With local schools being expanded this year, and others expected in the next few years, Cllrs Anna Jones and Colin Taylor, together with county council candidate Diana Coman, are leading the way in a dialogue with local residents over concerns about traffic and safety.
Last year, Conservative dreams of seeing Surrey declared an 'excellent' County Council were shattered by Ofsted's shocking findings in the Joint Area Review. Vulnerable children were not safe in Surrey. By the Autumn the Secretary of State had given Surrey notice that it must carry out a demanding two-year improvement programme, meeting a rigorous series of targets, or risk having its services taken over.
Local authorities with responsibility for parking enforcement will be able to issue penalty charges to drivers who double park or block dropped kerbs from next month.
In this year's budget the Tories included bus service cuts as one of the ways of paying for a lower council tax increase than in previous years. More than 10% of the subsidy will be cut next year.
Surrey County Council's most popular move, since the introduction of "Local Committees" to oversee Highways works, has been the provision of "Community Gangs" working in consultation with local county councillors, to deal with potholes, loose kerb stones and paving slabs, over-hanging vegetation, minor repairs and repainting etc. However, in their budget, the Conservatives had announced that they would be cutting the time these gangs can spend in each area - and last week the axe fell.
"We Will NEVER Consult Residents ..." - so said an RA committee chairman at a borough council meeting in response to a question from the Liberal Democrats about the government-backed "Over 60s Swimming" scheme which had not been taken up in Epsom & Ewell, unlike some other neighbouring boroughs.
The Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council have voted against the Tory administration's budget for 2010/11 at County Hall. Leader of the Liberal Democrats Cllr Hazel Watson said: "I support the 2.5% level of Council Tax increase proposed for the Council. Many Surrey residents are struggling to pay their bills during the economic downturn and therefore the Council Tax needs to be set as low as possible whilst allowing for adequate funding for services. I oppose, however, the content of the budget proposed by the Conservative administration as it does the opposite of what Surrey residents want."
Commenting on Government plans to cut university funding by more than £500m, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Universities Secretary Stephen Williams said: "The Government failed to live up to its commitment to fund extra university places and now it seems to be punishing the universities that went out of their way to help the pupils that had been let down."
The Surrey Police Authority has recently approved a seven point plan for Surrey Police in order to address their anticipated funding shortfall over the next three years to increase front-line police officers and further improve policing. This initiative has been supported by the Lib Dem members of the Police Authority.
Liberal Democrat County Councillors have voiced their strong opposition to cuts in services by the Conservative administration. The Conservative run Cabinet has this Autumn decided to terminate all Pegasus school bus services in July 2010, to reduce the ordinary public bus services and reduce the number of roads to be gritted in winter in advance of ice and snow.
For many years the Liberal Democrats have been arguing that there are better and safer modern green alternatives to mass burn incineration. The announcement by the Tories that they will abandon "energy from waste" (mass burn incineration) has finally recognised that the Lib Dem position has been correct all long. Apart from the environmental impact, mass burn incineration is known to discourage councils from recycling waste.
The Audit Commission has today published a report rating Surrey County Council's performance as merely "adequate". The Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) rated the performance of the organisation with scores from 1 to 4 for managing performance, use of resources, managing finances, governing the business and managing resources. The County Council only achieved a score of 2 out of 4 which means that it meets only minimum requirements and only performs adequately.
