“One issue I would like to explore with her is the comment by The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester that the issue of mental health threatens to overwhelm the police in his area,” County Councillor Victor Agarwal (Stanwell) states; “Labour feels that under the NHS Bill too little recognition is given to the strain on both the police and community services to the growing problem of mental illness in Surrey.”

Victor is a member of Surrey’s Adult Social Care Committee.

As well as this issue Labour will raise questions of changes in accountability that will follow the appointment of Police Commissioners later this year. Other issues such as flexible employment, value for money and job cuts within the force here will also be raised. How will the move towards results rather than officer numbers actually work?

What exactly is Mrs Owen’s reform agenda?

The Meeting will be at Owen House, Heathside Road, Woking, starting at 3pm.

On the 4th January, the Executive decided to freeze charges on 15 out of the 19 community charges affecting elderly and disabled residents at the Windle Valley Day Centre. This was despite their own report recommending drastic increases in food of up to 50%. As a result, all refreshment charges and meal charges will now remain at the same level apart from a two course meal going up by 20p.

Labour Councillor Rodney Bates, Leader of the Opposition Group said; “I am very pleased that the Conservatives eventually decided to listen to our concerns and those of older and disabled people. These outrageous proposals were way above the level of inflation and in the end, we proved they were completely unjustified.”

Independent Councillor for Chobham, Judi Trow said; “There remains a worry about the increases for people needing assisted baths and the daily attendance rates. I will be monitoring these areas very closely to make sure that our residents are not unfairly penalised in future.”

On Thursday, David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, will initiate a debate in The House of Commons about pressure being put on schools in Haringey London to become Academies. This is against the wishes of parents, teachers and governors of schools in the Borough.

“I am seriously concerned the Michael Gove the Education Secretary is about to place similar pressure on schools here,” says County Councillor Victor Agarwal.

“This is likely to be precipitated by a squeeze on Surrey’s Education Budget caused by schools that have become academies siphoning off funds. Michael Gove has called anyone expressing genuine doubts about academies as ideological,” the Stanwell Councillor continues, “but clearly he is the ideological one.”

He is going to ask a question at next full council “what plans Surrey have to ensure that full consultation takes place before any more of the County’s schools move to academies?”

“I believe that there is an absence of evidence that moving to academy status will inevitably result in improvement in children’s attainment. Changing the structure of a school is likely to distract from relentless efforts to improve teaching and learning,” Councillor, Victor Agarwal states.

“Seeking to force academies on Surrey schools runs directly contrary to any idea of a Big Society, however that is interpreted. Further, it is against the Tories stated objective of giving greater power to local communities. I have been unable to find anything about doing this in either member of the coalition’s manifestoes,” he states.

Councillor Agarwal went on to express his concern about another move by a member of the Coalition, the Liberal Democrat Leader of Sutton Council.

“The Liberal Democrat Council Leader is advocating abolishing the limits placed on the size of classes in primary schools at 30 by Labour. Because Surrey serious underestimated demand for primary places there will be a temptation to support this move,” Councillor Agarwal concludes.

Any expectation that health care in Surrey will remain untouched by the coalition’s misguided austerity drive is now being revealed as being untrue. Both in Government and Opposition Cameron and his Health Secretary have made repeated promises the NHS Budget would be ring fenced, most noticeably with election posters claiming “We’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS”.

Among the examples coming from all over the country, two from Surrey stand out. At Frimley Park Hospital dozens of children with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome are about to lose the support of their consultant and nurse specialising in the condition. In the search for savings in a tightening budgetary situation both professionals are not now being replaced.

At Ashford a monthly surgery bulletin from Dr Peter Kandela, a local GP, advises his patients of three money saving measures his surgery is about to undertake. Some of his patients are being switched from their usual medication to other branded drugs on the basis that they are cheaper and will save the NHS money. GPs have been told by the local Primary Care Trust to stop issuing long term repeat prescriptions and to place a two month limit on the prescriptions they write. Ashford and St Peters Hospitals have stated that they will no longer accept reference for non-malignant moles, cysts, skin tags and other non-cancerous conditions. Although these are not life-saving activities they do relate to patient’s quality of life.

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association, points to continuing evidence of job losses as proof that the NHS is being downsized through budgetary cuts, telling The Guardian;

“The reality is that whether you look at it from the point of view of a doctor, another clinician or a patient, there are NHS cuts ongoing and it adds up to a picture where the NHS is now retracting. So it’s hard to marry that back to the original statement ‘I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS’.

“The evidence all around us of cuts that are being made adds up to a picture where the government has failed to deliver on the promises it made to people on coming into office,” he said.

