The Government's decision to support the Conservative request to cancel this year's elections in Surrey fails on four key factors. It is undemocratic, will create an ineffective new structure, is on an impractical timescale and by ignoring the issue of debts will set up new Councils that are unsustainable. 

Undemocratic

The current County Councillors were elected in 2021. Since then the Conservatives have lost ground in District and Borough elections across Surrey and, since last year's General Election, more than half of Surrey residents now have a Lib Dem MP. 

So it is intensely undemocratic that the Tories who no longer reflect local opinion, should remain in power - probably for a further 2 to 3 years - to continue mismanaging our County and to oversee how our area is governed for decades to come. 

Ineffective

The Local Government Reorganisation in Surrey is now set to fail to meet the objectives set by the Government.

• With Sussex and Hampshire on the Priority Programme to become Mayoral authorities, Surrey will be left as an "island". This will prevent Surrey benefiting from the proposed devolution of powers.
• The Government has stated the importance of local management of community assets and the ability to manage "hyper-local" issues. In most areas, there are widespread Town or Parish Councils which can take on this role, Surrey is unique in having large areas without Town or Parish Councils. So we risk losing local influence over cherished local facilities.     

Impractical

The Government is setting a very aggressive timescale for these changes.

• It expects the plans for Unitary Authorities to be submitted by March.
• However its White Paper on Communities is not expected to be published before March and this is expected to outline the approach to managing community assets and "hyper-local" issues  

So the Government is demanding the plans to be rushed out before we know how important community assets like community halls, leisure centres and youth clubs will be managed. 

The Elephant in the Room

Some boroughs in Surrey (notably Woking) are saddled with enormous debts. The Government has not clarified whether these will simply be passed on to the new Unitary Authorities. We may end up creating new authorities that are financially unviable, threatening critical public services that we rely on. 

In summary, this is a recipe for bad decisions and may mean that local facilities get closed down unnecessarily.

Please give us your views;