County Notes
By County Councillor Eber Kington
Council Tax
In February the ruling Conservatives at SCC proposed and approved a council tax increase of 5.99%. That is a rise of nearly £80 a year for a Band D property.
SCC faces some difficult financial challenges, but a 2017 independent Report by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) commissioned by SCC, stated that “SCC’s spend is high and £100million more than the average for similar County Councils” and that its previous budget “was based on an absence of a credible cost reduction plan”. SCC needs to move with greater urgency to find new and less costly ways to deliver its services and to identify new funding streams if it is to avoid service cuts in the future.
Highway Spending
Residents may recall that I proposed a Motion at the December County Council meeting which criticized the ruling group’s priorities for service cuts and spending priorities which, I have argued, do not reflect the priorities of residents. In particular I mentioned the huge 78% cut in local highway funding which has reduced local highway and footway repairs to a bare minimum. Despite the large Conservative majority that Motion was defeated by only three votes. It was therefore pleasing to note that, in the Budget spending plans, the arguments put forwarded by Residents’ Association County Councillors were accepted and there has been an increase in local highway funding for 2018/19 from £78k to £165K. It is still less than half it was two years ago, but it is a start.
Streetlight Switch-off
One issue noticeably absent from the Budget was any commitment to abandon the streetlight switch-off policy. Pressure from residents and Residents’ Association Councillors has forced SCC to switch the start time from 12 midnight to 1.00am. More recently they have agreed to investigate switching all the streetlights to LED, with the potential to save £2million a year in energy costs. I believe that part of that saving must be used to restore our night time street lighting and, along with my RA and Independent County Councillor colleagues we will be pursuing this policy change at County Hall.
Damage to Grass Verges
I have recently been contacted by quite a few residents concerned about the damage being caused to our grass verges by inconsiderate drivers of cars and HGVs. We have builders lorries and delivery vans using the verge as a staging post to drop off goods; cars being driven across the verges whist entering or exiting driveways; and drivers who have decided that a grass verge can be used as an all-day parking bay.
At the moment only one area within Ewell Court, Auriol and Cuddington is designated as a no-verge parking zone and therefore, in most roads, we rely on drivers to respect our local green and street scene environment and to park sensibly and only on the highway. However, given the recent increase in verge damage I have asked Surrey Highways (SCC) to take action wherever there is damage and when the perpetrators can be identified.
Unfortunately the current Surrey Highway policy does not include repairing damaged verges because the damage “is not a safety hazard”. They have also refused to leaflet cars which are continually parked on the verge, and they do not have the local highway funds to install posts in the most frequently damaged verges. However, I am not giving up. The vast majority of our residents park carefully and sensibly and want to keep our verges free of tyre marks. As I write these notes therefore I am arranging site visits with our local highway engineer to look at the most damaged areas and to agree a policy (and hopefully funding!) to tackle the problem.
And finally……………. I recently reported to Surrey Highways (SCC) a dislodged kerbstone which was a safety concern and could have caused damage to a vehicle. It was inspected and I was advised that it had been lifted onto the verge so that it was no longer a highway safety hazard. Obviously job done!
County Councillor Eber Kington
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