This is an urgent call for support at the full council meeting next Tuesday. Lee Belsten from Surrey Fire Brigades Union (FBU) will be delivering a speech to the council and presenting our petition of over 13,000 signatures against fire service cuts (the first time this has happened in over ten years and the second largest petition ever received by SCC). The FBU have also declared a dispute with the council over these cuts and are threatening to ballot if the council do not step back.

If you are (or can be) available on Tuesday morning, the council meeting starts at 10am at County Hall, Penrhyn Road, Kingston KT1 2DN. We want to pack the public gallery with supporters. If you can get there a bit earlier for a lobby outside, even better.

​Please see attached the brief notes from our steering committee last night where we heard from a range of guest speakers and made a number of plans for the coming weeks.

Some key dates:

This Sunday 1pm at the Holiday Inn on Brighton Seafront - National Shop Stewards Network TUC Rally where our very own Guildford Climate Strikers will be speaking alongside trade union leaders such as Len McCluskey from Unite. All welcome.

20th September - Youth Strike for the Climate. A day of action across the world, supported in Surrey by UNISON and by Save Our Services in Surrey. UNISON are holding a rally in Guildford at lunchtime (press release attached).

24th September - lobby the County Council over cuts to fire services. 13,000 signatures on our petition which will be presented to Cabinet on that day. Please come along from 1pm till 2pm to show the strength of support. Cabinet starts at 2pm.

8th October - another potential lobby of the council over the fire service cuts - this time the full council meeting which starts at 10am. More details to follow. 

​I know it is holiday season but the cuts continue apace, there is a Brexit in the air and even a potential general election. Climate Change dominates the minds of our young people and it is community organisations like Save Our Services in Surrey, alongside the trade unions and the handful of progressive, socialist, politicians that can find a way forward and provide a much-needed lead.

There are a few dates for your diaries:

Tuesday 3rd September at 7pm at the Maybury Centre in Woking - SOSiS Steering Committee - as always, these are open, public meetings. We have a stacked agenda including representation from Climate Change Strike school students in Guildford and a major discussion on whether we can agree an anti-austerity, anti-cuts manifesto for Surrey - based on our Charter which can be found here: http://www.sosis.org.uk/our-charter.html. Plus an update on the fight to save our local fire services.

8th September at 1pm - National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) Rally and Lobby of the TUC in Holiday Inn, Brighton. More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/421637865360379/

Friday 20th September at 1pm outside Guildford Railway station - Support the Global Climate Strike - short rally/protest organised by Surrey County UNISON in solidarity with the striking school students. All welcome. Trade union banners in particular. Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/487675435379396/

Tuesday 24th September - around 1pm, details to be confirmed - lobby of Surrey County Council in Kingston & presentation of our (currently over 12,000 names) petition.

Please see below list of key dates for your diaries:

Next Thursday 18th July from 6pm outside Runnymede Borough Council in Addlestone - Save Our Fire Services. Runnymede Labour councillors will be moving a motion against local fire service cuts at the council meeting that evening (starts at 7.30pm) and would appreciate some support. If enough of us turn up from 6pm we can have a small protest outside with the SOSiS Stop Fire Cuts banner.

Tuesday 3rd September from 7pm - SOSiS (public) steering committee meeting at the Maybury Centre, Board School Road, Woking. We have invited all the recently elected Labour and Green councillors (other councillors welcome) to look at developing a joint anti-austerity programme in Surrey and we are also inviting the Guildford 'Strike 4 Climate' School Students to address us. Should be a lively meeting. All welcome. Updates will be posted on our website www.sosis.org.uk. 

Friday 20th September all day - Global Earth Strike for Climate. This is something that has been called by Greta Thunberg and is an appeal for people across the world to make a stand on the same day against climate change. We have yet to see what that will mean in practice but trade unions are already looking at linking up with the school student movement and holding lunchtime rallies etc. Any concrete activities which people can join in with, will be posted on our website and our FB page. If you are in a union why not invite the students to your next meeting? They can be contacted via their FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/Strike4ClimateGuildford/ Let us know if you hear of something happening local to you.

Tuesday 24th September from 1pm - the SCC Cabinet will make their decision regarding the cuts to night time fire cover across Surrey. Our petition is now well over 12,000 and we want to push it to 20,000 by the time of the cabinet. The cabinet meeting is at 2pm (https://mycouncil.surreycc.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=120&MId=6329&Ver=4) but we want everyone to come along for an hour beforehand for a massive protest outside in support of our fire services. You can still sign the petition here. Please also share widely: https://petitions.surreycc.gov.uk/Fire-Cuts/

Finally, please do not forget that we are still supporting the fight for truth and justice for Zane Gbangbola. The campaign for an independent panel inquiry now has over 80,000 signatures. We need to get it it 100,000 to demand a debate in parliament. You can sign it here if you haven't already. Please do so and share, share, share: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/call-for-a-public-debate-into-the-death-of-7-year-old-zane?bucket=+via+%4038_degrees

In solidarity
-- 
Kind regards


Paul Couchman
Secretary, Save Our Services in Surrey

See attached brief notes from our most recent meeting which was also the AGM. A new team of officers was elected alongside the existing Secretary.

