Victoria Square - Secret Financial Forecasts

The Conservative Leader of the Council, and past holder of the Finance Portfolio, wrote an article recently referring to the Victoria Square project saying "council taxpayers are not paying for Victoria Square". She then went on the say "it will make money for taxpayers and it is forecast to return £255million on investment". Note the use of the present tense. Is that really the current March 2021 forecast?

Following publication of the list of candidates for this year's Surrey County Council elections, it has emerged that 25 out of 56 Conservative County Councillors are stepping down - a dropout rate of 45%.

The decision of so many Tory Councillors to leave office comes less than a year after the County Council was heavily criticised for wasting £250,000 on a failed bid to become a unitary authority by abolishing Surrey's Borough and District Councils, including Woking Borough Council. The County Council is widely regarded as an out-of-touch authority, which cannot get the basic services like repairing local roads and pavements right.

Following a request from Lib Dem Councillors, Woking Borough Council has committed to improving the subway under Woking Station.

Councillor Liam Lyons got unanimous support for his motion during last week's Full Council meeting. Liam Lyons and his Lib Dem colleagues called on the Council to take advantage of the significantly lower numbers of pedestrians using the subway underneath Woking Station, as a result of the current coronavirus restrictions, and arrange for the subway to be refurbished.

The Lib Dems are calling on Woking Borough Council to improve its parks and open spaces as more people have been using them during the pandemic.

With the Government's coronavirus restrictions encouraging people to stay local residents are spending a lot more time in the Borough's green spaces.

However, Woking's parks and open spaces fall way behind those run by other local authorities including neighbouring Guildford Borough Council's parks. The Green Flag Award, the national scheme that recognises well managed parks and green spaces, has only been awarded to one in Woking but ten of Guildford's parks.

Woking Liberal Democrats are pleased to announce our manifesto for the 2021 Woking Borough Local Elections. For more information on who your candidate is look here.

You can watch a short video that summarises the manifesto here.

We will provide affordable homes, be open and transparent and control development, fostering a vibrant post covid economy in a clean, green and safe borough that offers leisure and wellbeing for all.

Yesterday, Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey officially launched the Lib Dems Local Elections campaign. Ed, at the Lib Dems digital launch, asked voters to send a message to the Conservatives to do more to support local communities like those in Woking.

Delivering his launch speech he said: "By voting Lib Dem this May you will be telling this Tory Government to cut taxes for small businesses and invest more to create a greener, cleaner neighbourhoods."

Dale Roberts, candidate for St Johns and Woking Southwest calls for local co-working hubs to offer greater flexibility for local and London businesses and choice for commuters.

The subject of commuting has cropped up more than once as we emerge from the third lockdown and it's a subject close to our hearts in Woking. A friend posted, on a professional social media site, that candidates were declining interviews for remote-only jobs. They wanted to be in a busy office. The post attracted a lot of comments advocating both for and against remote working.

The Lib Dems have called for a review into Surrey County Council's failed attempt to build an 'Eco Park' to process much of Surrey's household waste after it was revealed that the Council is in legal proceedings with the builder of the facility.

At the Full Council meeting earlier this month the Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change announced that after "exhausting other options available we have now entered legal proceedings with Suez to resolve our issues. We hope to bring this to a swift conclusion to allow us to move forward with the Eco Park and resolve the matter."

Cllr Paul Kennedy, Liberal Democrat PCC for Surrey welcomed the comments in the Guardian of Martin Hewitt, the Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) in recognising that the police's legitimacy is so low in black communities it is damaging the effectiveness of law enforcement.

Paul Kennedy said the start of solving any problem was to recognise what it was:

Last night, Lib Dem campaigner Lance Spencer presented a petition to the Woking Joint Committee calling for action over congestion outside Goldsworth Road's McDonald's Drive-through restaurant.

The petition, signed by 727 people, asked for Surrey County Council to review the traffic arrangements in Goldsworth Road at the junction with Poole Road, to prevent the access to McDonald's causing access problems to homes and businesses, and gridlock to the traffic in that area at busy times.