Council Fire Doors – ‘I Will Not Rest Until Everything Is Put Right’ Says GBC Leader

Published on: 31 Jul, 2025
Updated on: 1 Aug, 2025

“I will not rest…” Council Leader McShane tells the full council meeting.

By Emily Dalton local democracy reporter

and Martin Giles

Guildford’s council leader has pledged she “will not rest” until residents have the best possible service after “decades of failure”.

Cllr Julia McShane (Lib Dem, Westborough), delivered a passionate pledge to residents on Tuesday night (July 29) at a full council meeting, promising to fix what she described as “decades of failure” in the housing service.

Cllr Julia McShane speaking at the meeting

McShane, also lead member for housing, made the statement as the council approved an additional £2.4 million to complete its fire door replacement programme on July 30. Just over 960 fire doors still need replacing across the borough’s housing stock, according to council documents.

The Liberal Democrat leader said the project had been hampered by years of neglect and poor record keeping under the previous Conservative council leadership before 2019.

“The depth of their neglect of the housing service is such that it will take more time to find everything that needs to be put right,” Cllr McShane said.

“For as long as I have the privilege of being the lead member for housing, I will not rest until that task is completed and we have a housing service delivering the best possible service to the residents we serve.”

The remarks come after Guildford council revealed at least a £500k overspend on the fire door programme. Cllr McShane said this was caused by incomplete historic data around the number of fire doors which needed upgraded replacements and so underestimating the costs.

Council reports reveal £4.1 million has already been spent on the fire door replacement scheme – far above the original £2.5 million contract estimate. Although the council had budgeted £3.6 million.

The £2.4 million needed to finish the project is based on £0.8 million already committed to orders being placed and manufactured, with £1.6 million needed to replace all outstanding fire doors. Altogether, this brings the total cost of the programme to £6.5 million.

Cllr Bob Hughes

She accused the local Conservatives of trying to “divert attention” from the “mess they left behind”. But her accusation was angrily rejected by Cllr Bob Hughes (Con, Tillingbourne) said: “It is an extraordinary thing when the Executive member, who presumably signed this off, because it was under her watch, blames the Conservatives.”

Cllr Merel Rehorst-Smith

“This does cost money, deal with it,” said Cllr Merel Rehorst-Smith (Lib Dem, Effingham), outlining the importance of the fire door safety project. “This is a statutory duty and a moral duty we have.”

Cllr Catherine Houston

Cllr Catherine Houston (Lib Dem, Shalford) said: “If you look at anything that has gone through this council around housing improvement, you should be cheering from the rafters as we have her there.”

Cllr Pat Oven

Cllr Patrick Oven (GGG, Send & Lovelace) reflected that while the situation initially appeared to reflect past failings – with contracts being mishandled and poorly supervised resulting in the multimillion pound overspend and alleged fraud scandal in 2021 – it actually shows signs of improvement. He praised the council for appearing to scrutinise contracts more closely than in the past.

Cllr George Potter

Support for the council leader also came from Cllr George Potter, recently sacked from the GBC Executive by McShane. He said: “Given recent events of the council with the selection of the council’s Executive, I don’t think it would necessarily come as a surprise for anybody to learn that relationship between myself and Cllr McShane is not in the best state ever.”

But he went on to criticise Cllr Hughes’ claims as “politicking” and to support his party leader. He also pointed out that “there was not a £4 million overspend as the papers say”.

Following the meeting Cllr Hughes said: “The reality is that there were no changes to fire door regulations until after Grenville. It was 2022 when big changes [to regulations] were made, so the Lib Dem attack is expecting the Conservative administration to have been clairvoyant before it left power in 2019.”

The fire safety door project is part of the council’s wider “improvement plan” which includes reviewing all services for unresolved problems.

Responses to Council Fire Doors – ‘I Will Not Rest Until Everything Is Put Right’ Says GBC Leader

George Potter Reply

July 31, 2025 at 10:43 am

“But he went on to criticise Cllr Hughes’ claims as politicking and to support his party leader. He also pointed out that council papers had not clearly described the sums involved.”

Incorrect and distorting[sic] reporting. What I said was that the council papers were clear but that Cllr Hughes clearly had not read them because the claims he were making were factually wrong and were disproven by the papers in front of him.

I find it astounding that The Dragon should have gone to Cllr Hughes for a follow-up quote after the meeting, to give him a second bite at the cherry, whilst not bothering to report that he falsely claimed that a £500,000 overspend was in fact a £4 million overspend.

As I said in the meeting, I might not be on the best of terms with Cllr McShane at the moment, but to try to blame her, as Cllr Hughes did, for needing to replace fire doors which had not been maintained under the last Conservative administration, and which had not even maintained reliable records of the condition and numbers of the fire doors, is absolutely ridiculous.

