Letter: I Can’t Believe Party Rosettes Will Be Left at the Door of a Guildford Town Council

Published on: 19 Feb, 2026
Updated on: 19 Feb, 2026

From Pete Bennett

chair of Residents for Guildford & Villages

In response to: Opinion – A Brave New World – with No Party Politics Please

I couldn’t agree more with John Ferns.

A political label serves no useful purpose when it comes to parish or town councils. The best parish councils (and Tongham is not the only example) work together for the good of residents, rather than looking for parties to blame.

This is what makes me nervous about Guildford Town Council. With such a large area, I cannot believe that the political parties will leave their rosettes at the door. I also fail to understand why the proposal is for there to be so many councillors [24 in total]. As I understand it, there will be one town councillor for every current borough councillor [one to three councillors per ward, in proportion to ward population].

That implies to me that the thinking is that this will operate in the same way as the borough council – the party in power does everything and the half the councillors who belong to opposition parties (and therefore the areas that they represent) are ignored.

Don’t misunderstand me – it would be worse for Guildford to be virtually the only area in Surrey without a town council, but the current proposals seem to be providing another opportunity for political parties to argue, rather than work together for the good of our town.

I hope I am proven wrong.

Responses to Letter: I Can’t Believe Party Rosettes Will Be Left at the Door of a Guildford Town Council

Lottie Harding Reply

February 19, 2026 at 5:44 pm

There will be 24 councillors twiddling their thumbs for lack of work as they will have no responsibility for anything other than allotments and being consultees on planning applications unless the West Surrey unitary eventually decides to transfer anything else to them (and there is absolutely no certainty it will).

Guildford will not be the only town without a town council, far from it, the majority of major towns in Surrey do not have a town council. In fact, the only towns that have a town council are in Waverley and Tandridge, as things stand. Totally needless and pointless exercise in my view.