http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/newsarchive.php Recent News Stories from Surrey County Council Liberal Democrats en-GB Surrey County Council Liberal Democrats http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2009 Surrey County Council Liberal Democrats 2009-07-03T22:30+01:00 United Kingdom http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000194/surrey_police_authority_to_challenge_government_cap_in_court.html Surrey Police Authority (SPA) Chairman Peter Williams confirmed last week that they will seek permission for a Judicial Review of the Government's decision to cap the SPA's budget this year. However political parties were asked not to comment on this during the county council election campaign, in view of the importance of the Police being, and being seen to be, totally impartial. 2009-06-07T12:30+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000193/lib_dem_gains_across_surrey__labour_and_the_tories_lose_seats.html The Liberal Democrats have gained seats in Reigate, Spelthorne, Tandridge and Woking, despite losses in Godalming and Guildford. The new Lib Dem group will number 13 and the Lib Dems will remain the main opposition party on Surrey County Council. 2009-06-06T10:56+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000192/vote_lib_dem_says_the_observer.html "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. 2009-05-31T12:58+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000191/its_time_to_fix_the_finances.html 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. 2009-05-23T17:03+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000190/what_has_europe_ever_done_for_us.html Intriguing information about Europe - and what it does for us. 2009-05-22T16:53+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000189/at_last__justice_for_gurkhas.html 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. 2009-05-22T12:58+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000188/government_confirms_capping_of_surrey_police.html 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. 2009-05-18T08:00+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000187/pension_costs_increase_as_deficit_deepens.html 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. 2009-05-16T08:00+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000186/county_hall_facelift_cost_over_3_million.html Figures obtained recently by Cllr David Goodwin show that the recent refurbishment of County Hall in Kingston, which also involved the costs of moving staff from one office to another, will total £3.123 million spread over 3 years. 2009-05-15T08:00+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000184/childrens_services__not_out_of_the_woods_yet.html 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. 2009-05-14T07:56+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000185/bus_service_cuts_coming.html 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. 2009-05-08T09:00+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000183/tory_administration_gags_debate_on_failures_at_county_hall.html 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. 2009-04-28T22:06+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000182/lib_dems_slam_governments_gurkha_decision.html 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. 2009-04-26T22:33+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000179/text_for_11p_anywhere_in_europe_this_summer.html The European Parliament has come to an agreement with the European Council on a deal that will significantly cut the cost of mobile roaming SMS (texting) and data charges from the 1st July 2009. 2009-04-10T09:00+01:00 http://www.surreycc-libdems.org.uk/news/000181/government_threat_to_surrey_police.html 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. 2009-04-09T09:00+01:00