Letter: Spelthorne Is Not in Surrey

Published on: 22 Sep, 2026
Updated on: 22 Sep, 2026

Parts of Spelthorne Borough (in red) were once in Middlesex.

From Gareth Coates

The article by Cllr Austin is a (slightly) edited version of something published by the Farnham Herald on August 5. It is disheartening to see that she believes she can overturn a motion passed by a more than two-thirds majority by rehashing the same column time and again in media outlets covering the south of the area covered by the new authority.

[Publication by The Guildford Dragon was delayed by the migration of our website to a new host and is not the fault of Cllr Austin. Ed]

The facts are simple. This new mega-council will not be creating a new county; it will be an administrative body straddling two historic counties, Surrey and Middlesex. What we now know as Spelthorne sits to the north of the River Thames and therefore is not and can not be, physically, in Surrey. The very name of the county translates from the Saxon for “southern district” which Spelthorne, being separated from the other five boroughs being merged into the new Unitary Authority, clearly is not.

The motion proposing an alternative council name passed by a majority greater than two thirds. This name can be easily abbreviated to ‘WSSM’ and is geographically more accurate than simply (and erroneously) calling it “West Surrey”.

Cllr Austin also approached this matter from a position of historical and geographic ignorance. She fails to acknowledge that what we now call Spelthorne came under the umbrella of Surrey County Council thanks to a scaremongering campaign from the Conservatives running the local Urban District Councils at the time Middlesex County Council was being abolished. They were fearful of sharing a borough with Feltham, which was a Labour stronghold at the time, but were horrified when their opposition got them lumped in with Surrey!

Cllr Austin is absolutely correct that this is far from the most pressing matter facing the new council but as the authority doesn’t start delivering services until next April, adopting a name which includes all of its residents, not just 85 per cent, before the signs get made and the websites built is not a bad way to start.

[Middlesex, as a administrative area, disappeared in 1965 when the majority of county was included as part of Greater London with the rest being subsumed by neighbouring ceremonial counties. Ed]

Responses to Letter: Spelthorne Is Not in Surrey

Angela Richardson Reply

September 22, 2026 at 4:58 pm

Why doesn’t Spelthorne ask West Surrey for its own council as Guildford is doing?

It could be called South Middlesex Council and the historic identity can live on and perhaps be even more significant and special for local residents with an individual civic identity rather than a tag on in the West Surrey name?

Angela Richardson is the former Conservative MP for Guildford
- Tony Harrison Reply
  
  September 23, 2026 at 1:05 pm
  
  Because more than enough tax payers’ hard-earned has been wasted on this absolute and total nonsense already, that’s why.
- George Potter Reply
  
  September 23, 2026 at 1:36 pm
  
  I’m confused, I thought the Conservatives were against new town and parish councils because they cost money?
  
  How is it that a town council for Guildford is “expensive and pointless duplication” but a new parish council for Spelthorne is simultaneously seen as better than the cost-free option of simply adding “South Middlesex” onto the West Surrey council name?
  
  Either new parish councils are expensive and pointless or they’re not, so perhaps Guildford Conservatives could try breaking the habit of a lifetime and attempt to discover some sort of intellectual consistency?
  
  George Potter is a Lib Dem borough, county and West Surrey Shadow Authority councillor
  - Angela Richardson Reply
    
    September 24, 2026 at 1:49 pm
    
    I’ve long been in favour of a Town Council for Guildford and have said so many times in The Guildford Dragon over many years. My personal position is consistent.
    
    Angela Richardson is the former Conservative MP for Guildford
- Gareth Coates Reply
  
  September 23, 2026 at 9:02 pm
  
  What Spelthorne residents are asking for is historic and geographical accuracy.
  
  Spelthorne is physically outside the physical boundaries of Surrey. Always has been, always will be.
  
  It ended up under the administration of Surrey County Council by default after the Conservatives running the Staines Urban District Council (UDC) and Sunbury UDC mounted a disinformation campaign claiming that becoming part of the Greater London Council would double the rates because they didn’t want to be in the same London borough as Feltham.
  
  Their snobbery created more than six decades of their area being poorly served by SCC and there is a cross-party movement calling for the new authority’s name to represent all the people living in its patch, not just the 85 per cent living south of the River Thames.
  
  The amended name will cost nothing, but will put the new mega-council on much stronger ground in terms of representing everyone. Most of the loudest voices arguing against it come from the places furthest away, which illustrates why a more inclusive name is essential.
  
  Stanwell has almost nothing in common with Chiddingfold, because it is in a different county. Surely, if both are to be served by the same council, that body’s name should represent both Counties?
David Roberts Reply

September 26, 2026 at 11:30 am

You’d have thought that, after 1500 years, the Middle Saxons and Noxwara would have got over their cultural differences. Please save us from identity politics before we Welsh demand England back from you continental immigrants.