The Issues - 2008 / 9

Council Tax

You pay quite enough. It rose by twice the rate of inflation last year, and will rise again by almost 5% under the present Conservative administration in Surrey County Council. Elmbridge's Conservative administration has raised stealth taxes through increases way above the rate of inflation in charges for car parks, the cost of burials, and prices charged for vital services to the most vulnerable section of the community - the elderly - such as Meals on Wheels and the Community Discount card.

This year they voted through an increase of over 30% in the amount of your taxes to be spent on Cabinet members' allowances, opposed by Residents Group councillors.

Planning

We must preserve our green spaces. We are consistent in support for the Green Belt and urban open spaces, often against the political parties who have voted for building on school playing fields and in the Green Belt. We fight against over-development that would destroy the character of our local communities.

Policing

We want more responsive community policing, for police to be more visible on the streets and to respond more quickly to calls from members of the public, and to take effective, commonsense action particularly against drugs and antisocial behaviour.

Older people's services

When Residents ran the Council our services for the elderly and their carers, including meals-on-wheels and seven Centres for Retired People, were recognised as the best in the country. Developing these services is a top priority.

Health and Hospitals

We oppose the arbitrary cuts and closures carried out by Surrey's Primary Care Trust, often without proper consultation and against national policy to provide better health care closer to home, particularly in community hospitals.

Highways

Surrey County Council's Conservative administration has shown that it simply can't run highways repairs and maintenance efficiently and responsively. The evidence is all around us: potholes, poor road surfaces, streetlights that don't work... We call for these functions to be returned to Elmbridge Borough Council, which ran them very successfully until Surrey took them over in 2002.

Street cleaning

Litter in our streets is getting worse. The Residents Group would ensure a better standard of street cleaning.

Transparency of school place allocation

Through our County Councillors we will lobby for greater transparency, consistency and commonsense in the allocation of school places to residents in their local catchment area.

Waste disposal

We want to increase recycling and reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill. We have consistently opposed Alternate Weekly Collection. We believe that a high quality residual waste collection should remain free of charge.

Car parking

We do not agree with the Conservative administration that all community car park charges should be raised to commercial levels. We don't want our car parks (or other community assets) to be hived off to the private sector. They should be managed for the benefit of the community, with short-stay charges adjusted so that we can support our local shops.