this is just a reprieve. All "school special" bus services across the county are still being considered for closure, with the Cabinet expected to come to a decision on 13 July.
16 May 2010
Youth Work - Cinderella Services at the Cutting Edge
For years services for young people such as the Youth Development Service have been Surrey's Cinderella. Budgets have been cut, with staff posts left unfilled and then frozen.This year a re-organisation at the top takes away the Youth Development Officers who lead the work in each Borough and District and further managers, replacing all thirteen posts with just four operations managers to run youth work for the whole county.
19 May 2010