Letter: Thanks for Candidate Lists. What Will They Be Standing For?

Published on: 19 Apr, 2026
Updated on: 19 Apr, 2026

From Barbara Ford

In response to: Nominations for New West Surrey Council Formalised – Few Independent Options

Thank you Dragon for publishing the candidate lists for the Guildford wards. It’s a bit surprising that the list doesn’t seem to have been issued earlier or elsewhere.

Is there anyway of knowing what the candidates’ manifestos say? The interview with the Reform candidate was interesting (costs cutting all round) but what about the other candidates? Have they made any public statements apart from their political party lines – anything concrete?

There will be a lot of detail in the reorganisation so it would be instructive to know what they would prioritise, for example – potholes? SEND children? Net zero? It’s very hard to choose who to vote for if you are not a diehard party member.

Editor’s response: I believe we may have been the first news publication to publish the Guildford list. We published within 24 hours of its publication on the GBC website and GBC published it within hours of nominations closing at 4pm on April 9, so it could not have been done much quicker, with the resources we have.

We are going to be asking all candidates to provide short statements saying why they are standing and what are the biggest issues in their wards. We are also inviting for interview senior candidates from all the political parties standing in the Guildford wards. Please look out for those.

We have also requested that we are given the chance to interview any other MPs visiting Guildford during the campaign.