Spelthorne
Liberal Democrats

Surrey County Council News

Eighteen youth centres face Tory axe

After an initial period of close secrecy, the names of 18 youth centres in Surrey planned for closure following the Tories' BDR review have been released. This had earlier been presented as 15 closures, apparently because 3 new facilities are also planned. Councillors representing the divisions affected by the closures have been offered a meeting where the reasons behind these decisions will be explained. Meanwhile the names of the 18 youth facilities at risk are:

3 Feb 2006
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A Wasted Opportunity?

The issue of waste remains high on the agenda in Surrey, with not one but two draft waste plans up for discussion. The first, which ended its 6 week period of public consultation in December 2005, comes from the position of Surrey County Council (SCC) as the Waste Planning Authority (WPA) and is called "The Surrey Waste Plan - The Preferred Plan". This basically sets out the County's overall strategy of where and how waste should be handled, giving site specific details. The Liberal Democrats at County Hall criticised this plan as being fundamentally flawed, back in September, because it was predicated on incineration and highlighted a preferred site, Capel. We are still awaiting the results of the public consultation.

3 Feb 2006
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Surrey's roads set to get worse

Surrey County Council has outsourced its highways maintenance to two contractors, one for the west and one for the east. Since its start 3 years ago the management of this Tory-inspired arrangement has been heavily criticised, with work not being done on time or to budget. Lib Dems are seeking to ensure that these issues are addressed by beefing up the management of the contract and ensuring that its performance indicator criteria deliver on-time and on-budget results. We are very concerned that yet another Tory reorganisation of the transportation service (proposed in the Business Delivery Review) will damage the county's ability to manage the contractors. Also proposed in the BDR is a cut in the maintenance budget to spend more on capital. In the short term (5 years) that will mean worse roads in Surrey!

2 Feb 2006
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Tories plan to close six libraries

As part of the BDR review ordered by SCC's Tory executive - and endorsed at a council meeting with only the Lib Dems voting against - there are plans to close six libraries in order to ensure that SCC hits government CPA targets for the ones that will remain open.The libraries that are proposed for closure are:

2 Feb 2006
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Liberal Democrats Oppose Cuts in Services

At the County Council meeting today the Liberal Democrats opposed proposals to cut services. The proposals were made in a report prepared by consultants for the Business Delivery Review commissioned by the Conservative administration to find £50 million of savings in County Council expenditure. Councillor Hazel Watson, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council said: "This Review was supposed to identify savings without cutting frontline services. Unfortunately it has failed. The proposals include closing 15 youth centres and 6 libraries as well as cutting bus services. On top of this, the proposals drastically reduce the number of highways staff, which is likely to worsen the ability of highways to deal with problems promptly.

24 Jan 2006
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Executive decides not to proceed with new County Hall

Surrey County Council's Executive have decided not to proceed with its PFI contract plans to build a new County Hall in Brewery Road, Woking. They announced this last week, but without revealing which other alternative they want to pursue instead. As a result of questions by County Councillor John Doran (Woking, Horsell) at this week's Council meeting it emerged that the Executive have not yet agreed how best to proceed and an announcement about the future should not be expected for some time.

24 Jan 2006
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