August is a quieter month in terms of council meetings at Surrey Heath House. However as a local councillor as I have still been active in my work for residents in St Paul's ward and across Surrey Heath. Below is a summary of some of what I've been up to over the past month or so. As always, if there is something you think I should know about or should be campaigning on, please do let me know at [email protected].
Supporting Connect Counselling
I visited Connect Counselling Service in Camberley to look at their premises and discuss the vital work they do providing mental health counselling in our borough and beyond.
Earlier this year, I was able to support Connect with some funding from Surrey Heath Borough Council's Ward Councillor Grant Scheme allowing them to purchase some office equipment needed to add an additional room to provide vital counselling services.
Fundraising for Frimley Heath Charity
I spent one Sunday morning walking through beautiful countryside taking part Frimley Health Charity's Walk Four Wards event and helping to fundraise to help provide equipment and services for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.
A great way to spend a sunny Sunday morning and support a very worthy cause. You can find out more about the event and their work here:
https://www.frimleyhealthcharity.org/event/walk-4-wards-24/
Working with our new MP
Along with other councillors, I received a letter earlier this week from our new MP Al Pinkerton expressing his wish to work collaboratively and on a cross-party basis. You can read a full copy of the letter (which he has made public) on his Facebook page.
Cross-party working is vital to making our politics work, both locally and nationally. However, since being elected last year, I have found that the behaviour of a small minority of Liberal Democrat representatives has made this impossible due to the aggressive and unpleasant attitude that they take towards those who disagree with them. I would stress this applies only to a small minority of councillors and I find the majority on all sides to be hard-working, honest local representatives who are in politics for the right reason.
Your can read the full text of my letter here: https://www.jonnycope.uk/news/response-letter-al-pinkerton-mp
Local Casework and Cleaning Up Camberley
As always, I received a number of queries and issues from local residents in St Paul's from bin issues to planning queries. One particular issues that has been flagged to me is the condition of one of the underpasses by the Ravenswood roundabout. The underpass is used regularly by parents and school children and is not in a good condition. The underpass has now been swept but more work needs to be done to clean graffiti from the underpass and to ensure that the drains are clear so that surface water does not cause flooding in periods of heavy rain. I am continuing to push for this.
