Surrey Labour critical of repeated Police Liaison meeting failures

“I am sure I am not alone in expressing my frustration that yet again our local police have failed to get right the publicity for its liaison meeting with residents in St Michaels,” Murray Rowlands a member of the local neighbourhood watch in St Michaels said.

“The police have called three meetings in recent months none of which have taken place,” added Murray Rowlands, a former Surrey Heath Councillor and Surrey County Councillor. “On one occasion at the venue where we were due to meet there was not even a note of apology.”

“Now in The Camberley News there is a note from the police for a meeting on Wednesday 15th August which is clearly wrong. The 15th of August is a Monday. Perhaps the local police want us to believe that they are engaged sufficiently with the St Michaels community without having to turn up?” Mr Rowlands concludes.

Surrey Schools face cash loss due to new academies

Labour County Councillor Victor Agarwal has commented on the answer to a written question he received at a recent County Council meeting about the cost of new academies being set up in Surrey. “Already Surrey Schools and Colleges have lost £2.576m from its education budget through grants being made to the academies being set up in the County. A further £2m will be lost in the 2012/13 period,” Victor Agarwal explains. “Any school in receipt of a windfall through becoming an academy should be aware that it comes at the expense of other Surrey schools.”

“If a calculation is made of the effect on the money for our schools of all the academies who have indicated they will convert to academies the loss to Surrey is 28.8m.

“Real cuts in the money for education welfare and schools improvements amounting to 2.576m have already been made as a consequence of academy conversions here,” he points out.

Councillor Agarwal is seeking more detailed information about how money for the County’s schools is being siphoned off to schools becoming academies. “The details of this a far as Spelthorne I have obtained are very worrying. It amounts to a deduction just for Spelthorne of £7.386m.”

200 more jobs go at SC Johnsons Wax in Frimley

SC Johnsons Wax has just slashed more of its 200 workforce in preparation for a total closedown in August 2012.

The Company follows firms like Marconi in leaving Frimley, that until the 1980’s were a hub of economic activity.

The American company have decided to move to Poland after claiming they will find “more flexible” and “more responsible” workers there. Labour suspect however the real reason is to find a cheaper workforce. This seems to us to be a final slap in the face to its workers from a firm that has always boasted of its commitment to the local community.

“With so many crucial jobs going for Frimley and Surrey Heath I would have expected some attempt by Michael Gove to persuade Johnsons Wax not to close the factory,” Councillor Rodney Bates Leader of the Opposition group on Surrey Heath Council. “Further, rather than the Council’s meetings with local business being used to promote Conservative policies, there should be full and frank discussion about assistance which might be given to closures of this kind and its consequence for employment here.”

Surrey Heath Labour calls for transparency from Michael Gove over links with News International

As more and more shocking details emerge in the phone hacking scandal, Surrey Heath Labour has called on Michael Gove to provide some transparency to his constituents about his dealings with News International.

Murray Rowlands, Chair of Surrey County Labour Party said: “Surrey Heath’s MP, Michael Gove, is involved with News International and Surrey Heath’s electors have a right to demand transparency in this matter and answers to questions about his links with the Murdoch Empire. As the Minister in charge of our children’s education we should know what exactly his links are with an organisation linked to serious criminal charges.

“Questions he should answer:

“How many times in recent months has he been in contact with Rebekah Brooks, who was arrested on Sunday in connection with phone hacking?

Surrey Heath Labour attacks “absentee MP” Michael Gove

Surrey Heath Labour Party are asking serious questions about MP Michael Gove’s commitment to his constituents in the borough. The main opposition Party in the borough points to the high profile that fellow Conservative Minister, Aldershot MP Gerald Howarth maintains, with regularly advertised surgeries.

In contrast, Michael Gove has no publicised surgeries. If he meets his constituents, the meetings have to take place at Conservative Offices at Windlesham. This puts contact out of reach for many of the people he represents without a car.

Murray Rowlands, Chair of Surrey County Labour Party said: “It seems as though Mr Gove is either unwilling to meet his constituents or does not think representing their interests is an important part of his work as a Constituency MP. Labour have even identified (to Mr Gove’s agent, without any response) an address in the centre of Camberley close to public transport, which would be suitable for his surgeries. There also remains uncertainty whether he has followed his undertaking to move into Surrey Heath, which might explain his difficulty in making contact with his electors.

Tory Councils fight over schools in Micheal Gove’s constituency

“Rather than suggesting that parents take over teaching in their children’s schools in response to teacher’s action on Thursday because of the attack on their pensions, Michael Gove should seek to resolve the desperate problem facing two of the principal secondary schools in his own constituency,” Murray Rowlands, a former member of Surrey’s Education Committee and chairman of Surrey County Labour Party, states.

