County Notes by County Councillor Eber Kington

Council Meeting

In October I tabled a Motion at the SCC Council Meeting criticising the Conservative ruling group’s priorities for spending cuts and spending increases which I believe do not reflect residents’ views. Residents have been expressing their concerns to me about the midnight streetlight switch-off, the 78% cut in local highway funding and the reduction of funding for verge cutting, and the Motion was designed to highlight those and other issues.   In addition SCC has given a grant of £400k to a Surrey art gallery despite the fact that the Gallery has assets of £38 million, an annual income of £3.4 million and has already received £1million from SCC.   Added to that, and whilst basic SCC services face a recruitment freeze, the County Council has just advertised for a Head of Strategy post with a salary of between £55k-£66k.

At the start of the debate the Leader of the Council David Hodge attempted to get the debate stopped, but fortunately this was rejected by the Chairman of the Council and, following a lively debate, my Motion was lost by just three votes with 20 votes for, 23 votes against and 24 abstentions. The SCC Conservatives have a majority of 41 at SCC, but 24 of them abstained and did not support their own Leader in the vote.

Overnight Switch-Off of Streetlights

I have continued to raise this issue with the Conservative ruling group at County Hall, and the pressure from residents and Residents’ Association councillors is beginning to have an effect. In November SCC announced that from Thursday 23 November all streetlights in Surrey will stay on until 1.00am – an extra hour. They are also looking at switching to LED lights as a cost effective option. But we need to keep up the pressure – we want our street lights on all night!

Until that is achieved I am encouraging all residents who contact me to lodge a request to keep the lights on in their road via the Review Process on SCC’s website:

www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/road-maintenance-and-cleaning/street-lights-traffic-signals-and-signs/part-night-street-lighting

The paperwork enables a resident to say why they want the lights on full time (e.g. increased incidents of night time crime, sight problems) and it also asks for signatures of support from neighbours.

It is interesting to note that on the SCC website they state that they are experiencing a high volume of review applications and those applications are currently taking up to nine weeks to be processed – that should tell them something about local concerns.   I am going to ask for details of the Epsom and Ewell appeal statistics to see how many people have made requests, but also how many requests for review have been successful.  It is important that we know the strength of public feeling and how SCC is reacting to it.  Obviously if you request a review it will add to the published data.

At the time of writing these notes (November), there is an on-line petition calling for the streetlights to remain on all night, and over 6000 Surrey residents have already signed it www.change.org/p/surrey-county-council-surrey-cc-put-our-street-lights-back-on  If you feel strongly about this issue why not add your name to those of other residents.

County Councillor Eber Kington welcomes further concessions over the streetlight switch-off policy.

My request that streetlights be kept on all night on New Year’s Eve into New Year’s Day has been agreed by SCC alongside a similar switch-on for Christmas Eve into Christmas News.  This is great news for the festive season but the County-wide campaign by the residents and Residents’ Association county councillors to get the streetlight switch-off policy abandoned must be, and will be, continued.

Night Time Crime

One of the key issues in the streetlight switch-off debate is the effect on levels of crime. Surrey Police recently issued data for reported crime from March to July across 2015, 2016 and 2017 including the figures from Midnight to 5.00am and there has been a large increase of night time crime across the whole of Surrey.   For Epsom and Ewell the figure is 39.5%.

Crime statistics are important to the streetlight debate, so if you are unfortunate to be a victim of crime please report it to the Surrey Police and make sure you get a Reference Number.

Significantly in November, and following an increase in residential burglaries overnight in Auriol, Stoneleigh and West Ewell, our Epsom and Ewell Police Inspector requested that streetlights remained switched on in particular roads for a period of time in order to protect homes, prevent further offences and provide reassurance to the residents. SCC agreed to that request, but it is further evidence that the midnight switch-off policy is not working for residents and has to be abandoned.

Changes to SCC’s Community Recycling Centres

Also in October I used a Council procedure to call in for scrutiny the Cabinet’s decision on changes to Community Recycling Centres.   I am particularly concerned about the plan to end the daily one free bag of non-household waste and the possible effects this may have on incidents of fly-tipping, which has gone up in Epsom and Ewell by 15% since previous changes were introduced. However my recommendation that the Cabinet reconsider the proposed charges was lost by 7 (Conservative Party councillor’s) votes to 4 and those charges will be introduced. Any non-household waste taken to the Epsom Recycling Centre (e.g. tiles, paving slabs, plasterboard) will incur a charge from 4^th December 2017.  For a list of all the charges visit the SCC website:

www.surreycc.gov.uk/waste-and-recycling/where-to-take-your-waste-and-recycling

Alongside the ending of the daily one free bag of non-household waste it is also planned that the Epsom Recycling Centre in Blenheim Road will be closed each Tuesday and Wednesday from the week beginning 8^th January 2018.

Epsom and Ewell Borough Council Notes

In September the Borough Council’s independent external auditors Grant Thornton gave an “un-qualified” verdict on the 2016/17 accounts which means that the accounts are to a high standard with no significant issues or concerns. They reported that “the Council had proper arrangements in all significant respects to ensure it delivered value for money in its use of resources”.  EEBC has now had un-qualified accounts for over 16 years, which is a real credit to the Finance Team and other Officers who manage the Borough’s finances.

By the time you read this you may already be aware that there is free parking in the Borough Council’s Epsom car parks in December on Sundays 10^th, 17^th and 24^th and on Christmas Day.  In addition of course the Borough Council now provides Christmas lights in Epsom, Ewell Village, Stoneleigh Broadway , Ruxley Lane, and at Bradford Drive/Stoneleigh Park Road.

The Borough Council has agreed to continue with its shopmobilty service in Epsom town centre and replace the current fleet of mobility scooters with more up-to-date and efficient ones.  EEBC is one of only two Surrey Boroughs directly funding such a scheme.  EEBC has also completed the refurbishment of the tennis and basketball courts in Alexandra Park, following the refurbishment of the courts in Auriol Park about 18 months ago.

Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals Trust has been consulting on its plans for hospital services post 2020, including the provision of a new specialist acute facility within the hospital network, managed by the Trust.  Residents’ Association led Epsom & Ewell Borough Council has submitted a response to that consultation indicating support for a new specialist acute facility but emphasizing that it should be at Epsom General Hospital.   Any other option (St Helier or the Sutton & Royal Marsden sites) would make it too London centric.

County Councillor Eber A Kington