Letter: New Unitary Councillors Will Face a Steep and Ongoing Learning Curve

Published on: 12 Feb, 2026
Updated on: 11 Feb, 2026

From Bernard Quoroll

In response to: Poor Councillor Attendance at Local Plan Workshop Was A ‘Kick in the Teeth’ for the Organisers

The implications of councillor attendance go much deeper than just town planning. The new unitary council which replaces GBC will have a revenue budget approaching £700 million annually and perhaps £4 billion in debt to manage on its first day of operation.

That does not include the huge capital project sums which will also need to be managed in such a large council. West Surrey will be a very big business indeed, with perhaps 4,000+ employees, delivering over 450 discrete services and will be correspondingly complex to understand and manage.

West Surrey’s 90 newly elected councillors face many days and nights of induction training just to be able to follow the basics. Even the “old hands” who have experience of the county or a borough council, if elected to the new council will have to acquire a raft of new knowledge which will come as something of a shock if they think they already know the ropes.

Newbie councillors will have an even larger task. I would argue that even well-presented induction training does little more than begin the task of assimilation. To do the job properly, elected people will need regular refresher training throughout their careers in public service. And this is before taking into account all the representative roles they are expected to play across such a large, thinly spread, population.

It is perhaps understandable if members not intending to stand for election again feel less motivated to give up time to attend workshops but it does not augur well for the approaching shadow council elections. Political parties are notorious for not explaining to new recruits how much work is involved in being an elected person.

Perhaps it is time to make sure that candidates do know what they are letting themselves in for. A year is barely enough time for elected people to get up to speed.