The worrying aspect of this is that when Primary Care Trusts disappear decisions on spending in the NHS will be made on the basis of budgetary pressures and not the needs of Surrey patients.

Married couples without children who are in receipt of housing benefit and are between the age of 25 and 35 are to have their housing benefit reduced to the single room rate.

Checks are to be made on anyone on jobseekers allowance to ascertain that they are spending at least several hours each day looking for work. Further the radius within which they will be expected to look for work is to be extended to a 90 minute radius from where they live. Failure to comply with these conditions and other conditions could incur up to three years removal of the allowance.

The time limit for returning a form to claim Employment Support Allowance has been reduced from 6 to 4 weeks.

In April for families claiming Child Tax Credit with one child and their income is more than £26,000 loose this benefit. For families with 2 children the maximum income allowed is £32,000 to continue to receive the benefit. Some exception may be made for claimants above these amounts if they pay for registered child care or approved child care.

In April a couple working with children will need to work 24 hours per week to get Working Tax Credit as opposed to 16 hours at present. With so many families here dependent on part time work this poses a real threat to family income.

Backdating a new claim has been reduced from 3 to 1 month. Presently if there is backdating due to changed circumstances this can be paid for 3 months. From April any higher amount claimable will only be paid for one month.

Surrey’s scheme Money Matters for Every Child has been operating for 3 years designed to assist children from poorer families. The recent surge in food parcels for poor families throughout Surrey indicates how necessary a scheme of this kind is now.

Details of families needing support should be communicated to the Surrey Welfare Rights Unit on 0800 294 8148 or by emailing campaign@swru.org

Commenting Rodney Bates, Leader of The Opposition on Surrey Heath Borough Council, said; “This is meant to be the season of goodwill, when we think of others less fortunate then ourselves. However Surrey Heath Council clearly do not take the same view as these proposals would mean the most vulnerable people in our community would suffer by having to pay much more than at present.”

As well as the elderly and disabled, cuts by Surrey Conservatives in education will affect children and young people. County Councillor Victor Agarwal (Stanwell) highlights how cuts in spending on schools and colleges in 2012 are about to hit Surrey;

“The dramatic increase in young people here not in education or training highlights the need good careers advice. But following the disbanding of Connexions and schools with tightening budgets are now being expected to provide this service. As a result many young people will not be adequately advised prior to their move to the world of work,” Councillor Agarwal states.

“The abolition of the Educational Maintenance allowance is already bringing hardship to young people from poorer families studying in Further Education. Cuts imposed on Surrey’s Youth Service will result that much of the informal support they give our young people will disappear,” he continues.

“It is now widely recognised that the decision of Michael Gove Surrey Heath’s MP to disband The Schools for the Future building programme had left many schools in Spelthorne and the rest of Surrey with deteriorating buildings. The most recent indication is that Gove will not honour his promise to maintain frontline educational spending, further complicated here by academies siphoning parts of the education budget. As budgets become squeezed savings will have to come from books, trips and covering for teacher absence, Councillor Agarwal states.

“But before our children even enter the education system families are paying the penalty for Surrey getting its sums wrong. Throughout the 90’s the Council was either closing schools or amalgamating them with others on the basis of its estimates of a real fall in the number of children. In fact the number has increased and they are now faced with either providing more classrooms at existing schools or the great cost of opening new schools. The taxpayers of the County will be expected to pick up the bill for this error,” he says.

Councillor Agarwal then moved on to the condition of the County’s highways, saying; “Because of mismanagement over recent years 40% of our roads are in need of repair. Labour consistently sought to draw attention to the result of the consequence of employing failing contractors and not thoroughly checking on the quality of their work. Millions were wasted as a result of this. The figures tell it all: 1200 miles of Surrey’s roads were in need of repair in the period 2009/2010 but only 77 miles were actually repaired. It this rate it will take Surrey 150 years to repair its roads,” the Stanwell Councillor states.

“Looking ahead to 2012 we have the ridiculous costly election for a Police Commissioner for the County. I hope this will not obscure the serious surge in crime here. Burglaries increased by 4.9% compared with the same month in 2010. However it is the 23.1% in robberies I find most disturbing. This must be seen in the context of the cuts in funding for the police announced by David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Not only is the quality of life threatened by the Council’s policies, but on the evidence of this our property and safety are threatened.

“I had the opportunity at the reception sponsored by The Royal British Legion and attended by The Labour Leader Ed Miliband to raise the question of the closure and sale of our Legion here,” Murray Rowlands says. “There is now a request that officers from Surrey Heath Legion write to their National Headquarters with proposals for a new legion centre here in Camberley,” he reports. “I have informed the legion here and hope they will be able to act on the offer now available from their head office.”

