Surrey County Conservatives

Andrew starts from the belief that Surrey is a fantastic place to live and work with its high educational attainment, unique environment, low crime rate, strong economy and high life expectancy. “The County Council should fight to preserve these features as well as to enhance them”.

Since his election as Leader he has invested £1m in a joint initiative with Surrey Police to tackle speeding and anti-social driving, created 50 bursaries for social care students and signed up to the Federation of Small Businesses 'small business engagement accord'. He believes in localism and says of the County Council: ''Our vision of localism is one where power is decentralised to the lowest possible level".

Andrew is also determined to secure a fairer funding settlement for Surrey’s public services.

“Surrey residents provide the Exchequer with over £700m per year in road taxes, petrol duties etc... yet only receive £14m per year for highways. Surrey residents contribute over £5,000 per person per year to the national economy yet only receive £205 per person per year from central government for all local government services. Surrey is the engine room of the British economy and yet Labour seem determined to do the county down. This is unfair, unreasonable and unacceptable”.

Read Andrew's Leader's Blog on the County Council website.

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Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group on Surrey County Council:

David Hodge

David was elected to Surrey County Council in May 2005, having previously served on Tandridge District Council between May 1997 and June 2004 where he chaired the Housing Committee. Since his election to Surrey he has chaired the Transportation Select Committee as well as chairing the Tandridge Local Committee.

He believes that local committees have been an innovative way of bringing Surrey’s local councils together and that local authorities work best when they work together.

“At the end of the day all local authorities and all local Members want to ensure that the people they represent get the best services possible given the appalling funding settlements we get from the Labour government. By councillors from both tiers of local government in Surrey sitting down together and working with each other to deliver services the biggest beneficiaries are local people”.

As a tireless and enthusiastic campaigner and charity worker David also believes that the voluntary sector and individual volunteers make a valuable contribution to the life of Surrey and should be supported wherever possible.

“Surrey simply wouldn’t be the place that it is without the work of volunteers. For all the services that local authorities provide they would be as nothing without the vast network of campaigners, charity workers and voluntary care workers”.

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