Independence of Scrutiny committee confirmed

Councillor Deborah Hughes has been vindicated in a complaint brought against her by lawyers acting for Woking Football Club and the developers behind the Cardinal Court development proposals. The complaint has been fully dismissed as wholly unfounded.

Councillor Hughes, the Liberal Democrat Chair of Woking Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee said:

Ahead of the budget the Lib Dems are calling on the Chancellor to scrap business rates and replace them with a landowner levy to "breathe new life" into high streets in Woking.

Acting Leader of the Lib Dems, Ed Davey, has warned that "the retail sector sounded the alarm bell on business rates a long time ago and Brexit has made these pressures even worse" and urged the Chancellor to fully adopt his party's policy in the Budget.

The Lib Dems want to replace business rates with a commercial landowner levy based on the value of the land only. This would take the cost off businesses and help support high streets. By taxing landowners rather than businesses half a million small businesses across the country would be spared the burden of property taxation. The proposals would cut taxes for businesses across Woking Borough.

The Lib Dems have revealed there were 11 incidents involving offensive weapons on trains or at rail stations in Woking since 2017. 9 incidents occurred at Woking Station including 3 so far this year.

Lib Dem Home Affairs Spokesperson Christine Jardine MP has said the new figures "show the utter failure of Tory Ministers to keep people safe from crimes involving offensive weapons especially knives."

NHS bosses are looking at plans that could involve the closure of the Walk In Centre at Woking Community Hospital.

Woking's Walk In Centre is currently open 8 am to 8 pm 7 days a week and provides a vital service to local people. The Walk In Centre is useful when patients cannot see their GP soon enough and helps reduce the burden on Hospital A&E Departments.

Surrey County Council has agreed to a request from County Councillor Will Forster to lower the speed limit on Egley Road outside the Hoe Valley School.

The A320 between Mayford and Woking currently has a 40 mph speed limit. However, following the opening of the new school, both the County Council and Police have agreed to lower the limit to 30 mph between the Mayford and Turnoak roundabouts.

Surrey County Council will start work to make Westfield Road safer and combat speeding from 17th February.

Woking South County Councillor, Will Forster, said:

"As local people know, Westfield Road has been an accident black spot for too long. Since the beginning of 2014, there have been 20 personal injury collisions on Westfield Road - resulting 4 serious and 16 slight injuries."

Earlier today, Lib Dem County Councillors voted against Surrey County Council's proposed budget for 2020/21 as it would put services to vulnerable residents at further risk.

Will Forster, Lib Dem County Councillor for Woking South, said:

"Almost every day I hear from families struggling with their child's SEND needs or trying to get care packages for elderly relatives. The County Council rations these services for vulnerable people and this budget makes that worse."

The Lib Dems have launched a national lobbying campaign urging Conservative MP's to restore public faith in politics and back amendments in the House of Commons to protect the rights of EU citizens and child refugees in the UK.

As part of the campaign, Will Forster - the Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Woking - has written to Woking's MP, Jonathan Lord, asking him to support local European nationals and honour Woking's proud history of helping refugees by voting for the amendments.

I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the 16,629 people who voted for me to become Woking's MP in December's General Election.

Although I did not get over the line in Woking this time, the Lib Dems achieved our best result in a decade. We increased our vote share by 13%, slashed the Conservative majority to less than 10,000 votes, and secured 31% of the vote in Woking.