Save Our Services in Surrey will be holding our Annual General Meeting 

on Weds 5th June
From 7pm till 9pm
at Laleham Village Hall, the Broadway, Laleham TW18 1RZ
(nearest station Staines - about 2 miles)

If you need help getting to the meeting please let us know.

If you would like to nominate someone (or volunteer yourself) for any of the following roles please let us know by return. We would love people to come forward for all the roles:

• Secretary (arranges regular meetings, books venues and maintains our email database)
• Chair (facilitates our meetings)
• Communications Officer (liaises with the press and keeps our website and social media updated)
• Steering Committee Members - come to our regular meetings and help make decisions and organise events.

If you are in a trade union, please can you ask for trade union branch to re-affiliate to SOSiS for 2019 (via a donation).

If you have not contributed to Surrey County Council's consultation on Fire Safety Cover please do so here: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/people-and-community/fire-and-rescue/about/our-vision-mission-and-aims/priorities-plans-and-governance/plans-strategies-and-legislation/public-safety. 

You can sign our petition against cuts to night time fire cover here (we have over 11,000 signatures already): https://petitions.surreycc.gov.uk/Fire-Cuts/. 

The Truth About Zane campaign are still trying to sell enough advance orders of their forthcoming book to make sure it is published and that their full story gets out as widely as possible. If you haven't ordered yours yet please do so here: http://www.truthaboutzane.com/book.html.

Please see the attachment above for notes of our last meeting, which mainly discussed the proposed cuts to night-time fire cover in Surrey and how we will be responding. A petition has been launched and the link is here: STOP FIRE CUTS

Representatives from UNISON, the FBU and GMB were joined by Labour Party, Socialist Party and a Lib Dem councillor for our protest against Childrens Centre closures on 22nd January. See here for Surrey Live's report of the event.

Campaigners will be delivering petitions to the full Cabinet meeting at County Hall, Kingston at 2pm on Tuesday 29th January. Support would be welcomed. 

SCC have been running a public consultation regarding the potential closure of up to half of their existing Sure Start Childrens Centres. Save Our Services in Surrey opposes any austerity-driven cuts and we are supporting the Children's Centre users and staff in their campaign to keep them all open. As part of this campaign, some of the centres are delivering petitions and protesting outside County Hall in Kingston on Tuesday 22nd January at 2pm. If you can come along and support them that would be great. SOSiS will be there. Download and print the attached poster and stick it on your notice boards.

SOSiS Secretary, Paul Couchman and FBU Secretary Lee Belsten address marchers in Jubilee Square, Woking.

See the BBC Surrey live video link coverage of the demo on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/BBCSurrey/videos/577143036077955/?t=2
Get Surrey's blog on the day - with photos and videos can be found here:
https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/live-updates-woking-march-austerity-15555159

On the 5th Day of Christmas… the Tories gave to us… AUSTERITY!
Just one of the verses of the carol, 12 days of Christmas, sung by protestors to the shoppers of Woking during a massive protest last Saturday 15th December. Other verses included ‘Surrey Fire Service Cuts’, ‘Less Buses Running’, ‘Special Needs Neglected' and more.

Firefighters, Nurses, Social Workers and Carers, Teachers and Teaching Assistants, Librarians and Railway Workers all stood united as public sector workers to say a resounding NO to austerity and to demand a general election.
Labour Party, Socialist Party, Greens and independents joined the 300 strong protest march around Woking Town Centre to raise the profile of Save Our Services in Surrey (SOSIS) and the fight to defend public services. Even a small group of Lib Demo councillors attended.

Kye and Nicole, parents of little Zane Gbangbola who died in the floods of 2014 were also there supporting the protest with their ’Truth About Zane’ campaign and their banner which read ‘Zane Died - Authorities Lied’.

The only party not represented on the demonstration was the Conservative Party. Not surprising as they are widely seen as the architects of austerity and responsible for the slashing of vital public services.

Paul Couchman, Secretary of SOSIS, Surrey UNISON and local Socialist Party organiser, said:

‘Someone is going to die because of these cuts. 'Austerity Kills' is the title of this protest because cuts kill. Whether it is cuts in the fire service, police or ambulance services meaning slower response times to emergencies, or cuts in the number of mental health hospital beds, or cuts in social care for vulnerable elderly or disabled people. Political decisions have consequences and austerity is a political choice'.
‘This has been a magnificent show of strength and solidarity by the Surrey trade union and labour movement. People may think Surrey is just stockbrokers and rich bankers but there are hundreds of thousands of ordinary working class people who live and work in this county - many of whom work hard to provide our essential public services with less and less resources’.
‘The next steps for SOSIS will be to encourage people to participate in the council consultations over the cuts, making sure SCC know the strength of public feeling. We will then be ready to respond to any threatened cuts to libraries, children’s centres, special educational needs services (SEND), social care or any other cuts or closures. We will also be pulling together a people’s assembly against the cuts in the new year - involving all of the local trade unions, all the opposition parties and residents and community groups - to develop a people’s manifesto and budget for Surrey, based on what is needed, not what the government allows us to spend. We will then go into the next council elections demanding all candidates adopt this budget and make a stand against the cuts’.

Another Christmas Carol which was ringing in the air on Saturday was ‘Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All the Way- What do we Want for Christmas? The Back of Teresa May!'