Epsom & Ewell Liberal Democrats

It is quite ironic that Epsom's Residents' Association (RA) council is pushing to over-develop the site of the Wells social centre with a four-storey building of 23 flats. Epsom had the fantastic windfall of having the huge sites of five redundant hospitals made available to develop for residential purposes.

Parking charges of £1.30 per hour, with a maximum charge of £5.00 per day, were introduced in the car parks on Surrey County Council's Countryside Estate, including those at Norbury Park, on 6 August 2018 despite significant opposition from local residents. Previously there was no charge.

Liberal Democrat County Councillor Hazel Watson (Dorking Hills) said: "Following the introduction of the parking charges, the car parks, unsurprisingly, have been virtually empty.

Railway cutting land at Mill Road, Epsom, now mostly behind green hoardings, is the subject of another planning application. 18/00271/FUL proposes 31 units in a serious of blocks, with associated parking. The area to the north of the site is retained as a wildlife sanctuary (where there are badger setts and other wildlife). Comments must be submitted to the council by 13th October.

This coming Saturday 8th September, there is an opportunity for everyone to visit derelict Horton Chapel

Visitors can learn about the heritage of the site and the plans which have been made for its future use.

Free tickets are available from hortonchapelproject.org

Horton Chapel Arts & Heritage Society has been created to develop and run the building along charitable lines. It bid successfully from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is currently awaiting legal matters to be processed by the borough council before starting on work.

Liberal Democrat county councillors in Surrey have expressed concerns for the future of the County's Children's Centre provision in the light of the sudden departure of one of their leading champions and advocates from the senior team at County Hall. The departure comes after plans to reduce provision were announced by the Conservative-administration earlier this year but with no detail as to which of the County's 58 Children's Centres would close.

Liberal Democrat county councillors in Surrey have criticised the ruling Conservative administration for recruiting a new "Business Manager" post, on a salary of more than £43,000, when at the same time planning hundreds of staff redundancies and millions of pounds of cuts to front line services.

The advert, which has appeared on the Guardian website, seeks to recruit a "skilled networker" to County Hall whose work "will often be politically sensitive". The salary offered is £43,638 for a working week of 36 hours, with the promise of a "generous local government salary related pension".

Liberal Democrat county councillors are calling for Surrey County Council to make urgent financial preparations following a recent judgement in Bristol in which a group of parents successfully challenged Bristol City Council's decision to make deep cuts in special educational needs (SEND) provision. Parents in Surrey have launched a similar judicial review challenging the County Council on cuts to its SEND budget of £21m, which will be heard in October this year.

Surrey County Council has commissioned a second report from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA) to review its financial resilience. This follows a report commissioned in December 2016, costing nearly £25,000, which warned that the financial position of the County Council was "extremely worrying" and that "it is risk of becoming financially unsustainable".

County Councillors in Surrey have agreed that children's mental health and special needs provision should be the subject of detailed study in partnership with universities and others so that current and future demand for these services can be met. Cllr Chris Botten, Leader of the Lib Dems at SCC moved an amended motion at yesterday's Council meeting, which was passed unanimously, calling for future needs to be understood in the context of current unacceptable waiting lists for CAMHS treatment and a severe shortage of SEND places in the County.

Liberal Democrat county councillors are calling for urgent improvements to Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services, known as CAMHS, in the county. Surrey County Council currently commissions these services from Surrey & Borders NHS Trust but there has been strong criticism of the long waiting times for routine assessments and appointments. Liberal Democrat county councillors have tabled a motion on CAMHS to be discussed at Council next week.