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.
A Joint Area Review of Surrey and its partners' Children' Services, published by Ofsted this July, highlights shocking failures to keep children safe and to meet the needs of young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
Surrey County Council's Lib Dem councillors, which include Colin Taylor representing Epsom & Ewell SW Division, have published their achievements over the past couple of years. SW Division takes in the Epsom wards of Town, Stamford and part of Court.
When the Surrey County Council Lib Dem group called for more opportunities for the public to get involved in local democracy, all their suggestions were opposed, despite being based on the Council's own survey of public opinion.
Tory-led Surrey County Council voted today to keep the freeze on youth service recruitment, despite the obvious damage it is causing to youth services throughout Surrey. Liberal Democrat Councillor Diana Smith (Knaphill) put forward a motion calling for an immediate end to the recruitment freeze, put in place in December 2007. But the ruling Tory group voted to keep the status quo.
The 'equal preference' system for school admissions was first used for admissions to Surrey schools this year, September 2007. It means that parents don't have to worry that they will lose a place in the second or third of their preferred schools if the first school is full, just because they did not place those schools first.
When the Conservative administration at County Hall took an axe to its Emergency Planning department as part of a major review, the 11 staff were reduced to just 7 - putting the whole county at risk. All the staff bar one left, leaving the county in an extraordinarily vulnerable state for several months, made worse because a freeze in recruitment blocked the advertising for new staff.
Years of Conservative cuts have hollowed out the legal aid system, leaving millions without access to timely legal advice. Our new policy will legal aid a guaranteed right, ensure no one is left without help.
![New Homes [Image: Tim Prater]](/fileadmin/_processed_/0/a/csm_newhomes_23c101933f.jpg)
Millions of people are still trapped in England’s broken leasehold system. Our plan will end the leasehold rip-off, strengthen building safety, and give residents the control, fairness, and dignity they deserve in their own homes.
Hong Kongers living in the UK, and across the world, face an increasingly robust and alarming campaign of transnational repression from Beijing. Our new policy will protect pro-democracy activists and ensure this intimidation has no place in the UK.
