Thank you to all who voted for her, and for the army of volunteers who put so much effort in.
The work starts now.
You can watch her gracious acceptance speech via this link.
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.
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.
The Borough Council is embarking upon widespread consultation concerning proposals to charge Blue Badge holders for parking in its car parks. The survey has been sent to 52 local groups via the Council for Voluntary Services (CVS) and to several other local stakeholders. It is available on the council's website until 17th May and will be sent to the council's own Citizens Panel. More consultation via Focus groups will take place on 27th May.
Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council are asking "Where is Conservative-run Surrey County Council's Budget?"
The Government introduced the Feed-in-tariffs (FiT) to encourage early take up of renewable technology in April 2010. Surrey County Council finally approved a scheme to install solar panels on 25 buildings in July 2011. Yet when the Government announced a cut to the FiT rate, they still had not installed a single solar panel.
Reflecting on the year’s International Women’s Day theme of “accelerate action”, I am sadly reminded of how much more we still need to achieve.
The UK needs to strengthen both our Armed Forces and our soft power.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.
