We know that residents are fed up of negativity and politicians promising so much and delivering nothing. That is why we have surveyed residents, knocked on doors, held meetings and engaged with local people to understand what they want us to do and how we prioritise our work to improve the villages of Englefield Green and Virginia Water.
Having the MP on our team helps us have a loud voice and fight for funding and law change. It is not easy to get change and delivery but having a close working team is the best way to succeed. We have a good track record from delivering tens of thousands of pounds of investment locally, to supporting the community centres and voluntary sector and speaking up to defend absurd legislative proposals in both the council chamber and the House of Commons.
Our plan for Englefield Green and Virginia Water is built from the input of residents. Do feel free to contact us and tell us if we have missed something which is important to you.
Fixing our roads by getting more investment
Residents rightly feel they should have good roads for the council tax they pay. We agree and believe that our roads need improving. We can set out all the reasons why our roads are not as good as we would like - not enough Government funding, the fact they need full re-building in places, the changes in weather with heavy rains and then frost and dry summers - but ultimately we need to get on with a way of improving them.
Actions:
a) We are fighting hard to get a good share of the existing funding and have roads like Egham Hill on the full resurfacing programme as a result.
b) We are pressing national government hard to increase road funding and give us our fair share. We are working with Jack Rankin MP to do this through meetings with Ministers, Parliamentary Questions and joining forces with other underfunded areas.
c) We also commit to keeping efficiency savings in the new unitary authority and putting them towards roads rather than vanity projects, more staff or just general expenses. This year we saved £68m and we have increased road repairs.
- Solving parking issues in Englefield Green around the university
We are already working to solve this issue and we feel that the university expansion has now tipped into being problematic for our local community with the amount of cars on roads. The problem has spread from roads like Alexandra, Armstrong, Albert, Harvest and moved into Parsonage, Middle Hill and potentially may move into Larksfield and Bagshot road so we must address it.
Actions:
a) We have set up a Task & Finish Group with RHUL in an attempt to find capacity on their land. Our powers locally are limited but Jack Rankin MP is helping us hold them to account at a higher level.
b) We have succeeded in changing Surrey County Council's parking policy so local residents can decide what they want and the Highways teams will make it happen. Residents will get a formal parking consultation this May and we will work with them on how we respond as a community to get an outcome that can address this problem once and for all.
c) We are working on improving public transport routes and walking and cycling routes as well having got Englefield Green listed as a top priority for investment for the LCWIP.
Improving road safety on key roads like Wellington, Christchurch, Trumps Green, Middle Hill and Bond Street
We are not anti-car, in fact we think the penalties on car drivers have gone too far but there are roads where safety needs to be improved and where some drivers are going too fast. We want to make our villages safe and so we will work with the community to tackle these roads and deal with the increase of HGVs on our local roads.
Actions:
a) We succeeded in getting speed reduction on Callow Hill, Bakeham Lane and soon Priest Hill and we can succeed in bringing in the other roads mentioned above to make them safer too.
b) We have succeeded in delivering consultations on 20mph in the village. This doers not mean we support them but we think it is right that residents get to put their views across and have the debate. It is up to residents to decide.
c) We are working hard to curb the cutting through of HGVs on our village roads having discussions with Surrey Highways about how we use GPS and restricted routes to stop them.
- Supporting local businesses with our 1 hour free proposal for car parks and removing overnight charging
We want to make it easier for residents to use our local shops across Surrey and in towns like Egham, Staines and Camberley, We need to enable people to stop and get a coffee, use the bank or the pharmacy and help keep businesses going as part of our effort to get better high streets and shopping areas. At national level we want to tackle business rates but we can also do things locally to help.
Actions:
a) We would provide 1-hour free parking in our car parks so people can stop in our shopping areas and not worry about parking hassles.
b) We can make our shopping parades more attractive and safer and we can regenerate our towns such as we already did in Egham when the Conservative ran the Borough council and we built the cinema and new area. We have ambition for our high streets and local businesses, they are key for the local economy but also our amenity and we commit to work with local businesses to solve problems.
c) We offer support and small grants to local businesses at Surrey County Council and we would want to continue doing this to help people getting going with a new business and help existing business grow.
Making sure we work with the community to drive forward the Neighbourhood Plans
When the community puts together a Neighbourhood Plan it is important it has clout and that it becomes a meaningful document. The vision. set out in that document, needs to become a reality and that means the elected councillors and MPs getting behind and seeking opportunities to win funding and resource to make it happen.
Actions:
a) We already have experience of doing this and would meet regularly to look at progress as well as ensuring that new development proposals do not undermine the Neighbourhood Plans.
b) We have won funding for our areas already and would continue making sure we get funding and are not overlooked by more dominant areas in the new unitary.
c) With our wide experience across planning we know how to utilise developer funding for our communities and make sure we get what we deserve,.
- Protecting our environment and green space
Our track record on the environment far surpasses the other political parties. Marisa has extensive experience in environment leadership and delivering outcomes from her time as Cabinet member for Environment at Surrey County Council in which she increased countryside land, delivered a leading Surrey Local Nature Recovery Strategy and worked on the programme to plant 1.2m trees in Surrey.
Action:
a) We have stood up for the Green Belt and protected our green spaces and whilst the Labour Government has reduced the protections on building on green spaces and taken away local voices, we will speak up for our community when development is inappropriate.
b) We will work with community groups to add in more hanging baskets, planters, trees and habitats across our areas.
c) We have been involved in Heathrow expansion plans and discussions on how we improve air quality - we want residents to have good air quality and are working to get better public transport routes to the airport so that we can ease the traffic on the M25 and around our area that means our air quality is not great.
Finally alongside all of this we commit to standing up against large council tax increase and wealth taxes. The Lib Dem MP allowed uncontrolled council tax rises to go through Parliament conveniently not bothering as an entire party to turn up and vote against it - a clear deliberate decision by them because they secretly support higher council tax. Jack Rankin and the Conservative MPs voted against this, In nearby Windsor and Maidenhead, the Lib Dems went for a 25% increase on council tax last year and Reform has also increased council taxes in all the council they run despite promising they would not. The Greens want to tax anyone who has anything to give it to uncontrolled illegal immigrants. Only your Conservative team will fight to protect residents and manage our budgets effectively.
