We are approaching a major restructuring of local government in Surrey. By April 2027, all twelve existing councils—including Elmbridge Borough Council and Surrey County Council—will be replaced by two new unitary authorities + East Surrey and West Surrey.
Despite the scale of this change, Surrey residents were not consulted. Surrey County Council’s Conservative leadership chose to pursue the bid regardless, resulting in the undemocratic cancellation of the Surrey County Council elections that were due in May 2025.
Under this model, Elmbridge—and therefore Weybridge—will join a new East Surrey authority alongside Epsom & Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate & Banstead and Tandridge. One council will manage all services, from planning and waste to highways, education and social care. The aim is to simplify delivery, cut duplication and put services on a more sustainable financial footing.
Independent analysis suggests the two-unitary structure offers stronger financial resilience, especially given the £5.7 billion combined debt across Surrey’s councils. The government has already agreed to write off £500m of Woking’s debt. Larger authorities will also face continued housing pressures, but the wider East Surrey area should offer more flexibility to meet targets while protecting the character of towns like Weybridge and safeguarding the green belt.
Elections for the new councils will take place on 7th May with the new authorities taking over in April 2027. Elected councillors will serve the first year of their four-year term setting up the interim authority before East Surrey becomes fully operational in April 2027. East Surrey will have 36 wards, each electing two councillors.
Until then, Elmbridge Borough Council and Surrey County Council will continue delivering services.
Throughout the transition, your Lib Dem team will work to protect local services, uphold Elmbridge’s identity and ensure Weybridge’s voice is heard.
This year your local councillors were pleased to be able to allocate £559,370 in Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding to projects across the Weybridge area.
The levy is paid by developers on new building projects. It ensures that development is matched by investment in local facilities and infrastructure. Local organisations can apply for CIL grants to support their capital projects. Importantly, applicants are expected to contribute funding themselves, ensuring that their money leverages greater value from public resources.
Education was one of the largest beneficiaries this year: Cleves School, Walton Leigh School, Oatlands School, St James Primary and Manby Lodge all received funding for a variety of projects.
Sports and recreation also received strong backing with new facilities planned for Weybridge Vandals, Weybridge Cricket Club, Oatlands Park Bowling Club and Walton & Hersham Youth Football Club.
Whiteley Village received support for its refurbished clubhouse while Brooklands Museum secured funding to accommodate Brooklands ATC. Girlguiding Weybridge and NW Surrey Synagogue gained funding to improve accessibility and sustainability.
In December 2024, central government published a paper to set out its approach on devolution – transferring more powers from government to local or regional authorities. They proposed that each area should elect regional Mayors where they don’t currently have them. This approach means that additional power is given to the Mayor, giving them more control over strategic decision making for their area.
To unlock the devolution of further local powers and elect a Mayor, some areas need to reorganise first. This means creating unitary authorities to simplify and streamline local government. Unitary councils are responsible for the services currently delivered by both the county council and local councils. In Surrey, there are eleven district or borough councils, responsible for waste collection, planning, cemeteries, parks and recreation grounds, and Surrey County Council responsible for Children’s Services, Adult Social Care and highways. LGR would mean dissolving all of the existing councils and combining services into unitary authorities. Having fewer councils creates efficiency, clarifies service delivery and saves money. It is, though, debatable whether this is ‘devolution’, which surely entails giving responsibility for democratic decision-making to the most appropriate local level.
The effect of being in the first wave
The Tory-led SCC administration volunteered to be in the first wave of devolution knowing that this would mean the cancellation of the county elections due to be held in May 2025 and extending the term of office of current councillors by two years without a further election. It has also meant that there has been very little time to thoroughly explore all the options for the configuration of the new unitaries, how the debt of councils will be managed and the complexities and costs of organising new teams to handle the key areas of Children’s and Adult Social Services.
Final plans submitted to government
A six week public consultation finished on the 5th August. Congratulations if you waded through the dense, opaque language in the numerous questions better suited to officers working in local government rather than members of the public.
Three unitary proposals
Nine of the eleven local councils are promoting a grouping of current councils into three new unitary authorities. They argue:
Our proposal offers local government that is built around Surrey’s distinct and recognised functional human and economic geographies. By aligning local government with well-defined and understood places, we can create a system that is more responsive, effective and attuned to the diverse needs of the people, communities and businesses that call Surrey home.
Put simply, we believe that local authorities with administrative boundaries that reflect functional and locally recognised areas are better equipped to meet the needs of these areas. They will also improve the potential for partnership working across the system and with community partners.
Two unitary proposals
Surrey County Council, Elmbridge and Mole Valley have promoted a final plan to government splitting Surrey into two councils, East and West. They say:
We’ve analysed a wide range of data on how the two councils would operate and our approach is supported by many of Surrey’s key public sector organisations including health, police, fire, business and community leaders. Existing county council services across Surrey are proven by independent inspectors to be strong, with successful outcomes for residents, and Surrey County Council and many of the district and borough councils have stable finances. This puts us in a good position to see Surrey through reorganisation smoothly.
