A Unite/Mori student survey carried out in January 2004 on voting intentions gives the Lib Dems a leading share of 34%, with Labour on 28% and the Tories third on 19%. Students will have a major impact in 2005, as the elections are expected during the university year, on May 5, unlike in 2001 when the elections fell during the holiday period.
Commenting on the launch of an online map to tell homeowners about flooding risks in England and Wales, Norman Baker MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, said:
Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy today launched the Liberal Democrat Pre-manifesto - the first important stage in the manifesto process, which will take the Party into the General Election.
Under new Liberal Democrat proposals police chiefs would sign contracts with local communities setting out how many officers they would deploy. The "minimum policing guarantees" would set funding levels for local police for a rolling three-year period. The guarantees are part of the party's new plans to tackle crime. The plans include using money earmarked for the government's ID card plan to hire an extra 10,000 front line police and 20,000 community support officers.
"The Adult and Community Care Committee kept hearing about poor service caused by staffing problems," explains County Councillor Diana Smith. "So it set up a task group to look at recruitment and retention. Proper statistics were hard to come by. We eventually got figures for the reported high vacancy rates in 'front line' teams, from 18% among the essential home based care staff to 31% of highly-skilled occupational therapists. We heard of one team of occupational therapists entirely consisting of stand-ins.
Surrey County Council is planning authority for minerals and waste, and it is disposal authority for waste too. Quite confusing! In the old days Surrey would have plans for these topics. The final stage in plan preparation was the deposit draft, which would be examined in public by an Inspector. The Inspector's recommendations would be considered by the Council, who would adopt the final plan to come into force.
The Conservative administration has recently decided that potholes with a depth of less than 4 centimetres will not be treated as a high priority to be repaired within 24 hours. This latest decision is an admission that the Conservative administration cannot cope with the necessary road repairs.
At a recent County Council meeting, the Conservative majority on the County opposed the proposal by the Liberal Democrats that Surrey County Council youth centres should be more fully used to provide safe places for young people to meet.
Bus services in Surrey are so poor under the current Tory administration at Surrey County Council, that last year 2 out of every 3 residents were unhappy with the their record, according to a recent survey.
Attempts by Surrey Tories to undermine the defence of the Green Belt have been blocked, in part by some of their own party who voted with Lib Dems and Environmentalists to strengthen opposition to Green Belt development in the South East Region.
