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 SCC Lib Dem group's deputy leader Hazel Watson recently highlighted the inadequacy of access provision for disabled people to Surrey County Council buildings (see "Lib Dems get disabled access high on agenda", March 23rd 2004). The Tory administration running the County Council seem to be unhappy with being criticised for not taking action on this issue. Despite their claim to be an "Exemplar of Modern Democracy", they have removed Mrs Watson from her position as Vice-Chair of the relevant SCC Select Committee.
Tory-controlled Surrey County Council is continuing to privatise the services it is legally required to provide. The Council's educational services have been privatised, see "Surrey Schools Services sold to Defence Contractor" dated 31st July 2003. With effect from 1st April 2004, they are now provided by VT Four S Limited. The Liberal Democrats are concerned that the Tories are obsessed with privatising more and more services, even though the Council seems increasingly to be encountering problems with those it has already privatised.
At the County Council meeting on March 23rd, Lib Dem councillor Colin Taylor commented that pictures of the new County Hall show a glass-clad building. Such buildings tend to feel too hot in summer and too cold in winter - or use lots of energy maintaining comfort.
After six years of campaigning, the Liberal Democrats at County Hall have succeeded in convincing Surrey County Council to undertake urgent work to make its properties "disabled friendly". The County Council has approved a Liberal Democrat motion that puts disabled access high on the County Council's priorities. A report recently commissioned by the County Council highlighted the current situation of the County's public buildings.
Surrey County Council Conservatives' claims that extra funding has been put into education, social services and road maintenance by sweeping cuts in administration and bureaucracy could be described politely as misleading or perhaps more accurately as downright lies, according to Councillor Janet Maines, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council. Most of the extra funding in the budget has come either from the government or from prudential borrowing says Mrs Maines.
Councillor Janet Maines, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council, commenting on the County Council budget said, "I welcome the single figure increase in the Council tax for Surrey residents, which is good news for people on fixed incomes including pensioners. But I have opposed the budget because the Conservative administration at County Hall has not gone far enough to reduce bureaucracy and inefficiency within the Council. The base budget has not been examined in detail as was agreed by the Council one year ago. A number of multi-million pound contracts are not being adequately controlled by the Council. Although the Council is now making a welcome start to introduce cost-saving preventative measures such as key worker housing and energy efficiency promoted by the Liberal Democrats, it has been slow to do so."
