Noise Nuisance Reporting
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.
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
A meeting of the Local Committee on Monday 5th December has agreed to accept an urgent item on its agenda concerning hazardous parking in Church Road, Epsom
Liberal Democrat county councillors have launched a petition to fight against school funding cuts in Surrey. Recent figures from the National Union of Teachers show that schools in Surrey will lose £37 MILLION in real terms by 2020. New government estimates obtained by the National Audit Office show that schools in England will have to make cuts of £3 billion by 2020 in order to cope with increased costs. The Government wants over half of these cuts to come from schools' teaching budgets. Cllr Will Forster, Liberal Democrat county councillor for Woking South, said: "Current levels of funding in Surrey are not enough if schools are to manage new cost pressures such as increases in National Insurance and a new tax to pay for apprenticeships. In addition, the County Council is being squeezed by the Conservative Government's 75% cut in the funding it uses to support school improvements and provide local schools with music lessons, ICT equipment and accounting advice" "Schools across the county are considering dra
Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council have called for the Leader of the Council, Councillor David Hodge, to resign or face a Motion of No Confidence following the release of emails last night which revealed he had written to the Prime Minister asking for more cash "so that Surrey will continue to be a heartland for the Conservatives". In another email he bemoaned the fact that the Conservative Government "ties my hands and fails to support...(the)...largest Conservative Group in UK".
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.