Surrey Lib Dems secured agreement from Surrey County Council at its meeting on 12 July that it would look again at how best to coordinate public engagement on climate change projects such as the installation of electric vehicle charging points.

Surrey County Council has a target to reduce emissions by 1.38m - 2.4m tonnes of carbon per year by 2025, just 3 years away. The two major contributors to carbon emissions in Surrey are household heating and transport, primarily private car journeys. Effective communication and engagement are crucial to achieve this target. Ordinary people will be encouraged to make changes to their behaviour, for example to replace their gas boiler with a heat pump or to use public transport instead of travelling by car. At the moment there is no mechanism to bring together the general public, relevant local organisations, and elected representatives to air their views on how best to implement schemes locally.

A Surrey Lib Dems' motion calling on Surrey County Council to declare a cost-of-living crisis emergency in Surrey was voted down by the Tory administration at its full council meeting yesterday. One of the proposals put forward was for Surrey County Council to hold a county-wide summit to bring together a range of organisations that are involved in advising, supporting or providing financial help to residents who are experiencing hardship. The aim of the summit would be to find ways of better coordinating services; identify any gaps in provision and see what more could be done to ease the cost-of-living pressure on vulnerable residents.

Lib Dems will be calling on Surrey County Council to declare a cost-of-living crisis emergency in a motion they will propose at the full council meeting on 12 July.

Families in Surrey were starting to struggle even before the pandemic, but spiralling prices and real terms fall in wages have caused many more residents to start claiming benefits for the first time. Food bank usage has increased by 300% over 2019 figures and around 23,000 children are already living in poverty.

Lib Dem Councillors have called the Conservative-run Surrey County Council's plans to axe area committees as one that 'undermines local democracy and reduce the local people's voice in Council decisions.'

Local and Joint Committees have been the mainstay of local democracy in Surrey over the last 20 years, providing a forum for county councillors to join with their counterparts from the district/borough councils to discuss issues and make decisions on local county council spending. Members of the public participated in the meetings by bringing petitions and asking questions about council services.

Lib Dem councillors have highlighted the experience of Ukrainian school-age children who have arrived to live with their hosts in Surrey under the Government's Homes for Ukraine Scheme but are still waiting to secure a place at a local school.

Lance Spencer (Goldsworth East and Horsell Village) raised the issue at this week's Council meeting citing the example of a child who had recently arrived in the area but had been unsuccessful in their application to a school just 200 metres from the host family's home.

Surrey County Council's plans for a greener future took a major step backwards when it failed to get any financial support from the government for its Bus Service Improvement Plan.

Boris Johnson announced funding for his Bus Back Better scheme in March 2021 with £3 billion available to help transform bus services across England.

At last week's full council meeting Surrey County Council unanimously agreed a Lib Dem motion criticising the Government's 'Living with Covid' plan that will put an end to universal free Covid testing.

The Council agreed to call on the Government to continue with free PCR and lateral flow tests for those residents in critical groups, such as front-line workers and those who are eligible for free prescriptions.

Ofsted have published their latest inspection report into Surrey County Council's children's services and rated the Council's service as one that 'requires improvement to be good'

The report notes that "Services are no longer inadequate, but despite accelerated improvements since 2018, overall progress has been slow since services were first judged inadequate in 2015."

Yesterday, Surrey County Council's Cabinet agreed to close eight residential care homes.

Lib Dem Councillors have criticised the move which leaves the future of around 150 vulnerable residents in the balance with the risk they may end up being placed in accommodation further away from their family and paying more for the services they receive.

Surrey County Council's hopes of getting more powers from central government as part of a County Deal lie in ruins following the publication of the government's Levelling Up white paper.

The government has unveiled their plans which include the promotion of regional mayors and give several areas County Deals however Surrey was not one of them.