The expected formal planning application by London & Quadrant Housing Trust to convert the redundant water tower on Livingstone Park for housing has now been registered by the borough council. Lib Dem ward councillors have called a Public Meeting to be held on site next to the Water Tower at 10.00 am on Saturday 7th November.
When Lib Dem councillors asked the council to consider free parking on Sundays, in the run up to Christmas - they did the same last year - there was no guarantee of success!
Epsom & Ewell Lib Dems have arranged a public meeting on Monday 30th November (7.30pm, The Phoenix Club in Depot Road) so that residents can share their views on the plans to develop in and around Epsom Station.
Epsom & St Helier NHS Trust are holding a public meeting on Wednesday 11th November, billed as " An opportunity to learn more about our plans to spend millions of pounds redeveloping the Epsom Hospital site."
Epsom & Ewell Liberal Democrats have arranged a public meeting for Tuesday 17th November, 7.30 pm, at The Phoenix Club in Depot Road.
When the council agreed to hold a public meeting in June to discuss the future of Horton Chapel, they were persuaded to repeat the exercise before Christmas to advise local residents what progress had been made.
The Conservative administration at County Hall has today announced cuts to the County Council's budget. Responding to the allocation of the cuts, the Leader of the Liberal Democrat main opposition group, Cllr Hazel Watson said: "I disagree with the allocation of the cuts by the Conservative administration. The £3.9m cut to front-line services for Children and Young people is excessive. This will be very damaging to services for vulnerable children and young people in Surrey. It was only about two years ago that children's services were rated inadequate by Government and these cuts will not help to improve the service."
On May 5th 2011, as well as elections for Borough and District Councils, there will be a National Referendum on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote - a fairer voting system where voters can rank the candidates 1, 2, 3 etc instead of marking just one with an X.
A recent survey has revealed that more Surrey residents are dissatisfied with the County Council and its services in 2010 than in 2009. The results of public satisfaction from January to the end of March 2010 were contained in the Joint Neighbourhood Survey, which was commissioned and managed by the Council in partnership with Surrey Police.
Last week Jane Kulka, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Reigate, attended Surrey County Council's consultation meeting for the School Special Bus review. The county council are looking for savings in all areas that they fund. "SCC Officers presented their case for cutting some services, she said, "However there were some serious and obvious flaws and omissions in their presentation".
After months of worry over the uncertainty of the future of Surrey's bus services, there was some surprising good news recently for residents of Reigate, Woking and Spelthorne following the first phase of a county wide bus review triggered by a decision last year to slash millions from the transport budget.
Despite a call by Lib Dem county councillor Colin Taylor for a quick decision in principle, SCC Tories have voted to defer any decision on the Lib Dem proposal to return to the more democratic Committee System. Instead the proposal will be referred to a Select Committee.
