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.
In a debate on the future of Surrey's libraries at County Hall this afternoon not a single Conservative councillor voted for the council to abandon its plans for Community Libraries and adopt a library policy that retains professional staff in all libraries.
In a victory for local campaigners and Liberal Democrats who organised an on-line petition with 26,300 signatures, the new Leader of Surrey County Council will this morning announce the abandoment of the County's on-street parking charge plans.
In a final act as outgoing Leader of Surrey County Council, Dr Andrew Povey and his Cabinet have pushed through unpopular plans to remove full-time staff from up to 19 of the County's libraries and end the mobile library service from this week.
It has been announced that the Conservative leader of Surrey County Council, Cllr Dr Andrew Povey is to resign at the Council's next full meeting on 11 October.
The list of libraries which the Conservative administration on Surrey County Council plans to force local communities to run, or be closed, has grown from 10 to 19 in a report for the September meeting of the County's Cabinet.
Lib Dem MP Tim Farron has welcomed news that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is calling for debit card surcharges to be banned, following a 90-day investigation focusing on the passenger transport sector.
