Letter: Three Unitaries and More Powerful Parish Councils to Re-invigorate Local Democracy

Published on: 25 Mar, 2025
Updated on: 25 Mar, 2025

From David Roberts

In response to: Proposals on Unitaries Have Lost All Credibility

I cannot agree with Cllr Richard Mills. “Skewgate” is a storm in a teacup of no interest to anyone outside the borough council bubble.

Asking a council CEO to adjust a report to reflect the preference of the elected majority does not seem particularly heinous to me, especially when compared with the craven political submissiveness to council leaders displayed on several major issues by past council CEOs.

So what’s really going on here? Isn’t it simply that the Tories, whose vote is more thinly spread in Surrey than ever before, want to have two unitary councils instead of three to preserve a chance of winning at least one of them? Isn’t this also why Surrey County Council (which is Tory controlled) recommend this option, while the “vast majority”* of existing borough and district councils (which aren’t) all oppose it?

I can think of several Conservative figures (Jeremy Hunt, say) capable of winning the Surrey mayoralty. But none would want to end up as a lame duck overseeing councils exclusively controlled, like the existing boroughs, by Lib Dems and Independents.

Two unitary councils would anyway be too big. With over 600,000 inhabitants each they would vie in size with North Yorkshire, the biggest in England and more homogenous than East or West Surrey. A directly elected Surrey mayor would constantly be tugged one way or the other by these over-mighty twins – a recipe for political schizophrenia and deadlock. Three councils would be more balanced politically and less remote from ordinary voters.

The elephant in the room, however, is the loss of democratic accountability involved in either type of reorganisation, with future councillors having to cover far bigger wards than our current ones. This is the exact opposite of devolution. Local government in the UK is already more centralised than in any comparable country. In Surrey, Labour’s reform makes this worse.

The problem, however, can easily be offset by giving parish councils more powers. They would need resources to match, and urban Guildford would need a town council. What better way to re-engage residents, re-invigorate the moribund contest for parish council seats, provide a pipeline of experienced candidates for the new unitaries and start, at long last, to reverse a century of creeping political apathy and loss of civic pride?

Editor’s note: The Guildford Dragon NEWS has been informed that three of Surrey’s 11 districts and boroughs do not support the three unitary option: Elmbridge, Mole Valley and Woking.

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