Epsom & Ewell Liberal Democrats

The borough council's consultation on the Upper High Street "development" site ends on 3rd February. Most important is that residents tell the council if they favour a foodstore fronting Upper High Street, in the centre of the site or fronting Church Street.

The results of the consultation will go toward creating a Development Brief for the area, which will, in turn, be a useful planning tool to ensure that future planning applications for the area will tie in with what the Brief suggests. What the Development Brief will NOT be, is a council-funded regeneration project for the development site. The likelihood is that the area will be developed piecemeal as and when the various landowners decide to sell or demolish and rebuild. The Development Brief is intended to become a legal planning document, unlike the Development Brief which was written up by the council after a public consultation some five years ago.

Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council are calling for the Conservative administration to abandon their plans to replace professional staff in 10 of the County's libraries with volunteers, rather than continue with a costly legal fight against Surrey residents in the High Court.

Following the High Court order on Friday by Hon. Mr Justice Wyn Williams, that the County Council should 'take no irrevocable steps towards implementing the Community Partnered Libraries (CPLs) decision impugned in these proceedings until further order of this court', Cllr Hazel Watson, the Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition on Surrey County Council, said:

Epsom councillors are hopeful that the opening of the Stones Road tunnel isn't far away.

Contractors were working on Saturdays to speed up completion of the tunnel which will create a path suitable for cyclists and pedestrians between the Hook Road area and the eastern side of Epsom, particularly Sainsburys. The photograph shows progress as at 21.1.12.

Following the announcement by the Conservative Leader of Surrey County Council that he is proposing a 2.99% rise in Council Tax, Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council are demanding to know why councillors have been denied papers to properly scrutinise the proposals by the Conservative administration for the County's 2012/13 Budget.

With the council's budget preparation well underway for 2012/13, allotment rents are recommended for a 0% increase. The current charge of 30p per square metre p.a. has held firm for the past two years.

The borough has nine allotment sites with some managed by the council and some self-managed. In recent years waiting lists have grown to over 50 waiting for a plot on some sites - which prompted a policy of dividing up large plots into "starter" plots so as to accommodate more allotmenteers. This policy has successfully reduced waiting lists to manageable levels. On the council's biggest site off Alexandra Road, Epsom, the waiting list is now 22 with 11 vacant plots expected to be freed up in the coming weeks.

Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council are asking "Where is Conservative-run Surrey County Council's Budget?"

Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition Cllr Hazel Watson says: "With only three weeks to go until Surrey County Council's 2012/13 Budget setting meeting on 7 February, the Conservative administration has not yet even published a draft budget for consultation.

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.

Conservative controlled Surrey County Council could have kept bus passes starting at 9.00 am and still underspent by £150,000 on this year's local buses budget!

£351,000: The amount saved by Conservative controlled Surrey County Council by cutting concessionary bus passes for the elderly and disabled from a 9.00 am start to a 9.30 am start.

Flytipping in the borough is set to rise from 446 incidents in 2010-11 to a projected 600 incidents in 2011-12. It's an unacceptable increase say the Lib Dems, who want the council to adopt a zero tolerance policy and prosecute offenders.

In the majority of cases there is nothing in the dumped material to identify the perpetrators, but only between 10 and 20 investigations are carried out each year. The Lib Dems have called for the council to adopt a zero tolerance policy, to investigate every case thoroughly, but most importantly to embark on a publicity campaign to raise awareness of the problem and engage local residents in being vigilant and reporting any suspicions they have.

There's good news for anyone who wants to report a noise nuisance to the council: they have agreed to provide an on-line reporting system.

Town centre residents are known to have lost confidence in the council's ability to deal with out-of-hours complaints about noise; some are believed to have simply given up reporting problems.