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 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 Surrey Lib Dem Group have called for a review of the County Council’s admitted failings in the Parsons Green bomb incident.  Ahmed Hassan, 18, was convicted of attempted murder on 16th March 2018. He had been placed in foster care in Sunbury by Surrey County Council since the summer of 2016. We have called […]

My Lib Dem colleagues at County Hall and I are celebrating after a package of measures to support care leavers was adopted by Surrey County Council earlier this week. As part of a new Charter unanimously agreed by the County Council, young care leavers will be exempted from Council Tax, as well as given support […]

I have submitted a motion to next week’s Full Surrey County Council meeting calling for care leavers to be exempted from paying Council Tax until they are 25. The campaign was initiated elsewhere in the country by highly respected charity The Children’s Society.  I successfully campaigned for this policy to be adopted by Woking Borough […]

The Conservatives running Surrey County Council have proposed up to six new incinerators as part of the Council’s draft new waste plan including one on Martyrs Lane in Woking and another at Slyfield in Guildford. The Surrey Waste Plan, proposes up to six new incinerators or ‘Energy from Waste’ plants – all on Green Belt […]

My Lib Dem colleagues at County Hall and I have criticised Surrey’s 11 Conservative MPs after they all voted in favour of the Local Government Finance Settlement in the House of Commons on Wednesday 7th February. The Settlement sets out the level of funding from Central Government to local authorities for the next financial year […]

Young people leaving care in Woking will soon be exempt from paying Council Tax until their 25th birthday following Woking Borough Council’s unanimous decision to back my motion on the subject. I was delighted that during last night’s Full Council, all Councillors agreed to support my call to help Woking’s section of the 730 young care […]

Lib Dem Councillors at County Hall have written to Surrey’s 11 MPs asking them to vote against the Local Government Finance Settlement in Parliament on Wednesday 7th February.  The Settlement sets out the level of funding from Central Government to local authorities for the next financial year, and has been widely criticised for failing to address […]

Yesterday, the Conservative administration announced their budget proposals containing £54 million of cuts to services and a 6% Council Tax rise. These budget recommendations are due to be approved by the Council’s Tory Cabinet on Tuesday 30th January, and then by all County Councillors as Full Council on Tuesday 6th February. This draft budget contains […]