Epsom & Ewell Liberal Democrats

Today councillors at Surrey County Council agreed to the purchase of Midas House in Woking.

The County Council has been looking to move out of its current home in Kingston for some time and has chosen the office building as the location for its new Civic Heart.

The current headquarters, County Hall, is expensive to run, not fit for purpose and not in Surrey. Midas House is a much smaller building and only councillors, the senior leadership team and some support staff will be based there; others will be relocated to offices in Leatherhead, Guildford and Reigate.

The 2.7% rise in rail fares from January 1^st 2020 is a "kick in the teeth" for rail passengers, who are already paying over the odds for a shoddy service with overcrowded, delayed or cancelled trains.

This increase will leave commuters from all 8 local stations paying much more for their season tickets. Only the Conservatives think it is the right policy to put rail fares up now. Under Lib Dem plans, the 2020 increase would be cancelled and commuter rail fares would be frozen for the next five years, while we sort out the mess in rail franchises.

The Lib Dems have announced they would more than double spending on youth services in Surrey to £33,998,703,to help tackle rising levels of crime. This would form part of a total ring-fenced fund of £500 million for Local Authorities across England to spend on youth services, providing young people with positive, safe and healthy alternatives to gangs.

From local resident Sarah Clayton, via Nextdoor.com

"We have now formed a small Epsom XR group, to keep building the movement. Extinction Rebellion is calling for change, radical change - in the way our politics, economics and society works - in order to cut carbon emissions and attempt to keep the planetary climate stable enough for life as we know it.

Following a request by the Lib Dems, Surrey County Council has agreed to exempt young care leavers from paying its share of Council Tax.

Earlier today, Surrey's Full Council approved a report from the Cabinet to give young people who have been in the care system a discount of 75% on their Council Tax, which is the Surrey Council portion of Council Tax bills. About 600 young people under 25 who have left the care of the Council will no longer have to pay full Council Tax from next April.

The Lib Dems have called on Surrey County Council to back a bill that would increase the fines for leaving vehicles idling and make it easier to levy fines.

During tomorrow's Full Council meeting, Councillor Will Forster will ask the Leader of Surrey County Council to call on the Government and Surrey's MPs to support the Vehicle Emissions (Idling Penalties) Bill.

The Liberal Democrat Group at SCC is concerned that the service was declared inadequate by Inspectors in December, and that the service is still seriously short of trained firefighters as a result of previous proposed cuts and a recruitment freeze. We believe the current plan to cut night time cover will unacceptably reduce response times; any change to the SFRS agreed by the Council should not reduce response times.

You are invited to join our fledgling social media sites - it's a great way to keep in touch with what's going on at the moment.

Facebook public group COLLEGE WARD FOCUS has lots of info on environmental issues and doesn't just relate to College ward, although the administrators are your College ward Focus team which includes your Borough Councillors.

For World Environment Day, Liberal Democrat Climate Change spokesperson Wera Hobhouse tabled a bill to give local authorities more powers to issue fines to idling vehicles.

The Bill will increase penalties for stationary vehicle idling offences, as well as increasing fines for those who repeatedly offend.

World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. This year the focus is on tackling air pollution.

Speaking ahead of tabling her bill, Wera Hobhouse said:

"For far too long this Conservative Government has failed to take air pollution seriously. They have lost numerous court cases over their inability to tackle the toxic fumes that Britain breathes every day. Liberal Democrats demand better.

"This is a major crisis, with emissions from vehicles responsible for a myriad of health problems, many terminal. Research shows that 800,000 people die every year across Europe due to air pollution.

"Yet the Conservative Government do nothing.

"The legislation that I have tabled is crucial step in tackling our air pollution crisis. It will allow local authorities to clamp down on idling without the need to apply to the Government first, and it will enable them to increase fines on repeat offenders.

"We must do more to tackle both the climate emergency and the air pollution crisis. The Tories must stop wilfully ignoring the problem and back my Bill."