For most people ‘Local Politics’ equals ‘boring’.  For me, natural history programmes and football are nearly as tedious. But last night’s SCC Woking Local Committee meeting would have deserved careful elucidation by David Attenborough, while there were points I wanted to shout ‘Yeah! Goal!’  Before I get too carried away, I have to add the serious warning that much is liable to be undermined by underfunding.   A reminder in case you’re new to this game: Surrey’s Local Committee consists of the seven County Councillors for Woking matched by an equal number of Woking Borough Councillors. Its main remit is local transport, handled by the whole committee, but there are some just-Surrey bits for the County Councillors.

A lot happened last night, so I’m splitting this report into this introduction and three more postings, so that you can skip the bits you’re not interested in.

I won’t pretend to cover everything. Good stuff for Knaphill and Good stuff Goldsworth West are here in detail, and before them a piece on Transport for Woking.  

The rest: 

Councillor Philip Goldenberg got the committee to ask Surrey’s Executive not to reduce the level of funding for local transport, and to change the balance between maintenance and new road schemes so that it disadvantaged Woking less. The rest of the Committee went along with this, so long as we rubbished the Government at the same time.  

There was a paper by Trading Standards on their genuinely good work (I’ve written a column ‘in Praise of Trading Standards’ before now) which also stood as good PR for them, while arguing gently that new responsibilities olaced on them by central government meant they needed more money for additional staff.  

There was much else about Woking transport, and roads specifically, both discussed and mentioned in the reports to the Committee. But if you want full detail about other areas than Knaphill and Goldsworth West, tackle your own County Councillor or look at the Surrey web site.  (But don’t try asking Shamas Tabrez or Geoff Marlowe about new road schemes for Woking Central or The Byfleets they put forward for inclusion in the Local Transport Plan. None were submitted.)