Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council are asking "Where is Conservative-run Surrey County Council's Budget?"
Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition Cllr Hazel Watson says: "With only three weeks to go until Surrey County Council's 2012/13 Budget setting meeting on 7 February, the Conservative administration has not yet even published a draft budget for consultation.
The Government introduced the Feed-in-tariffs (FiT) to encourage early take up of renewable technology in April 2010. Surrey County Council finally approved a scheme to install solar panels on 25 buildings in July 2011. Yet when the Government announced a cut to the FiT rate, they still had not installed a single solar panel.
Conservative controlled Surrey County Council could have kept bus passes starting at 9.00 am and still underspent by £150,000 on this year's local buses budget!
£351,000: The amount saved by Conservative controlled Surrey County Council by cutting concessionary bus passes for the elderly and disabled from a 9.00 am start to a 9.30 am start.
Commenting on the end of US military operations in Iraq, Former Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Menzies Campbell said: "Although Iraq has slipped down the British political agenda it should never be forgotten that the cost of the disastrous decision to join the United States in military action against Iraq was and remains enormous.
"Unjustified optimism based on inadequate intelligence and unthinking determination to remain close to the Bush administration led the United Kingdom into one of the most ill-advised foreign affairs decisions in living memory.
"The only hope is that we have learned lessons from a badly judged venture. The implications of the Iraq decision should inform every policy decision to commit British troops in the future."
Sharon Bowles, Liberal Democrat Euro MP, who chairs the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in the European Parliament deplored the use of the veto by David Cameron during the recent European summit late night negotiations.
Speaking during a plenary debate this morning in the European Parliament Sharon Bowles said:
We are continually told that everyone has to suffer because there is no money. Therefore you may have been surprised to discover that the government has found an extra £41million pounds to spend.
On which deserving cause you may ask? Disabled ex-servicemen, hospitals, schools, youth unemployment, public sector pensions, repairing pot holes, reducing tuition fees etc. Sadly no. The £41million is EXTRA money, on top of that already committed, for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. More fireworks etc. When asked to justify this colossal waste of public money in a time of austerity the minister said, " We have to spend this extra £41m or we would have been criticised."
The gathering Eurozone crisis - particularly the dramatic summit on Friday when David Cameron dug his heels in - has generated a variety of comments from Lib Dem spokespeople.
The news media do not generally give Lib Dems much coverage, so here are some key comments, including some not widely reported.
The controversial waste processing development in Charlton Lane, Shepperton has been given clearance to go ahed by Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, despite calls from local residents' representatives for a call-in for review of Surrey County Council's decision by his department.
Surrey County Council's Liberal Democrats have welcomed the major U-turn by the Conservative administration in its plans to turn a further nine libraries into "Community Partnership Libraries", but say it doesn't go far enough.
The U-turn, announced today by the Council Leader sees nine libraries; Ash, Caterham Hill, Frimley Green, Hersham, Horsley, Knaphill, Lightwater, Shepperton and West Byfleet saved from the plans, but the original ten libraries; Bagshot, Bramley, Byfleet, Ewell Court, Lingfield, New Haw, Stoneleigh, Tattenhams, Virginia Water and Warlingham still being pushed ahead to be managed by volunteers, although it was also announced they would receive one member of staff for 20% of their opening hours.
