Letter: Results of the Town Council Consultation Should Not Be Set Aside

Published on: 26 Sep, 2026
Updated on: 26 Sep, 2026

From Mik Meoli

In response to: West Surrey Urged To Listen to Residents Over Creation of New Guildford Council

The debate about who made the comments, or who wrote the article, risks distracting from the central issue. The arguments being raised are either valid or they are not, regardless of whether they come from Conservative councillors, Labour councillors, Guildford residents or residents from elsewhere in Surrey.

The fundamental concern is that a consultation was undertaken, residents were asked for their views, and the result, however narrow, showed a majority against the creation of a parish council.

Whether that majority was 1 per cent or 20 per cent is almost beside the point. If a consultation produces a majority outcome one way, only for the recommendation to go the other way, confidence in the consultation process is inevitably undermined.

Some have argued that a 1 per cent difference is insignificant and that the strength of the arguments should be given greater weight. However, if the outcome of a consultation can be set aside whenever the result is close, residents are entitled to question what purpose the consultation served.

I would hold exactly the same view if the result had been reversed. Had a majority supported a parish council and the recommendation been to reject it, I would be equally concerned. The principle is far more important than whether one personally supports or opposes a parish council.

The reported low turnout should also be viewed in the context of how the consultation was communicated. As a Guildford resident, I only became aware of it by chance on the final day. That suggests the relatively low participation may have been driven less by apathy and more by a lack of awareness. People cannot take part in a consultation they do not know exists.

It is also reasonable to suggest that those with a vested interest in seeing a parish council created, or those already closely engaged in local government matters, would have been more likely to know the consultation was taking place and therefore more likely to participate.

If those residents were disproportionately represented among respondents, the fact that the consultation nevertheless returned a majority against the proposal makes the result even more relevant. In those circumstances, dismissing the outcome on the basis of low turnout becomes even harder to justify.

Whatever anyone’s position on the merits of a parish council, I suspect most residents would agree on one point: if the public is asked for its opinion, the result should carry meaningful weight in the final decision. Otherwise, consultations risk being viewed as a box-ticking exercise rather than a genuine attempt to understand and reflect the views of local people.

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