This progress came as part of a considerable focus on our armed forces highlighted by the military covenant announced by Shadow Defence Minister Jim Murphy at the Conference. Jim Murphy outlined how he and his team of four former serving military officers had played an important part in achieving a whole range of commitments from the British community towards the care of any one serving in the armed services or had previous served with them.

Speaking on the day that 10,000 jobs were lost in The Armed Services, Jim Murphy MP contrasted this with the support Labour had given to our defence forces: “We raised the budget 10% in real terms, made genuine improvements in health and housing for serving officers and doubled compensating payments,” he told the Conference.

Labour now extend to military personnel the opportunity of joining Labour for just £1.

If the Leader of the Council is not involved in vital discussions about our ageing population (Surrey has the fastest growing numbers of 80 and 90 plus people in the country), he has been hardly fit to lead the Council.

If on the other hand he has been present when adult care is being discussed and decided on, a very serious issue of conflict of interest appears to be involved.

The second issue raised by Dr Povey’s interviews is about his style of leadership. He apparently simply sacked Councillor David Hodge his deputy. There is no indication of a consultation with his executive or with the caucus of his own Party. The people of Surrey should be seriously concerned that a clash of personality has been allowed to disrupt and distort the work of the County Council.

Now there will be no effective political leadership of Surrey till the 11th October.

Finally it is sad that Dr Povey boasts of the way he is decimating Surrey’s library service with the closure of its mobile library service and the threatened closure of 18 other libraries.

“Our resolution highlights the way that Surrey County Council is presently squandering £2.5m on unoccupied beds while at the same time offering care services only to those considered to be in urgent need,” says Murray Rowlands, a former Surrey and Surrey Heath Councillor.

“Surrey is allowing 10 beds to remain empty out of 281 reserved for people suffering from dementia, at a cost of £444,000, when the level of need is severe. In November last year a third of the beds that should have been available for the physically frail elderly remained empty,” Mr Rowlands reports.

“Presently Surrey County Council operates on contracts with private firms such as Care UK and Anchor that are 10 years old. Is it surprising then that there is a mismatch between real need and the obsolete booking system presently operating in Surrey?

“People with elderly parents are rightly appalled at reports of treatment given to a patient at East Surrey Hospital in the last days of his life and will want to know that this sort of indifference to the needs of other patients does not occur elsewhere.

“Incidents involving mistreatment of the elderly in Surrey keep happening. A patient admitted to St Peters Hospital failed to be treated for pneumonia and only received the right treatment after being moved to another hospital. Another patient with Parkinsons was treated with anti-psychotic drugs in an East Surrey hospital. Surrey Labour also has grave doubts about how the quality of care for the elderly will be managed following the changes to the NHS presently going through Parliament.

“On the 15th October at 2pm, Emily Thornberry MP, Opposition spokesperson on social care, will be speaking at Owen House in Woking about the precarious situation for care of the elderly in the country following the collapse of Southern Cross. She will be joined by Andrew Harrap formerly of Age Concern and now General Secretary of The Fabian Society. Members of the public interested in attending are very welcome,” Mr Rowlands concluded.

Commenting, Labour Surrey County Councillor Victor Agarwal said: “The only statement I have seen from Mr Hammond is an indication that he would like to see the speed limit rise from 70MPH to 80MPH. With a large percentage of Surrey’s population, including many of its most vulnerable residents, dependent on public transport this is a clear indication of how out of touch with the lives of ordinary people the current Conservative-led cabinet is.

“Many people in Surrey are dependent on rail travel to get to work. On some routes the cost of travelling to London will rise as much as 13%. As Mervyn King, the Governor of The Bank of England, points out wage and salary levels for most people have not risen for the last 3 years. Faced with extra travel costs of over £30 a month, this development represent a real drop in people’s living standards. They now could represent up to 15% of someone’s salary. Mr Hammond needs to explain the decision to change the calculation of rail fares from inflation plus 1% to inflation plus 3%. Students travelling to study already hit by fees increases and the loss of educational maintenance allowance will also suffer.

“Surrey has a higher percentage of older residents then the national average and they will also be severely impacted from cuts in public transport. National Express has just announced that the Government will stop funding the 50% reduction in their fares from October. I am particularly concerned about the cutting of the 426 service between Staines and Woking with its link to St Peter’s Hospital. Workers on the fringe of London in Spelthorne, Elmbridge, and Runnymede are losing bus services they depend on as a result of cuts,” concluded Councillor Agarwal.