Although our ward, Tattenham Corner & Preston has three Residents Association Councillors we are split as far as Surrey County Councillors are concerned. Nick Harrison, who is also one of our borough councillors is the Surrey councillor for the Tattenham Corner part of our ward as part of Nork & Tattenhams. But the Preston part of our ward is the responsibility of Rebecca Paul who is the Surrey Councillor for Tadworth, Walton & Kingswood.
Last year we explained what our borough and county councils do, this month we plan to tell you more about the people who represent us at Surrey.
To read this earlier articles:
Click here to read about Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Click here to read about Surrey County Council
Rebecca Paul
Rebecca Paul is the Conservative Councillor for Tadworth Walton and Kingswood which includes the Preston part of our Ward. Rebecca has lived in Walton for seven years with her husband and three children. She is a Chartered Accountant by profession working in the City but gave up the 60-hour weeks when the children came along, currently aged nine, seven and three. For a time she also worked at the House of Commons providing executive support to an MP but now she devotes all her non-family time to Council work.
After 20 years in finance she decided she wanted to do something more people and community orientated. So as her children got older, she put herself forward for election to the County Council in May 2021. She was elected with 70% of the vote.
Since then she has been working in the local community and has already proved herself to residents as an approachable, hardworking Councillor who gets things done.
But she also has a high-level position on the Council. In November last year she was appointed by Tim Oliver, the Leader of the Council, as Deputy Cabinet Member for Levelling Up. This was a new role at the time but particularly important to the Council’s objectives
She describes “Levelling Up” as spreading opportunities throughout the County. She says, “Surrey is a prosperous county compared to the rest of the country, but we still have pockets of deprivation where some of our population are experiencing extreme hardship. It’s important that we provide the support and help to those most in need.” She quoted a concerning statistic that there is a difference in life expectancy of 15 years across the County.
Her work specifically addresses Surrey’s mission statement of “No one left behind” which means helping those who need the council’s service the most and improving quality of life for everyone.
Click here For a short video explaining “No one left behind”
Surrey has identified 21 priority areas where the Council needs to focus its energies to improve the lives of residents and Preston is number seven on that list.
Whilst she says that there are no quick fixes, her job is to work with Council executives and local organisations to identify issues and develop solutions to level up our community. This includes a range of activities from health and wellness to improving transport infrastructure, from strengthening families to social infrastructure development such as youth clubs. She is also heavily involved in the County’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Plan.
Two projects that Rebecca has already delivered on are:
Free gym membership for “looked after” children (children in the Council’s care)
Whilst some local councils did provide free access to leisure centre activities, not all did. It was very much a postcode lottery. One of her first initiatives was to ensure that the around 1,000 children in the care of the Council have free access to their local leisure centre. This, she says, provides an immediate benefit to their health, their mental wellbeing, and their general confidence.
Anticipating and addressing children at risk of being excluded from school
A charity in Glasgow has developed a process to identify children at risk from exclusion from school before that stage has been reached and addressing the situation by volunteer mentors that visit the child in school. Rebecca has championed a pilot project in Surrey working with the charity, MCR Pathways, and local schools to help young people build their confidence and self-worth and ultimately avoid school exclusion.
Click here for short video explaining MCR Pathways mentoring process
Rebecca is also one of nine Councillors on the Surrey Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) which takes on responsibility for the guardianship of children in care across the County. The Board also includes foster carers and senior Council executives responsible for the wellbeing of children in care.
The CPB meets six times a year. Its role is to monitor the Council’s corporate parenting responsibilities to all children and young people in care and care leavers in Surrey. The ethos of the Board is to always ask “would this be good enough for my child?”
Nick Harrison
Nick Harrison is the Residents Association Councillor for Nork & Tattenhams which includes the Tattenham Corner part of our ward. He is also one of our three Borough Councillors.
Nick has lived in Tattenham Corner for over 30 years and is a longstanding member of Tattenham & Preston Residents Association. He has three grown up children and two grandchildren. Now retired, he was also a chartered accountant working in the City.
For many years he was treasurer for AFASIC. a charity that supports families with children and young adults who have speech, language and communication needs. He was also a governor of Shawley Community Primary School.
A planning issue originally got him involved with local government. He was unhappy with the way the local planning department dealt with a problem he had with his home, so he decided to get involved with the R A Committee. He successfully stood as a local borough councillor and has represented the local ward ever since. In 2005 he was also elected as a Surrey County Councillor.
In his time as a Surrey County Councillor he has undertaken a number of roles. This has included chairman of the Resources & Performance Select Committee, the Audit and Governance Committee and vice chairman of the Highways Committee. For 15 years he was also leader of the opposition.
Nick is currently chairman of Surrey Pension Fund Committee. In this role he is particularly concerned about maximising the fund’s performance to ensure the Council’s pension obligations are met, whilst working on an investment strategy to achieve a Net Zero targets to combat climate change.
He sees his role as a councillor as having two key objectives.
The first is to be available to local residents, to understand their issues and to address their concerns within the Council.
The second is to ensure that the Council is acting in the best interests of the community.
Coming from a financial background and as leader of the opposition his particular challenge was to monitor budgets to ensure that Council expenditure was getting best value and allocated to where it was most needed.
Three achievements he is proud of are:
Tadworth Leisure Centre – As part of the redevelopment plan for Preston the original proposal was to replace the old swimming pool with just a gymnasium. The R A felt that the pool was a valued community asset and fought for the inclusion of a pool in the redevelopment. This is now a well-used amenity for local residents.
Tattenhams Community Library – Some years ago Surrey was considering closing a number of libraries to save money. Nick led the residents’ opposition to this plan at the County Council which led to the establishment of a number of Community Libraries. The buildings are maintained, and the books provided by Surrey, but the library is managed and staffed by residents. Nick is a Trustee of Tattenhams Community Library which has been run by volunteers for the past ten years.
Phoenix Youth Centre – Surrey has withdrawn from providing youth clubs. As with the Library, R A Councillors convinced Surrey to keep the buildings open but allow the voluntary sector to run youth services. In the Phoenix Centre, the YMCA and other groups including MYTI have stepped in.
By being both a Borough and a County Councillor, Nick says that he can offer a “One Stop Shop” to residents because he can address issues across the confusing division between the two authorities.