"No" to Free Swimming
The Residents Association councillors have voted unanimously to once again veto acceptance of the government's "Free Swimming" scheme for under 16's and over 60's as far as Epsom & Ewell is concerned.
19 Sep 2009
News
Epsom and Ewell News
Special Council Meeting will Decide on Free Swimming
A special meeting of the Leisure Committee has been convened for 7th September and will decide upon central government's grant toward Free Swimming.
5 Sep 2009
A Date for your Diary
The Borough Council's Ranger Service will be giving a talk in the Elizabeth Welchman Garden, Downs Road, Epsom, on Saturday 12th September.
26 Aug 2009
Last Day of Plan E Consultation
The future of Epsom town centre could depend upon the results of the Plan E consultation, which closes on 24th August.
23 Aug 2009
HGV's could be Banned from Ewell Village
A new air quality report covering NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) levels in Ewell village has been published. It shows no improvement on the unacceptably high levels and an Action Plan is now needed to deal with the problem.
10 Aug 2009
A Tale of Small Businesses and An Empty Car Park
With Hook Road car park never more than half full and businessmen wanting cheaper parking in the town centre, the Lib Dems are brokering a marriage between the two.
7 Aug 2009
Surrey County Council News
Special Conference passes 'Building a fairer Britain in government'
The Liberal Democrat Special Conference in Birmingham overwhelmingly approved the party's Coalition Agreement with the Conservative Party. It passed the following resolution:
16 May 2010
Petitions to the County Council
The County Council's Conservative administration has recently decided to allow members of the public to submit petitions at meetings of the whole Council, not just at committee meetings. This is something that the Liberal Democrat group at County Hall have requested many times in order to open up the Council, but which until now has always been refused by the Conservative administration, even as recently as March this year.
28 May 2010
Agency Staff Savings
The Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council have for many years regularly suggested that the County Council could make significant savings by reducing its reliance on costly agency staff by reducing the number of agency staff and using its own directly-employed staff instead. At last someone has listened.
25 May 2010
"School special" buses - an endangered species
Proposals to cut "school special" bus services, in some cases from this September, brought such strong public opposition from parents and schools that none of them will be removed before September 2011. However, this is just a reprieve. All "school special" bus services across the county are still being considered for closure, with the Cabinet expected to come to a decision on 13 July.
16 May 2010
Youth Work - Cinderella Services at the Cutting Edge
For years services for young people such as the Youth Development Service have been Surrey's Cinderella. Budgets have been cut, with staff posts left unfilled and then frozen.This year a re-organisation at the top takes away the Youth Development Officers who lead the work in each Borough and District and further managers, replacing all thirteen posts with just four operations managers to run youth work for the whole county.
19 May 2010
Cuts in Respite Care for Disabled Children
Improving services for disabled children was one of the requirements of the Improvement Notice issued to Surrey County Council in 2008, after inspectors said Surrey services for vulnerable children and young people were 'inadequate'. Yet Ruth House, the residential facility for respite care attached to Freemantles School for autistic children, is reducing the number of beds offered from twenty to ten, whilst the opening of Applewood, the new children's home at Banstead built to provide respite care for disabled children with complex needs, has been deferred, even though it has recently been approved by Ofsted as ready for use.
22 May 2010