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Welcome to the website of the Liberal Democrat group on Surrey County Council. We hope you find it interesting. Amongst other things you can:
Hazel V Watson
Group Leader
Lib Dem Campaigns
Surrey News
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Sun 31st May 2009
"Support the Lib Dems next Thursday", says The Observer. As well as its Editorial, an article by Andrew Rawnsley praises Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats in the run-up to the elections for the European Parliament and the County Council as the one party that has consistently advocated Constitutional Reform and the one that has come out of the expenses scandal much less sleazed than either Labour or the Tories.
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Read "'Vote Lib Dem' says The Observer" in full
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Sat 23rd May 2009
Over the last four years, the Tories running Surrey County Council have provided poor services for residents, wasted millions of pounds of Council Taxpayers money and produced continual spin claiming that the council is "outstanding" when plainly it is not. The outcome of this sorry state of affairs is the demotion of the Council by the Audit Commission from a 4 Star council in 2005 to a 1 Star council in 2008.
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Read "It's time to Fix the Finances" in full
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Fri 22nd May 2009
Reacting to the Government's announcement that all Gurkha veterans with four years' service would be allowed to move to the UK, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said he was "absolutely thrilled". The announcement follows a key House of Commons vote led by the Liberal Democrats that the Government lost. It outlined rules that will allow Gurkhas who retired before 1997 with four years service to settle here with their immediate families.
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Read "At last - justice for Gurkhas" in full
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Mon 18th May 2009
It has been announced that, subject to the approval of parliament, the Surrey Police Authority (SPA) will be capped. They will have to refund £1.6 million (about £3 on average per council tax payer) at a cost of a further £1.2 million for re-billing. The news broke just hours after the SPA had met in public last Tuesday, when the chairman Mr Peter Williams had said they were still awaiting the government's decision following representations made to ministers by the SPA.
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Read "Government confirms capping of Surrey Police" in full
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Sat 16th May 2009
The cost of the county council's pension fund to Surrey residents looks set to rise steeply. Last year it represented almost 5% of our council tax payments, but due to the fund's worsened deficit (almost 50%) this is likely to rise to over 8% by next year, according to figures obtained recently by Cllr Colin Taylor.
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Read "Pension Costs Increase as Deficit Deepens" in full
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Thu 14th May 2009
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.
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Read "Children's Services - 'Not out of the woods yet'" in full
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Fri 8th May 2009
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.
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Read "Bus service cuts coming" in full
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Tue 28th Apr 2009
Surrey Liberal Democrats at County Hall have been denied the opportunity to debate the failures of the Tory administration and the millions of Council Taxpayers' money wasted. The ruling Conservative group refused to allow the debate saying that they did not have enough information to debate the subject adequately.
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Read "Tory administration gags debate on failures at County Hall " in full
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Sun 26th Apr 2009
The Liberal Democrats have slammed the Government's decision on Gurkha settlement rights is as another huge betrayal of the Gurkhas who have served our country. Gurkha campaigners are sickened by the Government's new policy of extending automatic citizenship rights to those who served 20 years. The normal period of service for the majority of Gurkhas was 15 years.
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Read "Lib Dems slam Government's Gurkha decision" in full
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Thu 9th Apr 2009
Surrey Police have cut costs and red tape, to put more PCs back on the streets. However their government grant is less than half the national average, so despite cutting 144 administrative jobs, they needed to raise their share of council tax by 4.9%. The Labour government has threatened to "cap" them, which would entail the loss of another 80 staff, including front line PCs.
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Read "Government threat to Surrey Police"
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Archive of earlier news stories
 News Story Feed (v1.0).
Printed and hosted by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY.
Published and promoted by Surrey County Council Liberal Democrats, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2DN.
The views expressed are those of the party, not of the service provider.
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| Quotes of the Week |
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"On issue after issue, the Liberal Democrats have led the fight for real change while the Conservatives lagged behind. On the economy, on the environment and now on the real reform of politics, it is the Lib Dems that are offering something different. "
April Pond, Liberal Democrat candidate for the Norwich North by-election
www.norwichlibdems.org.uk - 21 June
"I believe that my position as an MP between now and the next election is untenable. "
Labour MP Ian Gibson
Resigning as MP for Norwich North - 6 June. See www.norwichlibdems.org.uk for Norwich North by-election news.
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