Surrey Fire and Rescue Service was recently inspected by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, with a disappointingly overwhelming rating of 'inadequate' and 'needs improvement' across the board . As a result of this, Surrey County Council are currently consulting on their 'Making Surrey Safer' plan which aims to improve the standing of the service. The consultation is open to the public until 30th May 2019.

Surrey County Council own a broad range of land and property assets both in and outside of the County, with a total value of around £1.5bn. At the Cabinet meeting last week it was revealed that Surrey will be 'pausing' investment out of county for the time being whilst they evaluate the use of existing properties.

Runnymede Borough Council Election Results 2019

Many of you are probably already aware of the success of our party across the county in the local council elections on Thursday. It is heart-warming to hear that we now have an additional 703 councillors and I applaud each one of them for their hard work. Yes, we perhaps had a bit if luck from the political mess at Westminster, but I know that each of the elected councillors have also worked extremely hard over the last few weeks and months to get the right result.
I would like to thank all those who stood as a candidate in Runnymede as well as those who helped with the local campaign. It has pushed our vote share up and contributes to the national picture. Of course, as well as this, we have our first councillors in Runnymede for 20 years!
Building on this success we will be looking for candidates for next year as well as local people to contribute in other ways, such as leaflet delivery or back office work. If you are interested in helping, please let me know and we can discuss further.

The Liberal Democrats have condemned the Conservative Government for slashing Surrey County Council budget for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by £4,403.72 per pupil in real terms since 2015, resulting in a loss of specialist provision.

The National Education Union, which published these statistics on 15 April, has warned that local authorities have now reached crisis point.

Although children with the highest special educational needs and disabilities have a legal right to extra support, the National Education Union has warned that funding under the Conservative Government has failed to keep up with increasing costs and rising pupil numbers.

The Liberal Democrats are campaigning for more money for these pupils who possess an Education, Health and Care Plan, saving schools and councils hundreds of millions of pounds.

Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson, Layla Moran MP, said:

"Everyone deserves the best start in life, and education can be the make or break difference. It is therefore heartbreaking, particularly as a teacher, that Conservative Ministers are failing the children most in need.

"It doesn't need to be this way. Young people deserve better, and the Liberal Democrats demand better. That's why we would invest millions more to support children with an Education, Health and Care Plan, freeing up money in the schools budget to provide tailored in-school support for children with less complex additional needs such as dyslexia."

Cllr Angela Goodwin, Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Guildford North, said:

"SEND funding is an investment in a child's future. It can help someone with a learning difficulty or disability secure a higher paid job, security and independence in later life.

Just a few days after criticial local elections across all of Surrey, residents who use Bagshot, Cranleigh, Dorking and Warlingham CRCs will only be able to take recycling to these sites, from Tuesday 7 May 2019. The change comes following a Cabinet decision in January 2019 to keep the sites open temporarily in order to find an alternate route of funding.