The council is expanding its doorstep collection of waste later this month after years of pressure from Liberal Democrats councillors. The first areas to benefit from collection of cardboard and plastic bottles are confirmed as Nonsuch, Stoneleigh, Ewell and parts of Town and College wards.
With a pilot scheme well underway in Court Recreation Ground, Tennis for Free has launched a second scheme in the borough - in Alexandra Recreation Ground. The launch on 17th January was attended by upwards of 50 youngsters, all of whom set their sights on being great tennis players in the future!
The Mayor of Epsom and Ewell, Cllr Alan Winkworth, is to stand down from office for a few weeks, amidst coverage in the local and national press that he has been unfit to officiate at public functions.
The Lib Dem candidate for the by-election to be held in Ruxley ward on 26th February, is Margaret Derrett, who has lived in the borough for 22 years.
Julia Kirkland, chosen as the Lib Dem candidate in the forthcoming by-election on 26th February, is hoping to take over in Court ward and join Councillors David Morgan and David Buxton in representing the residents of Longmead, Livingstone Park and the roads in between.
Lower Mole Countryside Management project volunteers carry out practical work in the countryside and rely on help to achieve their Winter Programme with Epsom Downs the focus this coming week.
County Hall Tories have refused to back down in the face of a Lib Dem demand for the Council to stop wasting taxpayers' money, by putting an end to its legal action against the 1 Star Rating it recently received from Ofsted.
The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled that a challenge to secret EU laws should succeed. It said that bans on taking prohibited item like weapons and liquids on planes can have no legal force if they are not published.
The European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy committee meeting in Strasbourg has voted in favour of further reductions in mobile-phone roaming charges. The report on the "Roaming 2" regulation, drafted by ALDE (Lib Dem) MEP Adina-Ioana Valean from Romania extends the regulation for voice roaming and widens its scope to include roaming SMS text and data services, as well as including more transparency measures.
Surrey County Council has been downgraded from 3 stars to 1 by the Audit Commission, the Government body that assesses the performance of local authorities. They have concluded from the most recent inspections carried out last year that Surrey services are performing inadequately and failing its most vulnerable residents.
The Liberal Democrats have opposed Surrey County Council's budget as "fundamentally flawed". Surrey council tax payers will continue to receive poor services over the next year, after the ruling Conservative administration adopted a budget that cuts bus services, pot hole repairs, gritting and road gully cleaning.
Arising from a challenge by Capel Parish Council to the Surrey Waste Plan, a High Court judge has stated that he will quash SCC's recent planning permission for the Capel Incinerator. A similar thing happened to the previous planning consent given in 2001, though that was on a challenge by the Capel Action Group to the SCC officers' report to the Planning & Regulatory Committee.
