Eight of the current 15 council leaders in Surrey are not standing in the local elections for the shadow unitary authorities this year.<\/p>\n
At present, there are 81 county councillors and 453 district councillors. However, there are only 162 seats up for election for the shadow unitaries, 72 in East Surrey and 90 in West Surrey.<\/p>\n
The list of all the candidates standing for the two shadow unitary authorities were published on Friday ahead of elections in May.<\/p>\n
There are seven current district leaders hoping to be elected to one of the new unitaries:<\/p>\n
Epsom & Ewell BC leader Hannah Dalton (Ind)
\nGuildford BC leader Julia McShane (Lib Dem)
\nRunnymede BC co-leader Don Whyte (Lib Dem)
\nSpelthorne BC leader Joanne Sexton (Ind)
\nSurrey Heath BC leader Shaun MacDonald (Lib Dem)
\nWaverley BC leader Paul Follows (Lib Dem)
\nWoking BC leader Ann-Marie Barker (Lib Dem)<\/p>\n
However seven district leaders, including three of the four co-leaders of Runnymede BC, and Surrey CC leader Tim Oliver (Con) have not put their name on the ballot papers.<\/p>\n
The district leaders not seeking re-election are:<\/p>\n
Reigate & Banstead BC leader Richard Biggs (Con)
\nElmbridge BC leader Mike Rollings (Lib Dem)
\nMole Valley BC leader Bridget Kendrick (Lib Dem)
\nTandridge DC leader Catherine Sayer (Ind)
\nRunnymede BC co-leader Linda Gillham (Ind)
\nRunnymede BC co-leader Robert King (Lab)
\nRunnymede BC co-leader Steve Ringham (Green)<\/p>\n
Cllr Rollings told LGC that he is not standing to make way for \u201cfresh blood\u201d and added it is a \u201cnatural time to not go forward\u201d but \u201cwe have some very committed councillors standing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe not standing is not going to hold East Surrey back\u201d, he said. \u201cMost of the county councillors are standing again so there will be plenty of continuity but also fresh blood\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even though Cllr Rollings was a supporter of the plans to split the county into two unitary authorities, he said: \u201cI think that most district and borough councillors think that this local government reorganisation has been a bit of a rushed job and not enough thought has gone into it\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cTime will tell if LGR will lead to buyers\u2019 remorse or if we will reap the benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
His wish is that Elmbridge BC is remembered \u201cfondly\u201d even though \u201clike most councils, it has become a scapegoat\u201d for national decisions, he added.<\/p>\n
Following the elections this year, East and West Surrey councils will operate in shadow form before vesting day on 1 April 2027, when Surrey\u2019s 11 districts and the county will formally dissolve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eight of the current 15 council leaders in Surrey are not standing in the local elections for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-601205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}