GOOD EVENING & welcome to my update no.271.
 

In this rather unusual period I am hitting 15,000-20,000 steps each day as I march my brilliant team of volunteers up and down Godalming and Ash to knock on doors - and expecting to meet about 1,500 people between now and polling day in exactly four week’s time. Believe or not, it is fun! Thank you for the friendly reception (even from political foes) - what a pleasant area we live in. Since Monday I have been in Ash Vale, Thursley, Puttenham, Bramley, Chiddingfold, and this morning I was in Ash and Cranleigh, where I took Health Secretary Victoria Atkins around the Village Hospital to talk about expanding services. I have also been busy on Bramley issues.

WESTMINSTER ANNOUNCEMENTS

D-DAY Perhaps something that puts our local issues into perspective are today’s very moving commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. My grandfather was not at them because he was in the Indian Army, separated from his family in Godalming for seven whole years. When he arrived back at Godalming station after the war he didn’t recognise my father and was astonished to see my uncle, by then 19, driving a car. It’s so easy to forget the sacrifices made - but now more than ever we must not as we contemplate a world in which once again - sadly - freedom and democracy cannot be taken for granted. And who is right on the front line of that battle? The brave Ukrainians.
 

LEADERS DEBATES Many of you will have seen the ITV debate between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak on Tuesday. Rishi did extremely well in one simple way: he exposed the absurdity of a Labour party that wants to cruise into office without actually saying what it would do. How can you say you will reduce migration and cancel the Rwanda scheme on day one? There has been some controversy about a document from my Treasury team which showed how much Labour’s policies will cost - £2094 per household. I put the arguments for this (including this number) in a speech three weeks ago. Most of the numbers came from independent Treasury costings based on a reasonable interpretation of what Shadow Cabinet Members have said publicly. Otherwise they were the Labour party’s own figures (and one from an independent third party.) We added them up to £38.5 bn over the parliament but actually believe they will be much more than that - and the fact that Labour has refused to say what they disagree about in those numbers speaks volumes. There is no shame in a Labour party wanting to put up taxes - but they should at least be open about it.

— and they were not able to say how they would pay for them. But lots of Westminster eyes remain on Godalming and Ash — take a look here at my chat with the Guardian. 

WHAT’S GOING ON LOCALLY

A LOT OF CAMPAIGNING…we have been busy bees! I have been knocking on doors for several hours every day. Because it is a hotly fought marginal seat there has been a lot of national press interest - you can check out the Guardian who came out canvassing with me on Tuesday. I have also started a series of Q & A evenings for undecided voters which you are welcome to attend. We were in Elstead last week, Milford on Monday and (if you get this email in time) in Chiddingfold Village Hall at 7 pm tonight. After that they will be (all at 7 pm unless indicated):

• in Shere Village Hall on Fri 7th

• Bramley Village Hall on Sun 9th

• Cranleigh Village Hall on Mon 10th

• Arbuthnot Hall Shamley Green on Wed 12th

• Chilworth Village Hall Thurs 13th

• Compton Village Hall Fri 14th

• Godalming Baptist Church Mon 17th

• Alfold Village Hall Tues 18th (7.30pm)

• Victoria Hall Ash Mon 24th (7.30pm)

• St Mary’s Church Shalford Fri 28th (7 pm)
   

CRANLEIGH HOSPITAL Today I invited my close colleague and Health Secretary Vicky Atkins to visit Cranleigh to talk with local residents including Dr Mike Bundy, Rosemary Hurtley and Dianne Davies about expanding facilities at the Village Hospital. Many older residents do not have cars and find the journey to Guildford or Haslemere very challenging so we also invited Louise Stead, CEO of the Royal Surrey. She has agreed to put together a plan as to what additional services could be run from Cranleigh to make use of the Village Hospital and make life easier for vulnerable residents. We also talked about the new Community Diagnostic Centre in Milford (being built) and my particular passion, the new Cancer and Surgical Innovation Centre (also being built and due to open next year).
 

BRAMLEY FUEL LEAK LATEST Yesterday I had a call with Asda and today a further call with Keith Coleman, the head of Surrey’s Gold Command who is coordinating the response to the nightmare the village is currently going through. I have also sent an email to the Managing Director of Asda today about ongoing Bramley issues - you can read it here. We have a public meeting in Bramley on Sunday evening at which I am sure there will be more questions but to summarise so far:

• On Monday Thames Water broke ground and now all the pipes needing replacing have been exposed. Expected completion date for installing new pipes is 21 June.

• After that 3 clear water tests need to be complete before the water can be switched back on, but it should be fairly shortly afterwards.

• Until then water can be used for showering and washing clothes but not drinking or washing dishes.

• Risk assessment for BT Openreach ducts is now complete and BT have now signed off a risk minimisation strategy which means fumes can be pumped out of ducts to make them safe to work in.

• It will still be some time before broadband service resilience is back to normal, until which mobile boosters being deployed. BT Openreach informing broadband suppliers.

• Surrey are looking into whether there can be a shuttle service to the Wonersh bus stop and numerous issues re signage, including whether drivers should be asked to switch off their engines instead of idling.

Overall it feels reasonable to assume that the disruption on the roads will finish by the end of this month - although nothing can be 100% certain. However the extraction of water from the water table to remove petrol could carry on for another year - it is not possible to know exactly as we don’t know how much petrol is down there. But at least we know the problem and have started on the solution. There are also many questions about compensation that Jane Austin and I are pursuing.

COMPTON SPEED CAMERAS Compton has been having terrible issues with dangerous driving and speeding. Having spoken to Jill Eyles and received lots of emails from newsletter readers, I agree that an average speed check camera is the right solution. I secured speed cameras for Witley, Bramley, and Chiddingfold so will now try to do the same (once the small matter of the election is out of the way!).

A REQUEST FOR HELP Team Jeremy has lots of volunteers and we are having a lot of fun! Indoors, outdoors, whatever takes your fancy– if you would like to help our effort we would love to see you! Just email [email protected]. If you would like more regular updates of my work locally and nationally, do follow me on Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp or Instagram. 

AND FINALLY… Victoria Atkins was not the only Cabinet minister to visit me this week– Laura Trott, my junior minister in the Treasury, joined me in Chiddingfold yesterday as you can see in the picture above. Who says politics isn’t a team effort?!

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