What next?
The government is now considering the proposals and will make their decision know by the end of September or October. It is rather worrying that in the rush to provide lengthy proposals, key aspects such as how many councillors will represent each ‘division’ (‘wards’ will disappear) have not yet been put forward.
Surrey County Council confirmed on the 23rd June that the experimental prohibition of Heavy Goods Vehicles in Weybridge will be made permanent. In the long consultation that ran from 25 October 2024 to 1 May 2025 86% of respondents supported the ban.
Enforcement of the ban will be with the installation of an Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera on Brooklands Road so that penalty charge notices can be issued to drivers. We hope that this will herald an end to HGVs forcing other vehicles onto the pavement at the Balfour Road roundabout junction and to their frequent damaging of the railings.
A year ago we posted our support for the petition started by our St George’s councillor colleagues to introduce a weight limit on HGVs coming through the town via Heath Road and Brooklands Road: http://weybridgelibdems.org.uk/2023/11/hgv-petition/.
After a lengthy consultation period, this has now come into effect. Apparently it won’t be possible to issue fines on drivers contravening the restrictions for the first six months as it is a trial ban. Anyone seeing vehicles flouting the order should report the incident, preferably with photos, via:
Weybridge Transport Strategy: £5 million for Weybridge’s streets
A public consultation took place early last year on plans to improve the streets in Weybridge town centre to make them safer for pedestrians and cyclists and to improve traffic flow at some junctions. The total cost of these improvements comes to £5 million with money coming from SCC and EBC’s Strategic CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) fund. As a result of the consultations, the proposals to close Elgin Road and Old Wharf Way to traffic were removed.
Due to the M25 junction 10 programme, which should finish by the end of this year, the programme has been divided into two phases. Phase 1 works will be less interfering to traffic and will be co-ordinated with National Highways to limit the effect of any J10 restrictions or closures. Phase 2 works will have a more significant effect on traffic flow and will be scheduled for early next year.
We understand that Phase 1 works will include:
Pavement and cycle lane improvements on the High Street between Elmgrove Road and Baker Street; 25/04/24, 1 day;
Improvements to Monument Hill/Baker Street priority junction; 23/04/24, 2 days;
Work on the Bridge Road/Old Wharf Way junction; 12/02/24, 20 days;
Installing a Manby Lodge School crossing (scheduled during the August school holidays).
Phase 2 plans include improvements to the A317 Balfour Road/Church Street mini-roundabout, to the Monument Hill and Monument Green junctions, the Balfour Road/Portmore Park roundabout and the Church Street/Minorca Road junction.
The plans showing a two-storey building with GP services on the ground floor and clinics, diagnostics and children’s and mental health services on the first floor, are currently being reviewed after feedback from the planning authority, Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC). Replacing the walk-in centre is not in the plan (due to having an Urgent Treatment Centre at St Peter’s) but there will be a Same Day Urgent Care access hub which will be available only for booked appointments via the GP or 111.
The intention is for NHS Property Services to proceed with a full planning application in the spring for building to start this summer. The aim is for the building to be handed over to the NHS for fitting out in the winter of 2025 and for it to be opened in spring 2026 when the portacabins will be removed.
Two years ago your local councillor team were pleased to see the work they had proposed to widen, resurface and install better lighting on the ‘green lane’ that connects Oatlands Drive to Grotto Road to make it a better shared walking and wheeling path. We then pressed SCC to install a crossing on Oatlands Drive to make it safer, particularly for children and parents going to and from St James Primary and St George’s Junior Schools. Good to see that this installation is now nearing completion.
SCC have proposed some changes to parking restrictions in the Borough and would welcome feedback to the proposals. The closing date for feedback of this review is 22 December.
Street notices have been put out where changes are proposed and residents of properties fronting the proposals have been notified in writing of changes planned in their area.
In March this year, Runnymede Borough Council rejected plans for a 20,000 square metre warehouse on the now derelict site of Weybridge Business Park because it would be overbearing and have a damaging environmental impact.
The developers returned with revised plans for a number of smaller industrial units rather than the one large warehouse and this came before the RBC Planning Committee at the end of October. The council seemed to consider that the was an improved design due to its reduction in size and some additional landscaping. Along with the Weybridge Society, local councillors asked EBC to comment on the adverse effect the development would have on traffic through Weybridge, but unfortunately there was no objection raised from either the Local Highway Authority (SCC) or National Highways. Indeed, RBC determined that a reason for refusal on highway grounds could not be substantiated.
But conditions were imposed to restrict the hours of operations from 7am to 9pm and to limit the amount of floor space that could be occupied by one occupier so that units couldn’t be joined together to effectively provide one large warehouse.
However, the developers, Bridge Industrial, are appealing the decision to refuse their first application in March. The Weybridge Society is working hard, along with members of the Poets Corner Residents Group (PCRG) who live near the site, to prevent the appeal being heard in February from overturning the decision.
