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.
Stories suggesting all Surrey schools were on their way to becoming Academies appeared in national newspapers on 30th September. This was fortunate for local MP Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, as the Conservative party conference was due to start three days later, and even here in his home county of Surrey just one school was ready to become an Academy.
The Conservative administration at County Hall has mismanaged Surrey's Highways to such an extent that Highways claims against the Council for damage and injury in respect of Highways are expected to reach £1.3m this year. This is not surprising given the large number of potholes on Surrey's roads, the delay in repairing them and the many poor quality repairs which did not last.
The Local Government Boundary Commission has just started a boundary review of Surrey County Council. The review has been triggered because the levels of electoral representation have changed since the last review was completed in 2000 with 29 division (36%) having electoral variations greater than 10%.
Lib Dem County Councillors Stephen Cooksey and David Goodwin have worked for some months as part of a small Council Task Group established to make recommendations about improving the chaotic arrangements that the County had in place when the heavy snow fell last winter. Many of the recommendations of the Group have been accepted by the Cabinet, which agreed to provide an additional £1 million to improve the service in the coming winter.
Euro MPs voted in Strasbourg on Wednesday on the EU budget for 2011, at the same time as the Coalition Government announced details of the Comprehensive Spending Review, set to reduce the UK budget by some 6% each year for four years.
