Flytipping in the borough is set to rise from 446 incidents in 2010-11 to a projected 600 incidents in 2011-12. It's an unacceptable increase say the Lib Dems, who want the council to adopt a zero tolerance policy and prosecute offenders.
There's good news for anyone who wants to report a noise nuisance to the council: they have agreed to provide an on-line reporting system.
The way developer's contributions to the council coffers are spent is changing. Previously the subject of a legal agreement known as a Section 106, in the future there will be a Community Infrastructure Levy, or CIL.
Disabled parking bays in Epsom's Town Hall car park are to stay, after RA councillors performed a U-turn on previously supporting a Lib Dem move to return 6 of the 20 bays for general use.
The borough council's "Plan E" published in April 2011 identifies land in Upper High Street, Depot Road and Church Street as suitable for development. Plan E envisaged the site being developed for a range of uses, including a foodstore and housing, as well as car parking.
Recent applications for temporary licences have exposed deep flaws in the planning and licensing laws, says Cllr Julie Morris, leader of the opposition on Epsom & Ewell Borough Council. Whereas the public expects the Planners, the Licensing Department and the Police to work together, current legislation requires Planning and Licensing to be considered in such an independent manner, that applicants are apparently trying to use one to override the other, with the Council hamstrung in its attempts to do anything to protect town centre residents. Some already suffer from noise and anti-social behaviour into the early hours at weekends. Using the system in this way could allow opening hours to ratchet up towards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Cllr Morris cites a recent application for a temporary licence over Christmas by a food outlet in the town centre that wants to open until 3am. The same establishment has had planning permission to open until this time refused. The Police are the only authority that can o
Cllr Hazel Watson, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council, said: "I am horrified that despite huge public opposition the Leader of the Council is talking about a referendum and a large council tax rise next year - he has clearly not listened to local residents.
Liberal Democrat county councillors are calling for the release of an "invisible" report, for which the Conservative administration at County Hall paid nearly £25,000. The report was quoted in the papers for the council's budget meeting on 7th February and relates to a "financial resilience review" which was carried out in November 2016 by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA) at the request of the Leader of the Council, and cost £24,500.
Liberal Democrat county councillors in Surrey have expressed their anger as the Conservative County Council was forced to reveal cuts of £346K to library resources over the next two years.
Liberal Democrat Councillors on Surrey County Council have called for the release of a list of 103 properties and parcels of land owned by the County Council and described as "assets" but details of which the council is refusing to share with councillors and residents. The 103 assets are "not in operational use" and were first referred to in council papers in December 2016 and despite repeated assurances from the county council that the information would be provided, the list has still not been shared with councillors. Cllr Hazel Watson, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council, then tabled a question at a meeting of the Cabinet on 31st January 2017 requesting more information but a list of the 103 assets was still not provided. Furthermore, the minutes of the meeting state that "to provide a full list was not an efficient use of time". Cllr Watson said today:
Liberal Democrat County Councillors have expressed their concern as new figures were released that reveal poor levels of public satisfaction with Conservative-run Surrey County Council.
