On 18th June, the Home Office issued a letter to the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, regarding Ahmed Hassan’s interaction with the Police and Home Office, prior to the Parsons Green bombing incident in September 2017. For a number of months, the Lib Dems and I have been pressing for a report on […]

The Lib Dems and I have launched a petition calling for the recent increase in allowances for Conservative Surrey County Councillors to be reversed. The increase was voted through by Tory Councillors with four new positions of “Deputy Cabinet Member” created, each at a cost to the taxpayer of £10,000, despite the County Council planning […]

My Lib Dem colleagues at County Hall and I have heavily criticised the Conservative administration at Surrey County Council after they awarded themselves thousands of pounds of extra allowances in a vote at Full Council earlier this week. The vote means that 4 new Deputy Cabinet positions will be created, at a cost of £40,000 […]

I was delighted and honoured to have been elected as Woking’s 45th Mayor during the Annual Meeting of Woking Borough Council on Thursday 17th May. As Mayor, I am the non-political head of Woking Council and the Borough as a whole.  Over the next year I will be attending as many ceremonial, civic and community […]

The publication today of the Ofsted report into Surrey County Council’s Children’s Services makes difficult reading, and tells a story of a slow, almost dilatory approach to improvement since the last Ofsted inspection. Both the last inspection and the one just published rates Surrey’s Children’s Services as ‘inadequate’. I really recommend reading as much of […]

The Lib Dems held our two seats up for election in Hoe Valley and St John’s, gained one in Mount Hermon and narrowly missed out on winning another in Goldsworth Park by just 10 votes in the local elections held on Thursday 3rd May. Woking Borough Council is still run by the Conservatives, but their […]

The Conservatives running Surrey County Council have revealed they are planning to reduce spending on services by nearly £200 million by the end of 2019/20. The figures were released in a report to the Council’s Cabinet this week, alongside the administration’s decision to hire consultants, at an undisclosed sum, to assist with the County Council’s […]

Esso Petrol Company has begun a consultation process seeking views on where it should built a new underground fuel pipeline between London and Southampton, and one option includes installing the pipeline in the south Woking area. Esso already has a pipeline that runs from its Fawley Refinery near Southampton, to their West London Terminal storage facility in […]

My Lib Dem colleagues and I are very concerned that Surrey County Council has not spent any of the income derived from its £298 million commercial property portfolio on Council services. Previously, the Conservative Cabinet Member for Property and Business Services stated that: “We also have an additional need to generate an income from our […]

I am very concerned that proposed changes to the arrangements for drug and alcohol detoxification will make it more difficult for those trying to beat addiction.  Surrey County Council is currently consulting on proposals that include the closure of the in-patient facility at Windmill House at St Peter’s Hospital, leaving only one in-patient bed for […]