County Council Elections ‘Must Go Ahead’ Say Surrey Council Leaders

Published on: 11 Jan, 2025
Updated on: 11 Jan, 2025

The Surrey Leaders’ letter requesting that May’s county council elections proceed as originally scheduled on May 1.

By Chris Caulfield local democracy reporter

and Martin Giles

The May 2025 Surrey county elections must not be postponed, the 11 boroughs and district councils have said.

That call has been amplified by Surrey’s borough and district council leaders and Surrey Liberal Democrat MPs writing to the Government lending their support to the call – while a petition arguing the same has been signed by more than 3,000 people.

The decision to call off this year’s poll will be down to Government ministers who said they would consider delaying local elections in areas going through the devolution process.

SCC Leader Tim Oliver wants the scheduled elections in May to be postponed.

Surrey has put itself at the front of that queue – which would get rid of existing councils and replace them with a new structure.

What that would look like is anyone’s guess at the moment, but could range from a single mega council, or potentially two or three slightly smaller bodies.

Any new system would have an overarching strategic mayor.

The county council leadership argues that postponing the elections would give officers time to get on with the once in a lifetime reorganisation – which needs to have interim proposals submitted by March ahead of more ironclad May deadline.

They also question the value of holding elections, which would cost an estimated £2.48 million, for a council that was effectively doomed to die within two years – the new devolved authority is expected to be up and running in 2027 with shadow elections held the year before.

Cllr Hannah Dalton is the chair of the Surrey Leaders group who will work with the SCC leader, Surrey MPs and other stakeholders on “collaborative” proposals.

The leaders of the 11 Surrey District and Borough Councils met with their Surrey County Council counterpart on January 7 to discuss the English Devolution White Paper and what this would mean for the residents of Surrey.

There was acknowledgement that the central Government was determined to introduce sweeping changes through devolution with district and county councils merged into new unitary authorities.

A statement released after the meeting read: “All the Leaders of the Surrey District and Borough Councils expressed their concerns around the pace of change being imposed by central government and that such widespread and significant change needs wider consultation with the residents, stakeholders, and businesses across the county.

“In addition there was concern that the change, as proposed, will decrease local representation for residents of Surrey.

“While the Leaders concluded that there needs to be a dialogue with Surrey County Council on the proposed changes, there was wide agreement that the county council’s plan to write to the Secretary of State, Jim McMahon MP on Friday January 10, requesting to postpone the county elections scheduled to take place on May 1 2025 was not supported by the District and Borough Leaders and would be opposed if submitted.”

Surrey Heath Borough Council leader Shaun Macdonald added that allowing the elections to go ahead would ensure that all those involved “in shaping the future of our communities” had the democratic mandate to represent residents.

Jim McMahon MP

And in a letter from the Surrey Leaders group to Minister of State Jim McMahon sent yesterday (Jan 10) the leaders wrote that they had seen the SCC leader’s letter “and endorse the key sentiments that he set out”. But added: “The only area of disagreement with Cllr Oliver’s letter is that we do not support the cancellation of the county election in May 2025, and urge you to allow it to go ahead.

“The current system of local government has stood for 50 years. We are conscious that the decisions we take now will set the framework for our long-term future. We want to consult with the residents of Surrey and as committed democrats, we believe the elections are necessary to give us clear electoral mandates to take this process forward during this transition period.

“Given that we have consensus across the political spectrum, we do not believe that this needs to affect the pace of change.”

The letter was signed by the leaders of all 11 of Surrey’s borough and district councils as well as the MPs for Guildford, Woking, Dorking & Horley, Esher & Walton, Epsom & Ewell and Surrey Heath.

The same six Liberal Democrat MPs co-signed another letter to the Government calling on it to not pass legislation postponing this year’s elections, describing it as an affront to democracy and expressed concerns over the speed of devolution and local government reorganisation.

They said: “A proposal of this scale requires careful consideration and broad support.

“Yet, just three weeks after the government’s announcement, no credible plan exists.

“There has been insufficient engagement with district and borough councils or MPs to justify this unprecedented step.”

Elections, they said, must go ahead to give those voted in the mandate for how to deliver those changes.

They added: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape local government in Surrey, and it must not be derailed by unnecessary delays or a lack of transparency.”

See the full copy of the Surrey Leaders’ letter below…