Dragon Chat: Joss Bigmore – The Rise and Fall of R4GV

Published on: 2 Nov, 2026
Updated on: 2 Nov, 2026

By Martin Giles

video and sound editing Daisy Edwards

Joss Bigmore, together with his Residents for Guildford & Villages party, experienced a roller coaster ride as a borough councillor between 2019 and May this year.

Only months after their creation they won 17 seats at the borough council election in 2019 becoming the second largest party group. Eventually, after a power-sharing deal with the Liberal Democrats, Bigmore became the council leader.

R4GV is gone…”

But the party’s support for controversial developments in the town centre, coupled with a vicious social media campaign, reduced their support at the following borough council election in May 2023. The result gave the Lib Dems a majority and the ability to form the current administration alone.

In March 2023, Joss Bigmore, whose career was in finance, in the City of London, has become chair of the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, obviously an important role, and we discuss that too.

We have over 5,000 members of staff: they are incredible.”

This interview was conducted in June but, because of editing resource time availability, has only become available for publication recently.

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