Surrey County Council moved Kings International School in Camberley, formerly France Hill School, to the Kings Group some years ago. This was because the number of students it enrolled were not considered sufficient for a viable school by its officers.

“Growing crisis” in Surrey’s ability to care for Mum and Dad

“I can see no role for the private sector in the care of the elderly.” This was the statement from a previous Conservative Chairman of Surrey’s Social Services committee, Sheila Wicks, member for Ashford Middlesex, before Surrey began privatising its homes for the elderly. The collapse of the vast Southern Cross Group, providing care for 31,000 residents in 750 homes nationwide, provides ample evidence of how precarious relying on the private sector really is. Some 44,000 carers are likely to loose their jobs. In Surrey and the rest of the country 95,000 beds have gone, to be replaced by 110,000 beds in private homes.

Not only is the care for the elderly here limited by the way finance-driven care is managed, where availability of care is determined by price, Surrey suffers from the fact that its Chairman, Leader of the Council, Dr Povey, is unable to involve himself in this vital process because he has business interests in private sector care. This is illustrated by dodgy practices such as selling the properties owned by private care companies and then renting them back in order to capitalise on increased rental value. As a result, this is likely to add £60 to the cost of care paid by councils like Surrey, or to the many elderly people without council support.

Conservative cuts in Surrey will hit vulnerable families hard

Not only the 74,000 people on Surrey’s waiting list for social housing face a bleak prospect from the Tory’s cuts programme, but the whole programme of cuts in benefits being introduced here will undermine the quality of life of thousands who are most vulnerable.

Those on low incomes currently receiving Housing Benefit are facing having to find £23 on average to live after their Housing Benefit is cut. A National Housing Federation survey of 18-30 year olds here shows that 87% say they would not be able to buy their own home. This is not surprising as a yearly income of £79,272 would be necessary to purchase a 3-bedroom house in Surrey Heath and £89,942 in Guildford. Surrey Heath built just 81 affordable homes and Guildford 121 during the same period. Single young people under 35 are only to receive housing benefit for a single room in the future. At the same time currently claiming for a single room is about to face a Housing Benefit loss of £27 per week. Large families are to be no longer eligible for housing benefit for a five-bedroom house and must survive with four bed-rooms no matter what is the size of their family.

For those starting a family the Health and Pregnancy Grant is to go. This was introduced because the level of infant mortality had not improved since the 1980s. Families are to lose the Sure Start Maternity Grant for families in need for all but a first child. The upper income threshold for which families can claim Child Tax Credit is being reduced from £50,000 to £40,000.and Child Benefit is being frozen for 3 years. Assistance with child care costs for mothers returning to work have been reduced from 80% of the actual cost to 70%. The average cost for nursery care in Surrey is £300 per week.

Surrey Conservatives cutting far deeper than needed

Labour has attacked Surrey Tories justification for the swinging cuts they have just announced.

Speaking on BBC Southern Counties Murray Rowlands Chairman of Surrey County Labour Party said: “Surrey have gone even further than the draconian cuts demanded by Environment Minister Eric Pickles.”

Attempting to justify the cuts about to be made Tory spokesman Councillor Hodge points to the £12 million being invested in Surrey’s highways. “What Councillor Hodge does not mention is that there have been savage cuts to bus services which the majority of young people, the disabled and the elderly depend on for their transport,” Mr Rowlands states.

Councillor Hodge says that Surrey is freezing the council tax this year. “This undermines all claims that the pain from the cuts is being equally shared.

Labour says Surrey’s cuts are ideologically driven

Labour County Councillor Victor Agarwal will this week denounce the round of cuts Surrey County Council are about to inflict on Surrey as being driven by Tory ideology.

Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of Surrey Heath Labour Party in Camberley, the Stanwell Councillor will denounce the £6m cut in addition to the £180m planned to be cut by Surrey over the next 4 years.

“Here is clear evidence that Surrey is seeking to go even further than the savage cuts the Government is making in its money for services working people here depend on,” he will tell the meeting.

“Surrey is to loose £41million from its formula grant and £10million from specific grants,” Councillor Agarwal states.

“We are being asked to cover the shortfall in money by cutting frontline services which will affect some of the most vulnerable members of our local communities.

“At a time when we are being expected to take a major role in adult social care under Tory proposals for changes in the NHS there is to be a cut in the money allocated to this vital service.