GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.281.

Only one sitting week of parliament before we break up again for conference recess but the honeymoon period for the new government feels pretty much over with the row on winter fuel payments coming to a head with a vote tomorrow. Locally I am afraid we have more water shortages in Cranleigh and Bramley (can hardly believe I am writing this) and I have been in touch with Asda this morning and Friday. 

WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER 

WINTER FUEL PAYMENT Tomorrow in Parliament we will be voting on the cuts to winter fuel payments that Rachel Reeves announced six weeks ago. The measure is strongly criticised by lots of people including unions, money expert Martin Lewis, and Age UK who worry it will affect 1.6 million pensioners below the poverty line. I will be voting against it partly because there is no coherence in the government position: they say they want to increase take up of pension credit to 100% of those eligible but the IFS confirm that if there was 100% take up it would wipe out all the savings from the measure. But what is really making people angry is the attempt to blame the Conservative government for the measure when in reality it was done to fund massive public sector pay rises including a £10,000 rise for train drivers on £60,000. Note to self: I handed over an economy that was growing faster than any G7 country with inflation at 2%. If you want a sense of the pressure on the government from its own side look at this stinging editorial in today’s Guardian. 

TORY LEADERSHIP ROUND TWO As I wrote last week I will not be endorsing anyone publicly or privately - and it is quite a relief having played a very active role in the last three such contests! Tomorrow will see one more of the contenders knocked out in the second round of MP voting. So far I have been impressed how open the race has been: much less interest in labels (leave/remain, left/right etc) and realism about the scale of the mountain we have to climb. Nor should we lose hope: Labour only got 34% of the vote on a 60% turnout. In other words only around one in five voters chose the government. The Conservatives of course did even worse - but there is no reason we cannot recover if we learn sensible lessons about what went wrong.
 

WHAT’S GOING ON LOCALLY

WATER WATER EVERYWHERE NOR ANY DROP… Over the weekend about 1,900 properties in the constituency had an issue with water supply – either low pressure or no water. Thames Water set up bottled water stations as they started recovery at local treatment works. All supply should now  have resumed - please shout if not. At the same time biblical rain caused lots of issues with blocked drains and new rivers all over the constituency, hopefully now resolved.

MORE WATER As locals will know Thames Water have had to return a number of times in the last 6 weeks to fix the leak at the brow of the hill near Hascombe only for the dratted leak to reappear.  The resulting road closures have been a big nuisance and are impacting bus services so Cllr Kevin Deanus and I have raised the issue urgently with…you guessed it…Thames Water. 

MORE CHLORINE Some Godalming residents have mentioned that the taste of their tap water has changed. All water is chlorinated at safe levels but I have asked Thames Water to double check. They say chlorine levels can fluctuate during the day and they have not detected any issues but will keep monitoring. Best thing apparently is to leave your taps to run for a little until the chlorine smell subsides.

MORE MONEY (please) On Friday I had a useful discussion with Asda Chairman Stuart Rose about the issues that are still frustratingly outstanding since he came for a public meeting in July. There is a proper - and difficult - discussion to be had over appropriate levels of compensation so with Cllr Jane Austin I am trying to agree a process by which it can be negotiated. People are still not getting information about progress, which in fairness is not ASDA’s fault as they have been asked to root all communications through the Waverley RCG so I am trying to resolve. We also discussed Openreach broadband issues and I now have a meeting scheduled with Openreach’s CEO. 
 

CONSTITUENCY CALLS

My first two calls for my surgery this week were to people who want to support my campaign to turn the Surrey Hills into a national park - a campaign which has taken on increasing urgency given Labour's stated desire to increase building. Stefan Reynolds is the publisher of brilliant local magazine Vantage Point which many of you will receive through your letterbox and kindly wants to support the campaign as did the second caller who is greenkeeper of a local golf course. However he was concerned a national park might restrict fertiliser use which is the right thing to do but only if introduced in a proportionate way. 

I then spoke to a Godalming resident who lives in Lower South Street. He was told he couldn’t buy a permit to park in South Street car park despite being promised by the Leader of Waverley that he could. I said I would take the issue up with Waverley which will be interesting.