One of the worst county councils in the country !
That's not just
our view - it is the official assessment of the AUDIT COMMISSION. It gave
Tory-run Surrey County Council a one star rating overall, the lowest grade
possible, making it one of only four authorities in the country to receive
such a low rating. It was rated joint worst performing authority in this
region.
IN SPITE OF THE FAILURES, THE TORIES ARE RE-ELECTED. SO WE CAN'T LOOK
FORWARD TO MUCH IMPROVEMENT !!!
More trouble with the Waste Plan
Failure in children's services
Ofsted
rated the children's services department as inadequate and found that it was
failing vulnerable children. Now we find that in order to save face, they
are appealing against the ruling in the High Court, an action that will cost
anything from £150,000 to £500,000. Good for the lawyers but not
for the vulnerable children.
How much better it would be to use that money to improve children's services
rather than wasting taxpayers money in the courts.
Rewards for failure?
This is something we associate with bankers - and they are usually Tories too! It is now reported that £625,000 has been given to eight employees made redundant - including some managers in the children's services department.
Pothole capital of the UK?
Road maintenance is the huge failing of the Tory-controlled County Council that everyone is aware of. Retired Labour Councillor for Westborough, Alderman John Woodhatch, wrote to the local paper recently to point out how bad the roads were in his area. But it is the same story in every part of Guildford. Mismanagement of road contracts led to this disaster, but although the council claims to have sorted out the problems, progress is painfully slow. Some of the patch-up jobs look very poor and will probably need repairing again very soon.
The Tories' waste plan in tatters
In the waste plan agreed last year the County Council opted for incineration as the only alternative to landfill. The Clockhouse Brickworks at Capel was the first site to be selected for an incinerator. Local protesters were successful in getting the High Court to overturn this decision. Several years earlier their plan for an incinerator at Capel was rejected in the courts. So why were they wasting money on another attempt? Don't they ever learn?
The recent court case highlighted another problem. The council had written into the plan that a development should be considered sound unless residents complained. The judge ruled that a planning decision is not necessarily sound just because no one challenges it. As a consequence, the County will have to revise its waste plan. The Tories are now taking legal advice on this and so wasting even more of your money!
Surrey had £20 million on deposited with two Icelandic Banks when they went bust, and has been reckoned to be the 10th most affected local authority. Although hoping to get most of the money back, it is reported that one of the banks, Landbankii, is only returning 90% of deposits, amounting to a potential loss to Surrey ratepayers of £1 million.
