The Conservative Administration of Runnymede Borough Council, with the support of an Ottershaw Independent Councillor, pushed through an unbudgeted spend of £170K to recruit a second Assistant Chief Executive at the December Corporate Management committee, held on 15th December. This is at a time when the Council's budget is under severe pressure.
The application to approve the Railway Station car park for Longross Garden Village was refused by the Runnymede Planning Committee last night. The application has been a long saga with a change to its location (to 300m away from the station entrance), dating back to 2020. The grounds for refusal sited safety as Surrey Police had stated that the original location at the station entrance met the criteria of being "as close to the facility for which they are designed as possible….providing natural surveillance across the site from other travelers and railways staff on the nearby platforms." The majority of the Planning Committee felt that the proposed location was too far away from the entrance to meet this requirement. Concerns were also expressed about the lack of a drop off facility near the station as well as having only 3 disabled spaces for an eventual population of about 5000 people.
Please sign our petition to Protect the health of people living near Mineral Workings across Surrey.
Our Green Motion, proposed by Cllr Don Whyte, was defeated last night (Thursday 20 Oct) after a rather long Full Council meeting at Runnymede Borough Council.
We were saddened to learn that the quality of many of our rivers and streams in Runnymede have deteriorated considerably, mainly due to sewage discharge. These include The Bourne at Chertsey, Virginia Water Lake and The Moat at Egham, all of which have an ecological status of "Poor".*
With one third of all the Runnymede Borough council seats up for election, they were an important indicator of current sentiment.
Surrey Lib Dems are demanding the Government cancel plans to hike the average household energy bill by £500 in April and bring in a tax on the "bonanza bonuses" of oil and gas bosses.
Lib Dem members of the Planning & Regulatory Committee on Surrey County Council were among those who voted against the controversial plans to replace Reigate Priory Junior School with a new build within the grounds of the county council's own headquarters at Woodhatch Place on Cockshot Hill, Reigate.
New analysis by the Liberal Democrats has found there are a staggering 1.6 million cars in areas surrounding London which are not ULEZ compliant, including 157,338 in Surrey. Commuters, including key workers such as teachers, nurses and police officers driving into London from areas like Surrey are unable to access car scrappage schemes despite ULEZ being expanded to outer London in August, and will be forced to pay ULEZ charges every day for travelling to work.
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a higher minimum wage for care workers in Surrey to tackle chronic staff shortages in social care.
- County Council criticised for sitting on £150 million in reserves whilst roads crumble
The number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) on the streets has fallen dramatically by 29.1% since 2015.
