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Welcome to the website of the Liberal Democrat Group on Surrey County Council, we hope you find it interesting. Amongst other things, you can:
Cllr Hazel Watson
Group Leader
Lib Dem Campaigns
Surrey News
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Mon 19th May 2008
The Tory controlled County Council has responded to the Liberal Democrat campaign to improve the condition of Surrey's roads by allocating funding for road maintenance and financing a two-year programme worth £35.4 million. This follows their failure to spend all their own Highways budget over the last five years.
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Read "Tories Respond to Lib Dem Campaign to Repair Roads" in full
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Wed 7th May 2008
Liberal Democrats at Surrey County Council have maintained their strong opposition to the Surrey Waste Plan (SWP), voting against a recommendation to adopt it when it came before the council at its Annual Meeting. The council was being asked to agree to its adoption following a report published by Government inspectors into the public examination of the Plan at the end of 2007. This report declared the plan to be 'sound' but Cllr Sarah Di Caprio, Lib Dem group Environment spokesperson, said the inspectors had pointed to various shortcomings in the plan and they suggested calling for an early review.
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Read "Surrey Liberal Democrats stand firm on county's Waste Plan" in full
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Fri 14th Mar 2008
The schools admission process is a long haul for parents, with applications made in the autumn and places only now being offered for this coming September, 2008. At the same time Surrey County Council has been going through the equally long process of deciding how school places will be allocated for September 2009.
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Read "School Admissions Update" in full
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Tue 5th Feb 2008
Liberal Democrats at Surrey County Council today opposed the ruling Conservative administration's 4.8% rise in Council Tax and condemned a cut in roads and schools maintenance spending. Highlighting her group's alternative proposals, Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Hazel Watson (Dorking Hills), said it would be possible to limit the Council Tax rise to 4.5%, a saving of £1.5m.
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Read "Tory budget is bad news for Surrey residents" in full
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Mon 4th Feb 2008
The Liberal Democrat Group recently tried to get the majority Conservative group on Surrey County Council to back the campaign for an "in or out" Euro referendum. The Lib Dems say this referendum would be an opportunity for the British public to determine whether Britain should continue to be a member of the European Union or not.
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Read "Lib Dems challenge Tories to support "in or out" referendum" in full
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Sat 2nd Feb 2008
In answer to a question from John Doran, Lib Dem transport spokesperson, the Conservative executive member for transport on Surrey County Council admitted that the council was on target to under-spend its roads budget by nearly £1 million pounds. Mr Munro said "£1 million is about right".
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Read "Surrey Roads Budget Under-spent for the Fifth Year Running" in full
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Wed 23rd Jan 2008
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.
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Read "Youth Service Staff 'Freeze' Remains at Surrey County Council" in full
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Tue 18th Dec 2007
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.
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Read "School Admissions" in full
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Tue 18th Dec 2007
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.
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Read "Emergency Planning Department Fiasco" in full
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Tue 18th Dec 2007
At the Transport Select Committee on 5th December members were given the latest set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the ill fated Surrey Highways Partnership (SHiP). The SHiP is the arrangement whereby Carillion manages road maintenance in the East of the County and Ringway in the West. Although there has been some improvement things are still not good enough.
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Read "Marginal Improvement by Road Contractors is not Good Enough" in full
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Tue 27th Nov 2007
Surrey County Council Liberal Democrats have called on the ruling Conservative administration to urgently prioritize filling vacancies to front-line services in what group leader Cllr Hazel Watson said was a clear case of the Council "taking its eye off the ball". Nearly two years on from SCC's Business Delivery Review (BDR) which was supposed to result in a "Council fit for purpose" with the right workforce to deliver those services, front-line services are still short on essential staff according to the Liberal Democrats.
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Read "Surrey Lib Dems demand action on Frontline Vacancies" in full
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Thu 25th Oct 2007
Legal claims from motorists who allege their vehicles were damaged because of the poor condition of Surrey's roads are likely to double by the end of this year. In 2006 Surrey County Council received 518 public liability claims from drivers relating to the condition of the roads. The number of highways claims made between January and mid October 2007 reached 954, which is almost double the number for the whole of last year. In 2007 up to mid October, 50 claims totalling nearly £33,000 have been paid by the County Council. However further claims are likely to be received and to be paid before the end of the year.
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Read "Highways Claims Soar" in full
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Thu 25th Oct 2007
Liberal Democrats are getting increasingly anxious at the growing threat of over development in Surrey. The Inquiry into the new South East Plan has recommended an increase in housing numbers, with Green Belt reviews in parts of the county. In addition the government has just published a housing Green Paper which makes it clear that Gordon Brown's government wants to see an increase in housing even beyond the levels set out by the Inquiry.
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Read "Over-development Fears Grow" in full
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Archive of earlier news stories
Printed and hosted by Prater Raines Ltd, 82b Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BX.
Published and promoted by Surrey County Council Liberal Democrat Group, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2DN
The views expressed are those of the party, not of the service provider.
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| Quotes of the Week |
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"Holding someone without charge for 42 days adds nothing of value to the investigation, prosecution or conviction of terrorists. "
Liberal Democrat Shadow Attorney General Lord (Martin) Thomas
Comment ahead of the Second Reading of the Counter-Terrorism Bill in the House of Lords - 8 July
"Opponents of Mugabe's regime are at serious risk of being tortured or killed if they are sent back to Zimbabwe. I am dismayed that the Home Office seems intent on pushing ahead with deportations at the earliest opportunity. "
Chris Huhne, Lib Dem Home Affairs Spokesman
www.libdems.org.uk - 8 July
"Schools' performance in recognising and tackling homophobia should be an assessed criterion in Ofsted school inspections. "
Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg
www.bbc.co.uk/news/ - 7 July
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