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County Council Leader Calls District and Borough Consultation ‘Purposefully Biased’
Published on: 30 Mar, 2025
Updated on: 31 Mar, 2025
The English Devolution White Paper. Pictured is SCC leader Tim Oliver.
By Martin Giles
The consultation on local government reorganisation, being conducted by borough and district councils, including Guildford, is “purposefully biased”, according to the Conservative leader of Surrey County Council, Tim Oliver.
There is no requirement for councils to undertake a resident consultation as part of the local government review process. It is understood that the government does intend to run a consultation with stakeholders over the summer, but not residents. The feeling at SCC is that it is misleading to suggest residents have a say in the proposals.
SCC is proposing a two-unitary council solution for the reorganisation while eight of the eleven districts and boroughs would prefer three.
See also: The Future of Local Government: Your Views Are Important, Residents Told
Cllr Oliver said: “Unfortunately, this ‘consultation’ put together by some district and borough councils is purposefully biased and in favour of their proposal. It is misleading to the public and does not provide residents with the correct information to make an informed decision, making the results unreliable.
“We propose that two unitaries will deliver millions of pounds in reduced costs and is in the best interest of Surrey residents and businesses and fully support the need for public engagement and information sharing with residents about any Government decision, but we must ensure it’s done in a balanced and meaningful way and at the right time.
“For the full range of options submitted to government along with all supporting evidence residents can visit: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/lgr.”
Surrey County Council is also concerned that the consultation does not comply with the “The Gunning Principles” because, they say, the proposals are still at a formative stage; there is insufficient information to give ‘intelligent consideration’; and Conscientious consideration’ must be given to the consultation responses before a decision is made – whereas the decision has already been made by the districts and boroughs to submit a three unitary council bid.
See also: Planned Council Reorganisation Means More Nails in the Local Democracy Coffin and Residents Should Seize the Chance to Comment on Local Government Reorganisation
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Responses to County Council Leader Calls District and Borough Consultation ‘Purposefully Biased’
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George Potter
March 31, 2025 at 1:26 pm
As per the usual practice in our local media, the county council leader (or a county council cabinet member) makes a claim in a political statement and an entire article is written around it, taking the statement at face value, without challenge and without any comment from opposition figures.
Meanwhile a statement goes out on a political issue from a non-Conservative figure at any borough council and the standard practice in our local media is either not to publish it or to only publish it after making sure to get a contradictory comment from an opposition political figure.
Strange how that double standard always seems to be applied.
Editor’s response: The article was written in the wake of the article The Future of Local Government: Your Views Are Important, Residents Told which included the views of the Lib Dem GBC and the co leader of the District & Boroughs Leaders Group.