GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update - no.254. 

It may be half term but all work at the Treasury is very much focussed on the upcoming Budget so no time for a break. At the same time as which there have been excellent public meetings in Cranleigh and Bramley as well as a good meeting with Alfold Parish Councillors. This week I also launched a WhatsApp channel for local updates– do join here and let me know what you think.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER 

GDP  It was obviously a mixed week for economic data with inflation coming in lower than expected but a move to a technical (albeit shallow) recession. Our plan was always to start by tackling inflation - now down from 11% to 4% - after which you can grow much faster as interest rates fall. When Rishi became Prime Minister we were expecting, according to the Bank of England, the longest recession in 100 years but in reality the economy has been much more resilient. The Governor of the Bank of England said this week he is not putting too much weight on these statistics as the underlying picture is improving - but it will nonetheless continue to be challenging for many families until inflation falls to the level at which interest rates can also ease.

See more in my Herald article two weeks ago and listen to my media interviews on Sky News here and ITV here. Also worth checking out these FT charts– UK wages have outpaced inflation more than in the US or Eurozone compared to pre-pandemic.

WHAT’S GOING ON LOCALLY

CANCER CAMPAIGN  As mentioned in last week’s newsletter and this week’s Herald, it is great news that work has started on the new Cancer and Surgical Innovation Centre. I will be running the London Marathon for the third time this year to raise money for it so do stay tuned for pictures and links. Check out this pic of me and Poppy running in Hyde Park yesterday morning - I managed 17 miles but Poppy only 9! Great thinking time for the budget as it happened…
 

TICKETS SELLING FAST FOR WEST END EVENING Another brilliant fundraising event for the centre coming up is an evening of music and song. It takes place on Saturday 24th February in Godalming. Organised by local resident Anne Gray and The Rotary Club of Godalming, it's all set for a great evening full of uplifting, well-known favourites from some of our best loved West End musicals. It will take place at the Borough Hall with tickets just £20.00 each. Click here to reserve your seats.

BRAMLEY COMMUNITY MEETING  I organised a community meeting on Tuesday for 110 Bramley residents with Asda’s environmental consultants for an update on the fuel leak and clean-up operation. The clean-up is set for the beginning of March but it was shocking to hear about the extent of petrol that has leaked into the ground– estimates are upwards of 2,000 litres. Residents are rightly angry and concerned about impacts on health, local wildlife, and the river ecosystem and it is frankly a scandal that the previous owners of the petrol garage did so little for so long to stop it. EPS, the consultants employed to sort out the issue by Asda, said they will start pumping out the petrol from the sand that sits below Bramley in March. Best case is the worst of it is out before the autumn when rain makes things worse. But it could take longer. Hats off to brilliant Bramley Councillor Jane Austin who refused to take no for an answer until we resolved where the smell was coming from.  

THAMES WATER LETTER This week I received another letter from CEO Alistair Cochran updating me on Thames Water’s progress since the major outage last November. They have paid out a significant amount but several cases have not been dealt with which is incredibly frustrating. I will feedback our collective experiences to Ofwat and the Consumer Council for Water. We also have a public meeting with Thames Water’s CEO scheduled for early April when we will be holding their feet to the fire on this - and whether they have sorted out the power supply so we avoid the problem being repeated.  

GUILDFORD COUNCIL I was very concerned to read this week that the fraud investigation impacting Liberal Democrat- controlled Guildford Borough Council is being escalated by Surrey Police to a regional organised crime unit. On top of this, Guildford residents are ‘facing a council tax and rent increase as it fights off bankruptcy.’ Waverley Borough Council (also run by the Lib Dems) wants to merge administration with Guildford - surely this is not a smart time to be doing that?  
 

CRANLEIGH COMMUNITY CENTRE I had a great meeting with Rosemary Hurtley, Dr Jill Rasmussen, and Dr Mike Bundy in Cranleigh at Rowley's Community Centre last week. They told me about the brilliant Smart Cranleigh concept–  a group of many fantastic Cranleigh people who are working together to connect local communities and generally get things done. We also discussed other local issues including the provision of local healthcare which is vital given Cranleigh's older demographic and poor public transport to neighbouring hospitals (Haslemere in particular involves changing buses at Guildford). I will take up with Louise Stead, CEO of Royal Surrey at our upcoming meeting.

ALFOLD Alfold Village has grown by hundreds of houses in recent years because of speculative development - with more anticipated. Of course we need to build more housing– and Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove announced important plans on this during the week. But we also need to make sure that local people are on board and that there is corresponding infrastructure investment. This just hasn’t happened in Alfold –  the water and sewerage system is especially not coping with the increased demand. The great news is Alfold Parish Council now has a strong Neighbourhood Plan in place, which means local people get to decide what development happens and where in their local area. Thanks to County Cllr Kevin Deanus and Alfold Parish Councillor’s Ed Mcudden and Julie Flenley for talking me through the issues on Friday.

POTHOLES I know that potholes are incredibly annoying because of the expensive damage they can cause to cars. Several Cranleigh residents brought this to my attention on Friday too (see below…). We have increased funding for highways and I allocated £200 million to councils to fix potholes in last year’s Spring Budget which will feed through from April. I will be monitoring closely…

THE SIMON TRUST The Simon Trust is a local charity based in the Sands, which has invested nearly £250,000 in activities and facilities at a home called Linden Farm for ten severely autistic young adults in Alfold, near Cranleigh. It is a home owned by Surrey CC where they can receive 1:1 care—many are non-verbal and several have epilepsy. The Simon Trust has therefore started a campaign to expand, and they are in the process of creating enough interest to build two new care homes in Surrey to meet the demand in our area. If you would like to read more information or think you may be able to help, do take a look at their website here: https://www.thesimontrust.org/.

HASCOMBE PHONE MAST For many months I have been working with Hascombe residents to improve their local mobile signal– especially for emergency phone calls, which has been near impossible– so late last year I was pleased to receive confirmation that the phone mast would finally be up and running. However it is powered via a generator, which is not as per original permissions. I visited the site this week and there is a noisy generator spewing out smoke and noise in this quiet National Landscape (AONB) hilltop location. This is not the solution locals or I have pushed for all these months and is not appropriate. BT have told me it is not financially viable for them to run a power supply to this location but I will go back to them asap as the current situation is not satisfactory. As it happens I am meeting the BT CEO shortly so will raise it personally.

CRANLEIGH I spent an hour answering questions to a packed room in Cranleigh on Friday. It was absolutely fascinating to listen to Cranleigh residents’ concerns–  both local and national. Locally it will come as no surprise proposed changes to the High Street, poor mobile reception, and potholes all featured highly! Thank you so much to everyone who made the trip out in the rain. This was the first of a series of meetings I will be holding - do watch out for upcoming dates.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA If you would like more regular updates of my work locally and nationally, do follow me on Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp or Instagram. 

JOIN ME Want to get more involved locally? Email me at [email protected] to join my growing team supporting our work in our community. Despite the train and the dark we still managed some great sessions over the weekend, knocking on 232 doors! Do join us– I promise the weather is often better…

AND FINALLY…  I am sure that a lot of you would have been perfecting your pancake recipes this week but this community in Compton has gone above and beyond to make a display to celebrate Shrove Tuesday and Valentine’s Day- see here! I am now going to stop eating chocolate or desserts until Easter as I have the world’s sweetest tooth. It will be painful!

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