Editors response: I have re-checked the webcast. Cllr Potter said: “…there is not a £4 million pound overspend as the papers say…” and I think our inference that he was pointing out an error, or lack of clarity, in the council papers, if not correct, was understandable. Nonetheless, I have amended the report.

Later, the GBC CEO, Pedro Wrobel admitted that the council report, on which local democracy reporter Emily Dalton’s earlier report, “Another Housing Revenue Account Overspend Revealed at GBC,” had been based, was unclear and that he would be speaking to council officers on the importance of clear reporting, especially of figures.

See GBC report extract here:

Regarding the comment from Cllr Hughes, it was not sought as Cllr Potter assumes, Cllr Hughes made the comment following a response to another question posed (not seeking quote). Believing the unsolicited comment to be relevant to the story I added it, having obtained his permission to do so.

But, in any case, speaking to councillors from all parties at any time, before or after council debates, or completely separately, is something we will continue to do, seeking comment and information that might help inform our readers. An open council will be glad that we are.
- George Potter Reply
  
  July 31, 2025 at 7:34 pm
  
  “…there is not a £4 million pound overspend as the papers say…”
  
  Which, given the context of my remarks, and what I said immediately preceeding and proceeding that sentence, was a very clear reference to “the newspapers”, which had been referenced previously in the context of the Telegraph headline which was itself reported in The Dragon.
  
  I have no objection to Dragon journalists speaking to councillors before or after council debates, I do object to a lack of journalistic rigour and impartiality which gives readers a misleading impression of what happened in council meetings and of what the substance of issues actually is.
  
  George Potter is the Lib Dem borough councillor for Burpham
  
  Editor’s response: There were several references to “papers” and “reports” by different councillors during the debate and it was not clear to me, or others, which they were referring to, hence my verbal complaint to the council leader immediately after the meeting that she seemed to have implied criticism of accurate Dragon reports. She denied that had been her intention saying she had not even read The Dragon report, while the CEO admitted that the council report, contained in the council papers, had lacked clarity. The failure of councillors to specify which paper or report they were referring to was confusing. The Dragon has never reported a £4 million overspend on fire-doors (nor did the excerpt of The Telegraph article we showed) but has carefully reported a £1.6 million overspend against the contract. The use of this definition is important as a comparator because it was an unauthorised, multi-million overspend against earlier contracts that revealed previous mismanagement.
Wayne Smith Reply

July 31, 2025 at 9:45 pm

Council documents show that 400 doors had been replaced up to September 2023. Currently it is reported that there are still just over 960 doors to be replaced and a further £2.4 million required to complete the work.

In very simple terms that equates to £2,500/per door outstanding.

Would GBC share with us the total number of doors identified as being its responsibility, with an associated total cost £6.5 million?

For reference, a friend in Dorset has been quoted £1,500 to replace two fire doors (entrance and laundry door) on a flat that he owns in order to comply with latest fire regulations.
RWL Davies Reply

August 1, 2025 at 2:46 pm

When councillors refer to “papers” and “reports” in such meetings it must be mandatory for them to specify the exact “papers” and “reports” they are citing.

Thus avoiding intentional and unintentional obfuscation.

It is not difficult to do and shows proper transparency.
Paul Spooner Reply

August 1, 2025 at 7:34 pm

I am very disappointed to read and then watch the webcast where Cllr McShane seems to consistently and regularly lay the blame at the past Conservative administration prior to the embarrassing shambles that could be loosely described as leadership since 2019, particularly by the Lib Dem leader who has led the Executive over much of that period.

The blame game and excuses for shocking mismanagement politically and also, in my opinion, by the very poor CEO, is testament to their complete and utter failure across the borough council. It is a sad reflection that many are counting down the days to the end of the saddest period in local government history in Guildford.

Roll on change and a return to a more professional approach for Guildford from whoever takes over at unitary authority level. But I sincerely hope it is not a continuation of the Lib Dems.

Paul Spooner is a former Conservative leader of Guildford Borough Council
- Jim Allen Reply
  
  August 3, 2025 at 10:14 am
  
  Paul Spooner says the Lib Dem administration is an “embarrassing shambles”? The old saying, “People in glass houses…” comes to mind.
  
  Remember the shambles of the Pop Up Village, the Bridge over the River Why? [the new Walnut Bridge], the Local Plan and its adoption just weeks before an election and the instigation of the Weyside Urban Village project?
  
  The blame game is easy to play – but not so easy to stop and it does little good. Despite all the claims of openness, too often information is withheld from the public on some pretext or other. It causes distrust.
  
  We need less politicking from all sides, more honesty of purpose and decisions taken based on practical reality.
  
  Local politicians’ failure is epitomised by the state of the pipe carrying effluent from Lawrence Close pumping station to Woking Road Sewage Treatment Works. It was incorrectly installed in 1984 and insufficiently monitored. It is now under excessive pressure, overloaded and, over the past 20-plus years, had been leaking at an increasing rate until repair in 2023.