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.
Lifelong local resident and Spelthorne's Borough's longest serving councillor Ian Beardsmore (Lib Dem Sunbury Common & Ashford Common) has launched a biting attack on the proposal by Spelthorne's Conservative MP Kwasi Kwartang to knock down thousands of homes in and around Spelthorne Borough to make way for further expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Surrey County Council Liberal Democrats have called for urgent action, after an important County Council report has revealed shocking failings in the way the Council is managing the contract for Surrey's roads to be maintained and kept safe.
Surrey County Council Liberal Democrats have welcomed the announcement by Liberal Democrat Transport Minister Norman Baker of a £14.3m investment in local green transport schemes across Surrey.
Surrey County Council is not following the national "Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity" when issuing press releases about local issues in county councillors divisions.
Councillor Stephen Cooksey (Dorking and the Holmwoods), the Liberal Democrat Environment and Transport Spokesperson on Surrey County Council, has today called upon the county's Conservative administration to: "take more seriously, the problems that have beset the current highways contracts and to take urgent action to deal with them".
A leading Liberal Democrat county councillor has called on Surrey County Council's Standards Committee to investigate an email sent by Cllr John Butcher, a member of the ruling Conservative group, calling for health policies which would "encourage the self-inflicted to move away from Surrey to areas where there is no differentiation between patients on the grounds of their contribution towards their condition".
