Don Whyte is standing for election to Surrey County Council for Foxhills, Thorpe and Virginia Water. Find out more about who he is and why he is standing for election in the below leaflet which was distributed to the division ahead of the elections.

Following a vote at Full Council last month, Runnymede Borough Council have increased the threshold for when planning applications are automatically heard at the Planning Committee. It has increased from 3 or more objections received to 11 or more. "Whilst I understand that 3 objections is one of the lowest in Surrey," said Cllr Sylvia Whyte "I do not agree that we should have jumped from 3 to 11 overnight. I am concerned that residents will not get the opportunity to have their views heard and, whilst some of these applications may be seen as small, for instance comparing an extension to building 10 new homes, they can have a huge consequence for the resident with an objection. This feels like another example of the Conservative Administration finding ways to suppress the voices of our residents ".

At last! Two years after the decision to pay councillors £1,000 for attending Working Group meetings, over and above the declared Members Allowances, it has been agreed by the Conservative administration that this remuneration will now be publicly declared within the Councils Constitution. Whilst this is good news, it is regrettable that it will not appear next to the general allowances, but instead hidden away in another section of the constutuion. Runnymede Liberal Democrat Leader, Don Whyte, said "This paymentt was agreed before we were elected in 2019 and whilst I am pleased that there will be more transparency about these payments, I am disappointed that it is being hidden well away from where it should be in the Scheme of Members' Allowances."

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 county 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. 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.

The Lib Dem Group 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 in March, 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."