Epsom & Ewell Liberal Democrats

The Focus team in College Ward ran a successful campaign in the borough elections 2019 with David Gulland and Julie Morris both elected as councillors and André Kubicek missing out by a mere 11 votes. The election result was not an unusual one, but the number of "split" votes was most definitely unusual. There were hundreds. Some residents had voted for one Lib Dem, one RA and one Conservative. Does this voting pattern reflect a desire on the part of residents for all the parties to work together? Most certainly the candidates being listed on the ballot paper in the alphabetical order of their surname influenced the result. With the Euro elections upon us, there is just one X required on the ballot paper on 23rd May, not three as there were in the borough elections.

Surrey County Council own a broad range of land and property assets both in and outside of the County, with a total value of around £1.5bn. At the Cabinet meeting last week it was revealed that Surrey will be 'pausing' investment out of county for the time being whilst they evaluate the use of existing properties.

The 2nd May 2019 saw one of the largest quantities of local elections across the country for a long time, and Surrey was no exception. People turned out to elect their new local councillors, and it was a great success for the Liberal Democrats in Surrey.

There were 110 Liberal Democrat Councillors elected across the 11 boroughs and districts, and the Liberal Democrats gained control of the Council in Mole Valley.

Surrey County Council has a statutory duty to publicise the equalities and diversity profile of its workforce annually, at a minimum, as per The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011*. Unfortunately Surrey County Council have failed to do so.

The Council last publicised these statistics on its website in February 2016 - over 3 years ago now. This is why Fiona White has submitted a question for the Cabinet meeting taking place on Tuesday 30th April to find out why.

The Liberal Democrats have condemned the Conservative Government for slashing Surrey County Council budget for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by £4,403.72 per pupil in real terms since 2015, resulting in a loss of specialist provision.

The National Education Union, which published these statistics on 15 April, has warned that local authorities have now reached crisis point.

Although children with the highest special educational needs and disabilities have a legal right to extra support, the National Education Union has warned that funding under the Conservative Government has failed to keep up with increasing costs and rising pupil numbers.

The Liberal Democrats are campaigning for more money for these pupils who possess an Education, Health and Care Plan, saving schools and councils hundreds of millions of pounds.

Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, Layla Moran MP, said:

"Everyone deserves the best start in life, and education can be the make or break difference. It is therefore heartbreaking, particularly as a teacher, that Conservative Ministers are failing the children most in need.

"It doesn't need to be this way. Young people deserve better, and the Liberal Democrats demand better. That's why we would invest millions more to support children with an Education, Health and Care Plan, freeing up money in the schools budget to provide tailored in-school support for children with less complex additional needs such as dyslexia."

Cllr Angela Goodwin, Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Guildford North, said:

"SEND funding is an investment in a child's future. It can help someone with a learning difficulty or disability secure a higher paid job, security and independence in later life.

Just a few days after criticial local elections across all of Surrey, residents who use Bagshot, Cranleigh, Dorking and Warlingham CRCs will only be able to take recycling to these sites, from Tuesday 7 May 2019. The change comes following a Cabinet decision in January 2019 to keep the sites open temporarily in order to find an alternate route of funding.

The County Council admitted in its Cabinet meeting, on the 26th March 2019, that the car park charges introduced last year at the Norbury Park car parks has resulted in substantially fewer vehicles being parked in the car parks than anticipated.

This admission came as Liberal Democrat County Councillor Hazel Watson (Dorking Hills) questioned the Cabinet Member responsible for introducing the charges at the Cabinet Meeting held at County Hall.

The Liberal Democrats today saw success when their motion aimed at cutting the costs spent on interim staff at Surrey County Council was adopted. The motion, proposed by Cllr Chris Botten, and seconded by Cllr Will Forster was produced in reaction to recent news that Surrey was recruiting for another interim manager on a £90,000+ annual salary.

Two onerous responsibilities impacted on me at the beginning of this week. You may have seen the BBC programme in which Gareth Malone trains a choir for a concert at the school which sits beneath the hulk of Grenfell Tower. In a very moving film, he works to identify talent among the remarkably resilient and interesting young people, who lost many of their school friends in the fire. Among them is a young man with an obvious talent and imagination, but who finds school challenging because he has had to move to new foster parents; he has difficulty trusting people because as he gets to know them they seem to abandon him.

The 8th March 2019 marks International Women's Day across the globe, and we Liberal Democrats at Surrey County Council want to wish all the strong women across Surrey, and further, a very happy International Women's Day. At County Hall four of our nine Liberal Democrat councillors are women, and this is something we are proud of but hoping to further improve on in all future local elections.