Letter: Where Is the Opposition View?

Published on: 16 Oct, 2026
Updated on: 16 Oct, 2026

Cllr Tim Oliver

From George Potter

Lib Dem borough, county and West Surrey Shadow Authority councillor

In response to: Surrey Could Be ‘Left Behind’ Without a Mayor

I do think it’s interesting how the Local Democracy Reporters are continuing their longstanding approach to Surrey County Council, whereby anything said or claimed by the leadership of the council is written up as a news story, but the responses by the multiple opposition parties are never published.

And the chances of an opposition spokesperson ever being contacted for comment on a Surrey “news story” continue to be non existent.

Editor’s response. This is a valid point – but in mitigation I would say, we are no longer in the pre-internet days when press releases were issued to the press and not available to the public. Then reporters had more time to develop stories before they were published.

Now, press releases are routinely published by councils, the police and so on, at the same time they are issued to the press. Members of the public can read them and start a social media debate immediately, often poorly informed, unbalanced and sometimes given only to certain audiences as an opportunity to sound off with scant respect for social norms or the law on defamation.

Politicians too, often prefer to communicate directly, using social media without the need to face press scrutiny.

The Dragon NEWS’ main competitor is not, I believe, Surrey Live or BBC Surrey but social media. Events and incidents can often be reported far quicker on Facebook or X but it is not processed news.

Here on The Dragon, at least every reader can comment, quickly, to help redress any perceived imbalance, and add further information or offer another view. In this case, I invite you to do so, as you have often done in the past.

One other important point. In pre-internet days, newsrooms were full of reporters and newspapers had ample editorial resource. Reach, (Surrey Live’s publisher) continues to cut reporters’ jobs, presumably to balance the books. I have been told they now have only one non-LDRS reporter.

If production targets are to be met there is little time to develop stories and obtain comments from others who are not always quick to respond.

Nonetheless, as I said at the outset, this is a valid concern and one that should be considered, especially by the communication sections of public bodies, as well as news publications.