New Local Plan Puts the Environment and the Next Generation First

Mole Valley District Council published the final stage of the Local Plan on 7 September, prior to its debate in Council on 15 September 2021.

District Councillor, Margaret Cooksey the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Planning said,

"We listened to residents' comments on the previous, draft Local Plan and have revised it, so far as the Government will allow, to produce a Plan that protects what makes our area so beautiful and puts the next generation first."

As many as 12% (*average) of hard-pressed families across Surrey face being left worse off when the government end the uplift to Universal Credit next month.

New data from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation exposes the true nature of how badly some areas will be hit by the £20 Universal Credit cut, which is opposed by Fiona White, Deputy Leader of the Surrey Lib Dem group.

Local opposition is growing to the plans of South Western Railways to restrict services on the lines from Mole Valley to London Waterloo. Over 1500 people have signed the on-line petition.

Train frequencies across all routes were reduced during the pandemic; the current proposals would mean that while other suburban routes are restored close to their pre-pandemic levels, the routes to Epsom, Ashtead, Leatherhead, Bookham and Dorking remain at 50% of their pre-pandemic levels.

This came in from North East Surrey for Europe - should be interesting:

Do you feel silenced by the present government? Did the last election results recognise your vote?

Make Votes Matter is the national movement for Proportional Representation. The UK voting system means Parliament does not reflect the voters, that millions of people do not have votes that count, and that the country is stuck with confrontational politics not fit to respond to the challenges of the 21st Century. Make Votes Matter promotes the adoption of a modern system of PR that makes seats match votes and means all votes count equally. We hope you will join us for a Zoom presentation by our expert speaker Brigid Gardner of Make Votes Matter, on Thursday,16th September, in the evening, to learn more. To Register with Eventbrite and get more details click below https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/166047904753 Best wishes NES4EU

Mike Hebberd, who stood in the recent local elections as a Conservative candidate for Dorking North, has joined the Mole Valley Liberal Democrats.

Mike who was only with the Conservatives for a short while said, "I realised quite early on that my values for local community matters matched the Liberal Democrats much more closely. Whilst the Conservatives are always knocking the Lib Dems about the Green Belt, it was misrepresentation really. It seemed to me that protecting the Green Belt whilst providing more affordable homes is more likely with the Lib Dems than the Conservatives. The local Lib Dem Councillors have also taken local action to mitigate climate change with lots of initiatives, such as electric vehicle charging points. They also seem to be a hard-working group, helping residents all year round. I was told on doorsteps, more than a few times that Conservatives only put in an appearance at election time."

Surrey Lib Dems are calling on the Government to make a more ambitious commitment to resettle refugees fleeing the Taliban, and to give Surrey's Borough and District Councils, as well as the County Council, extra funding to house and support them here.

The Lib Dems have slammed the Government's commitment to resettle just 5,000 Afghan refugees across the UK over the next year, saying it "falls woefully short" of what is needed in response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis.

Only £1 to come to conference

Our autumn federal party conference is being held online in September. There's a brilliant offer for people who have not come to conference before: you can register for just £1.

Conference will include an important trio of linked debates: on our party's values, our policy platform and our strategy. Traditionally, we have debated these separately at conference, even years apart. But all three need to fit together in a coherent way - which is one of the lessons from the 2019 election post-mortem. So this time we're doing things differently.

Epsom and Mole Valley Liberal Democrats have launched a petition to restore South Western Railway (SWR) rail services via Epsom and Mole Valley to pre-pandemic levels, and to abandon proposals, published "in partnership" with the Conservative Government, to make pandemic cuts to these services permanent from December 2022.