More items subject to Tory Tip Tax from 3rd June

As the Eco-Park saga continues, Spelthorne Liberal Democrats are disappointed by the additional charges that are set to be introduced from 3rd June, particularly for waste wood and household rubble.

Liberal Democrats across Surrey have already been very vocal about the issues surrounding the charges and inconvenient changes at the 'Eco-Park' on Charlton Lane and similar sites across Surrey dubbed the 'Tory Tip Tax' - https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/fly-tipping-surrey-lib-dems-12886340. We are concerned that as a consequence of these additional charges we will see an increase in fly-tipping, which costs the council more to clear up, as well as causing significant annoyance to residents.

This additional charging is part of a long list of issues that residents have raised with local Lib Dem campaigners in relation to the Eco-Park. The Lib Dem Group leader and member of the Eco-Park Community Liaison Group, Sandra Dunn, commented - "We believe more information needs to be out there in the public domain. Unless residents read the Eco Park website they will not be aware of what is happening on the site and this leads to misinformation. These charges are an additional thorn in the side that residents don't deserve and effectively punish residents who are doing the right thing'.

Spelthorne Liberal Democrats therefore are taking the following steps and need your support in several of these:

1) Using the Eco-Park Community Liaison Group to channel residents frustrations. To support this we would welcome any comments and feedback to developments to be emailed to us. You can do this by emailing your local Lib Dem councillor, emailing info@spelthornelibdems.org.uk or on https://spelthornelibdems.org.uk/en/views

2) Sign the petition against these charges on the Surrey County Council website. We believe this is a good channel to add momentum to the Surrey-wide expression of discontent at the changes -

3) Because of the increase in the number of Liberal Democrat councillors after the local elections in May we have been able to secure two places on the Local Area Committee. This is a joint committee between Spelthorne Borough and Surrey County councils. We will be raising this issue and expressing our discontent through a written report, petition data and our own localised campaign.

4) We have set up an additional campaign locally to encourage sign ups to the petition and a localised response. If you wish to get involved with this, please get in touch. This will feed into our discussions at the above meetings. More details on this will follow over the coming days.

Most importantly, we want residents of Spelthorne to know that we are working closely with our Lib Dem colleagues across the County, as well as with resident groups and other parties to remove the charges for domestic waste disposal, which we believe are unacceptable.

Local Liberal Democrats are working to resolve the situation and we shall keep residents informed.

Details of the charges for waste disposal across Surrey's sites can be found at here