Letter: I Don’t Believe It!

Published on: 13 Nov, 2026
Updated on: 13 Nov, 2026

From Anthony Mallard

In response to: A Strategic Authority for the Whole County is Being Planned

“I don’t believe it!” to quote Victor Meldrew.

We had a Surrey County Council – whether it was good or bad, I leave others to determine but it served the electorate of the whole of Surrey.

Then that council decided to go along with the national government’s edict and put in a lot of work to bring about two councils, one for the east of Surrey and one for the west, doing away with the former borough councils in the process.

Guildford councillors decided, albeit there was no clear mandate to do so, to form a town council, with significantly limited powers.

Then we learned that final arrangements were in place to have a  strategic mayor overseeing both new councils who say they will have to agree the new post.

Now the latest idea is to create a strategic authority for East and West Surrey Councils, ie the whole county.

Am I alone in thinking that we had that in the form of Surrey County Council and had it encompassed the advantages – are there any? – of a strategic authority, this could have been achieved with little additional expense.

What has been the cost to council tax payers? I believe we have now centralised and distanced local government, lost borough democracy and travelled a complete circle, let’s think of a name for this new authority, shall we call it a “County-wide Council for Surrey”?

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