Anyone who attended the recent Town Hall meeting about Epsom Hospital, hoping to hear a clear statement about its future, came away disappointed. There was very little hard news - but at least none of it was bad.
It's not often that we, as the official opposition, commend our borough council, but in the case of the recent snow, the staff from Epsom & Ewell's Operational Services Department were positively heroic!
The vacant seat in Ruxley ward was taken by the Conservatives with a margin of 201 over the RA. Labour took the seat in Court ward with a margin of 34 over the Lib Dems.
Next week an exhibition begins to appraise and consider management plans for the five hospital cluster Conservation Areas. These areas were created when three former hospitals were developed for residential housing, with two more due for development in the coming years.
The borough council is to host a public meeting on Epsom General Hospital on Wednesday 4th March at 7.30 pm in the council chamber.
Despite constructive proposals from the Lib Dem opposition for a smaller rise, the RA-led borough council have set an above-inflation increase in Council Tax of 3.9%. Taken with the 2.9% increase for Surrey County Council and 4.9% for the Surrey police, this will lead to an overall increase of 3.3% in Council Tax bills in the borough.
"Support the Lib Dems next Thursday", says The Observer. As well as its Editorial, an article by Andrew Rawnsley praises Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats in the run-up to the elections for the European Parliament and the County Council as the one party that has consistently advocated Constitutional Reform and the one that has come out of the expenses scandal much less sleazed than either Labour or the Tories.
Over the last four years, the Tories running Surrey County Council have provided poor services for residents, wasted millions of pounds of Council Taxpayers money and produced continual spin claiming that the council is "outstanding" when plainly it is not. The outcome of this sorry state of affairs is the demotion of the Council by the Audit Commission from a 4 Star council in 2005 to a 1 Star council in 2008.
Intriguing information about Europe - and what it does for us.
Reacting to the Government's announcement that all Gurkha veterans with four years' service would be allowed to move to the UK, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said he was "absolutely thrilled". The announcement follows a key House of Commons vote led by the Liberal Democrats that the Government lost. It outlined rules that will allow Gurkhas who retired before 1997 with four years service to settle here with their immediate families.
It has been announced that, subject to the approval of parliament, the Surrey Police Authority (SPA) will be capped. They will have to refund £1.6 million (about £3 on average per council tax payer) at a cost of a further £1.2 million for re-billing. The news broke just hours after the SPA had met in public last Tuesday, when the chairman Mr Peter Williams had said they were still awaiting the government's decision following representations made to ministers by the SPA.
The cost of the county council's pension fund to Surrey residents looks set to rise steeply. Last year it represented almost 5% of our council tax payments, but due to the fund's worsened deficit (almost 50%) this is likely to rise to over 8% by next year, according to figures obtained recently by Cllr Colin Taylor.
