After voting against a proposal from the Conservative group at Elmbridge Borough Council led by Cllr John Cope to provide extra funding for community centres, the Lib Dem administration has now bowed to this pressure and is proposing to invest £431,000 in our community centres.
Whilst this is a belated step in the right direction, the June 2020 audit report into community support services stipulated improvement was needed in all 13 areas inspected. You can read this damning report here.
This means the Council had three and a half years to provide the necessary investment in our community centres to avoid the devastating closures, yet nothing was done.
Further to this, Elmbridge Borough Council has failed to issue a formal apology to community centre users, staff and volunteers for the failure of the Liberal Democrat administration to maintain a sufficient service at community centres. They have also failed to agree to a truly independent review into the level of service being provided on a cross-party basis.
The Lib Dem run council has systematically failed the most vulnerable people in our communities and, to add insult to injury, they have tried to cover up how long they knew about the issues arising at community centres.
As local Conservatives, we are defending the vulnerable residents who rely on our local community centres, and will be holding all Councillors involved to account in the Elmbridge Borough Council elections on 2 May 2024.