Hello, and welcome to our branch website! I took over as chairman at our AGM in Feb this year, having to follow in the enormous footsteps of my predecessor, Rob Burberry, who did such a magnificent job.

I was thrown in at the deep end, having to organise the campaign for the local elections in May. We are committed to reducing the reckless spending by WBC which has resulted in us having a debt of about £300M. This is amongst the top 10 council debts in the country.

The main problem is that for the past 10 years we have had a finely balanced council with Conservative and Lib Dem swapping the majority, with no other opposition. This has resulted in no councillor wanting to rock the boat, and allowing the council officers to dominate the council decision making.

It is now time for a change and the only effective party to do that is UKIP. If enough people vote for us at the local elections in May we will create a tsunami through WBC.

I would like to finish by thanking all our many supporters for their help and loyalty: it is very much appreciated.

Rob Shatwell, Woking Chairman, Spring 2011.