The papers for the Planning Committee meeting on 10 December include a recommendation to refuse the Planning Application for Horton Water Tower. The reasons given are the effect on adjacent dwellings and the effect on the appearance of the existing tower. The actual decision to refuse or to permit will be taken in public on Thursday by the councillors on the Planning Committee.
Christmas Lights have now gone up in Epsom's High Street. They are generally similar to those displayed last year. However the familiarity of the scene masks the efforts that have gone on so that shoppers in Epsom can enjoy the spectacle.
There was a good turn-out at the Public Meeting on Monday 30th November organised by Epsom's Lib Dems. Local residents were given an opportunity to exchange views on the redevelopment proposals for Epsom Station. The planning application still hasn't been registered by Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, who are understood to be calling for clearer drawings to be supplied.
Epsom & Ewell's Business Partnership Board (BPB) wants more input from local businesses, especially when it comes to recycling and planning issues.
Following the Public Meeting held at the Phoenix Club about Tesco's planning application to develop a new store in the Upper High Street, the meeting chairman Paul Linscott wrote to the Planning Department to pass on the main comments made at the meeting by members of the public. The text of his letter has now been posted on this website.
It has now been announced that the council will not after all be able to decide on Tesco's application to develop a new store in the Upper High Street at the December 10 meeting of the Planning Committee. Instead it will be decided at their meeting on 21 January 2010. It is understood that more time is needed because of the complexity of the application and to get replies from the other official bodies that the council needs to consult.
Following a long battle led by the Lib Dems, European governments, including the UK, have adopted a new law giving all criminal suspects in the EU the right to free interpretation and translation of questioning, court proceedings and essential documents. This right will apply right through from arrest to trial.
Surrey Liberal Democrats have slammed the Conservative-led County Council's plan for a massive increase in the cost of residents' on-street Parking Permits.
News that the use of rat poison by businesses and householders is to be protected in an EU regulation has been welcomed.
South-East England Lib Dem MEP Sharon Bowles participated in the Soroptimist International Conference on Human Trafficking, held recently in Leatherhead. The event was designed to raise awareness of trafficking and promote social justice.
Adding to her growing list of plaudits, local Lib Dem MEP Sharon Bowles has been named the most influential woman in world finance in the FCI's Top 500 list, published this month.
Next May there is a nationwide Referendum on changing the way we vote. Most people have little idea of how this voting system differs from the one we use at present which is called First-Past-The-Post.