Borough of Guildford

Guildford
Borough and Non-metropolitan district
Motto(s):  Fortiter et Fideliter (Latin: Bravely and faithfully)
Guildford shown within Surrey
Coordinates: 51°14′46″N 0°33′07″W / 51.246°N 0.552°W / 51.246; -0.552Coordinates: 51°14′46″N 0°33′07″W / 51.246°N 0.552°W / 51.246; -0.552
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	South East England
Ceremonial county	Surrey
Established	1 April 1974
Administrative HQ	Guildford (Millmead House)
Government
• Type	Non-metropolitan district
• Body	Guildford Borough Council
• Leadership	Leader and cabinet
• Executive	Liberal Democrats - R4GV (council NOC)
• Leader	TBC
• Mayor	Richard Billington
• MPs	Paul Beresford (Mole Valley[n 1]) Michael Gove (Surrey Heath) Jonathan Lord (Woking) Angela Richardson (Guildford)
Area
• Total	104.6 sq mi (270.9 km2)
Area rank	144th
Population  (mid-2019 est.)
• Total	148,998
• Rank	141st
• Density	1,410/sq mi (546/km2)
• Ethnicity	93.5% White 2.1% S.Asian 1.3% Black 1.3% Mixed Race 1.7% Chinese or Other
Time zone	UTC+0 (Greenwich Mean Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (British Summer Time)
ONS code	43UD (ONS) E07000209 (GSS)
OS grid reference	TQ0105550700
Website	www.guildford.gov.uk

The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is the location of the council.

The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 by an amalgamation of the municipal borough of Guildford and Guildford Rural District.

Functions[]

Borough councillors and officers work on devolved issues such as parks, leisure, older residents' services, youth services, streetscene, refuse collection, planning and aspects of business and tourism;^[1] Surrey County Council deal with transport, publicly owned infrastructure planning and maintenance, education, social services and overall waste management. The Borough owns significant heritage assets that include monuments such as Guildford Castle, as well museums, art collections and civic regalia.^[2]

Population[]

Guildford has the second largest population of Surrey's eleven districts (based on census statistics, only 600 residents behind Reigate and Banstead).^[3] Approximately half of the Borough's population live in the town of Guildford.

Budget[]

To the year ending 31 March 2012, £106.629m was received by Guildford Borough Council, plus £7.43m from its financing/investment arm, plus £17.571m in other taxation and non-specific grants.^[2]

A large wholly exceptional overspend resulted from Guildford acquiring from central UK government all self-financing rights over housing for £192.435m, otherwise spending amounted to £136.778m. Of this spending the largest item was non-Local Authority housing benefits and services amounting to £33.93m however accounting for £32.74m of income. The largest item producing a net cost was Environmental and Regulatory Services costing £16.643m while contributing £6.861m. Spending on this item fell by 2.63% compared to the 2010-2011 period.^[2]

Housing owned by the Borough[]

Housing stock owned by Guildford Borough Council is valued, as securely tenanted at £359.316m as at 1 April 2012.

If all of the housing stock were sold untenanted, or to present occupants at full value, then the correct value at that date was £995 million.^[2]

Taxation[]

Of the eleven Surrey districts, Guildford has the third-lowest Band-D council tax for 2012-13 and fourth-lowest average overall council tax (the level of difference is a reflection on an area's skew as to higher band properties).^[4]

Councillors[]

Guildford Borough Council
Type
Type	Borough and Non-metropolitan district council
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Leader of the Council	Cllr Joss Bigmore, R4GV
Deputy Leader of the Council	Cllr Jan Harwood, Liberal Democrats
Mayor	Cllr Richard Billington
Structure
Seats	48 councillors
Political groups	Administration (33)   Liberal Democrats (17)   Residents (16) Opposition (15)   Conservative (4)   Conservative Independent (4)   Greenbelt Group (3)   Labour (2)   Independent (1)   Vacancy (1)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Last election	2 May 2019

Elections[]

Borough elections take place for the whole council on a four-year basis.

2 May 2019 saw the most recent cross-borough election that produced 17 Liberal Democrat seats, 15 Residents for Guildford and Villages (R4GV) seats, 9 Conservative seats, 4 Guildford Greenbelt Group (GGG) seats, 2 Labour seats and 1 Green seat on the borough council.

Administration[]

Following the May 2019 borough council elections Guildford Borough Council is in no overall control meaning that no single political party or group has a majority of council seats.

On 15 May 2019 councillors voted by 23 to 19 to elect the Liberal Democrat group leader, Caroline Reeves, as Leader of Guildford Borough Council over the leader of the R4GV group, Joss Bigmore. On 20 May 2019 Caroline Reeves announced that (including herself) the council's Cabinet would consist of 8 Liberal Democrats, 1 R4GV and 1 GGG councillor with an additional R4GV councillor attending cabinet as a non-voting deputy.^[5] However, on 27 August 2019 the GGG member of the Cabinet resigned and was subsequently replaced by an additional R4GV councillor (the formerly non-voting deputy member of the Cabinet).^[6][7]

In May 2020 it was announced that an agreement had been reached between the Liberal Democrats and R4GV to rotate the council leadership between them as part of a coalition arrangement which saw four Liberal Democrat councillors leave the council's Cabinet and be replaced by two R4GV councillors to create an evenly split cabinet of four Liberal Democrat and four R4GV councillors. As part of this arrangement the leader of R4GV, Joss Bigmore, was appointed as the Deputy Leader of Guildford Borough Council. In October 2020 Joss Bigmore was elected as council leader due to the leadership rotating to R4GV, with the Liberal Democrats due to regain the council leadership in autumn 2022.^[8][9]

Political Composition[]

Following the May 2019 election the Green councillor chose to sit on the council as part of the R4GV group. The political make-up of the council was altered in September 2019 when a Conservative councillor quit his party to sit as an Independent councillor, and again from July to December 2020 when four councillors left the official Conservative group and formed a separate 'Conservative Independent' group on the council before later re-joining the official Conservative group. However, these coun ^[10][11]

In June 2020 the death of Patrick Sheard, who was a GGG councillor for Send, caused a vacancy on the council. A by-election was delayed until the 2021 local elections and was held at the same as two other by-elections caused by resignations (one Independent and one Liberal Democrat resignation). The outcome of these by-elections restored the political balance of the council to the state it had been immediately after the May 2019 elections.^[12][13]

Members of Parliament[]

Composition[]

The central 'Guildford Town' area of the borough comprises the town centre and immediately surrounding areas, including: Bellfields, Boxgrove, Onslow Village, Park Barn, Stoughton, Westborough, and the (former) villages of Burpham, and Merrow.

Third tier of local government[]

Apart from the town of Guildford which has no third (or most local) tier, most of the rest of the borough has civil parishes of unpaid councillors who are entitled to charge a small extra precept for services they pay out for:^[15]

Map of Guildford Borough showing its parts: Guildford town and civil parishes which provide an additional layer of government for nearby villages

Notes and references[]

Notes

References