Letter: Why, On Balance, I Am For a Guildford Town Council

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

From Gavin Morgan

In response to Results of the Town Council Consultation Should Not Be Set Aside

I agree that the public consultation on whether Guildford should have a town council should be respected.

The problem that faced Guildford Borough Council and now West Surrey Shadow Council is that in the consultation the majority of those against town council was not even one per cent. It was 0.66 per cent of 3,197 people who participated.

That is just 21 people (1507 versus 1,486) out of an electorate of 52, 064 in the wards affected. (Click here.)

It is difficult to draw a decisive conclusion from this and arguably unfair to base a decision simply on the headline percentage. This is particularly true as this result was just stage two of the consultation.

Stage one simply asked whether the public was in favour of doing nothing, creating a Neighbourhood Area Committee or a parish council.

In that consultation 58 per cent of people came out in favour of a parish council (Appendix 1 – Stage 1 consultation analysis.pdf). It was only when more detailed questions were asked in the second consultation that views evened out.

This does not mean that the consultation should be ignored, of course. Feedback from the public is very important. It showed the five inner wards were in favour whereas the five outer wards were not. There were concerns about the cost, whether another tier of local government was necessary, and whether the proposal was for too many councillors.

Personally, I am weighted towards a town council. The government is moving local government further away from the people whilst actually claiming that it is bringing it closer to them.

Councillors representing the 10 Guildford town wards on the new West Surrey Unitary Authority will be outnumbered by councillors from other areas. Will the rest of West Surrey want to pay for flowers in the castle grounds? Will they feel that Guildford House is worth keeping? Can the farmers market or antiques market in the High Street be justified?

The new authority will have statutory obligations which will come before any local issues like these and it will have very little money. West Surrey will inherit an extraordinary financial burden of about £4 billion. That is more than any English authority outside Greater London. Birmingham comes close with £3.5 billion, but its income is roughly double that of West Surrey (£1.9 billion compared with West Surrey’s estimated £918 million).

Perhaps more significant is the fact that Surrey County Council estimates that 40 per cent of West Surrey’s income will be absorbed by debt financing, compared with 8 per cent in East Surrey. (Agenda for Council on Tuesday, 17 March 2026, 10.00 am – Surrey County Council). This makes me think that spending the cost of a coffee and a cake each month on a local authority dedicated to Guildford might be money well spent.

Soon, for the first time in centuries Guildford will no longer have its own authority, dedicated to running its own affairs. (See this article on the Borough Guildford Dragon NEWS and this one on Guildford Mayors).

I think that is sad. That is why I think a parish council for the town (ie a town council) is important to consider. Parish councils do not have many statutory obligations. They are able to focus on local issues and come up with local initiatives.

They are not just about benches and bus shelters. They can inject life into an area, represent the views of their community to the new authority and be a focus for local groups.

Of course, the proof is in the eating but I am not ruling out the value of a town council yet. We have an examples of town council neaby in our neighbour towns of Godalming and Farnham, there is also an excellent parish council at Worplesdon, and I think there is a lot to gain from proper understanding what they do and what there value is to the communities they serve.