Busy Little Bee

Monday 29th June

Its been another busy fortnight!

In addition to the continued 'County Induction' process, I've been supporting the Worshipful Mayor of Surrey Heath, Cllr Craig Fennell, culminating in assiting him with with the organisation of a cricket fixture and attending his reception last week in support of 'Armed Forces Week'. Although from a naval family, I'm not a fighting man - but I'm at the front of the queue when it comes to supporting our armed services, both serving & retired and believe that in addition to making us safer, the armed services provide a superb opportunity for many.

I also believe that education provides perhaps the greatest opportunity and am striving toward the point where every child can have access to a good education. It is for this reason that I have chosen to sit on the 'Schools Select Committee' at County Hall, which has the responsibility of scrutinising both existing and emerging policy in respect of schools within the county. Similarly, ahead of last weeks County Council AGM, I also elected to sit on the 'Planning Committee' in order that I might usefully bring some of my commercial experience to forum.

Also at the AGM, the new Leader of Surrey County Council, Andrew Povey announced a desire to reduce bad driving in Surrey with the announcement of a £1m programme with Surrey Police to cut speeding and anti-social driving. In addition to this initiative, Dr Povey gave details of a Surrey solution to the national problem of recruiting social workers. The council will now offer fifty annual bursariesfor young people to train as social workers and ten bursaries for existing social workers to extend their professional skills.
Naturally perhaps, a priority will be given to those living in Surrey.

Finally, we County Councillors who represent the six Surrey Heath Divisions are holding our first Local Area Committee (LAC) next Thursday 9th July. Please contact Jane.biscombe@surreycc.gov.uk for full details if you would like to attend.