Thank you to all who voted for her, and for the army of volunteers who put so much effort in.
The work starts now.
You can watch her gracious acceptance speech via this link.
At last, the long-awaited Stones Road underpass has been re-opened. Surrey County Council's contractor still has some work to do on site, but local residents have already passed through it today, ahead of the "official" opening this Monday.
The Liberal Democrat Budget speech was once again delivered by Town ward councillor Alison Kelly.
A public consultaton on the future of a large area from Upper High Street to Church Street has just closed and the council will now prepare its formal development brief.
Conservative-run Surrey County Council has been forced to release a damaging financial report which warned in December 2016 that a 15% council tax referendum was "highly likely to fail". The report, produced by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA), cost nearly £25,000 and was commissioned in December but was only released to councillors on March 21st 2017, six weeks after the Council's budget meeting. The report states "In CIPFA's view a referendum is highly likely to fail" and goes on to note that the Council's financial position is "extremely worrying" and "the absence of a credible cost-reduction plan", and that "The council's financial plans are not robust and it is at risk of becoming financially unsustainable". It concludes that the council's financial resilience is "dependant on winning a referendum process, high levels of unidentified savings and rapidly declining reserves - not a good place!". Cllr Hazel Watson, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council,
Liberal Democrat Councillors have successfully called for Surrey County Council to oppose the Government's funding proposals which could leave schools in Surrey with a £37m hole in their budgets by 2019/20. It follows the release of a letter from a Surrey Headteacher warning his local Conservative MP that schools in Surrey may be forced to implement a 4-day week. Cllr Will Forster, who moved the motion at a Council meeting yesterday, said:
Cllr Hazel Watson said today:
The Liberal Democrats are committed to transforming maternal and neonatal care and ensuring inclusive care for all, so we can create a safer, more compassionate healthcare system for everyone.
Our market system should balance businesses’ needs and the rights and freedoms of workers.
The last ten days have been immensely difficult for our country.
