Letter: Does Guildford Need More Councillors Than Toronto?

Published on: 13 Sep, 2018
Updated on: 13 Sep, 2018

From Jules Cranwell

I read that in Toronto, the Ontario premier has decreed that the council must reduce from 47 councillors to 25.

They currently have just 47 councillors for one of the largest cities in North America, and Canada’s largest, with a population of nearly six million.

This begs the question as to why we need 48 councillors for Guildford, a similar number as Toronto, for a small market town and borough, population around 150,000.

I suggest we lobby government to reduce the count to, at most, 25. Most of the councillors have no role to play, apart from slavishly obeying the edicts from the Executive and the mass of mostly Tory members.

This skews the influence of the minority parties. The Executive makes all the decisions, and as often as not, they are made by the leader. Any lack of support, dissension, or questioning of decisions results in either a show trial or the deselection of candidates.

A reduction in numbers would not only save a considerable level of costs and council tax, and could help restore democracy to Guildford, as the monopoly party would likely have less excessive power.

Why continue to support this vast number of councillors? for little or no contribution, or influence?

We have no effective scrutiny or standards committee, so outside the Executive, most have little or no role to play.

If Toronto can manage with so few, why can’t we?

Responses to Letter: Does Guildford Need More Councillors Than Toronto?

Stuart Thompson Reply

September 13, 2018 at 3:10 pm

Whilst I do not necessarily disagree with the idea of fewer councillors, I wonder if the analogy is that relevant as Toronto also has a directly elected mayor; something which was considered and rejected quite recently in Guildford.
John Perkins Reply

September 13, 2018 at 9:08 pm

22 might be a reasonable number. It ought not to be beyond the wit of person to arrange boundaries so as to make them roughly equal, or at least as equal as, say, Isle of Wight and Wirral West.
Jules Cranwell Reply

September 13, 2018 at 10:22 pm

Good point, but Toronto is 40 times larger than Guildford by population, so isn’t 48 councillors, most of whom have no effective voice, rather excessive?

Maybe, Guildford should twin with Toronto? It’s on a similar scale as Dongying, a bit closer, and shares a common language.
Martin Elliott Reply

February 21, 2019 at 4:33 pm

What, nobody popping up to ask why not a single or maybe 3-4 unitary authorities? After all several counties have that arrangement.

If you ask people they don’t understand whether the borough council or the county council is actually responsible for which services. Then even between the councils there are crossovers.

SCC/GBC have a Guildford Joint Committee. Apart from failing to prioritise to residents satisfaction Project Horizon, what do 22 members actually do on top of SCC/GBC business? Seems to be yet another level. Especially when you look at the membership.

6 county councillors
5 double hatters (councillors who sit on both councils)
11 borough councillors

That’s a large committee to actually get any work, whatever it is, done.