At a meeting on 3rd September, Epsom & Walton Downs Conservators gave the go-ahead for two days of concerts (13th and 14th June 2009) on Epsom Downs and their decision was approved with support from the Borough Council at a specially convened meeting on Friday 12th September.
The Borough Council in association with Nam Yang Martial Arts Centre are staging a Fun Day in Alexandra Recreation Ground on Saturday 13th September.
Demolition is well underway of the former Allam Motors site in Upper High Street, Epsom and one councillor at least has welcomed swift action taken by new owners confirmed as Tesco.
Following the damning Ofsted review of Surrey County Council's services for vulnerable children (see the previous news item) the Lib Dem group of councillors have called on the Tory Leader of the Council to resign.
A Joint Area Review of Surrey and its partners' Children' Services, published by Ofsted this July, highlights shocking failures to keep children safe and to meet the needs of young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
Surrey County Council's Lib Dem councillors, which include Colin Taylor representing Epsom & Ewell SW Division, have published their achievements over the past couple of years. SW Division takes in the Epsom wards of Town, Stamford and part of Court.
The 'equal preference' system for school admissions was first used for admissions to Surrey schools this year, September 2007. It means that parents don't have to worry that they will lose a place in the second or third of their preferred schools if the first school is full, just because they did not place those schools first.
When the Conservative administration at County Hall took an axe to its Emergency Planning department as part of a major review, the 11 staff were reduced to just 7 - putting the whole county at risk. All the staff bar one left, leaving the county in an extraordinarily vulnerable state for several months, made worse because a freeze in recruitment blocked the advertising for new staff.
At the Transport Select Committee on 5th December members were given the latest set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the ill fated Surrey Highways Partnership (SHiP). The SHiP is the arrangement whereby Carillion manages road maintenance in the East of the County and Ringway in the West. Although there has been some improvement things are still not good enough.
Surrey County Council Liberal Democrats have called on the ruling Conservative administration to urgently prioritize filling vacancies to front-line services in what group leader Cllr Hazel Watson said was a clear case of the Council "taking its eye off the ball". Nearly two years on from SCC's Business Delivery Review (BDR) which was supposed to result in a "Council fit for purpose" with the right workforce to deliver those services, front-line services are still short on essential staff according to the Liberal Democrats.
Legal claims from motorists who allege their vehicles were damaged because of the poor condition of Surrey's roads are likely to double by the end of this year. In 2006 Surrey County Council received 518 public liability claims from drivers relating to the condition of the roads. The number of highways claims made between January and mid October 2007 reached 954, which is almost double the number for the whole of last year. In 2007 up to mid October, 50 claims totalling nearly £33,000 have been paid by the County Council. However further claims are likely to be received and to be paid before the end of the year.
Liberal Democrats are getting increasingly anxious at the growing threat of over development in Surrey. The Inquiry into the new South East Plan has recommended an increase in housing numbers, with Green Belt reviews in parts of the county. In addition the government has just published a housing Green Paper which makes it clear that Gordon Brown's government wants to see an increase in housing even beyond the levels set out by the Inquiry.
