What more could anyone want right in the middle of a pandemic and difficulties with BREXIT than a Boundary Commission intent on re-organising our local government institutions and our electoral boundaries?
However, it is not the Commission itself that has abandoned common-sense by instigating the vastly complex and time-consuming review. It is a Government that is hell-bent on reviewing anything and everything. Education – planning; health; local government; promoting unitary authorities and more!
You name it – they want to change it – in the middle of the most catastrophic disease that we have faced in modern times. At a time when our cash- strapped local authorities are struggling to make ends meet
Whilst the rest of us are adding blubber, if the Commission has its way, our borough council will be losing weight. By that, we mean losing councillors – down from the existing 57 in 29 wards – to 50 and fewer and larger wards. So presumably in 2023, there will be a slimmer Waverley – or possibly NO Waverley – as it is still Surrey County Council’s intention for the whole county to become a Unitary Authority. It is hanging onto its fervent desire to get rid of the county’s 11 boroughs & district councils. This despite being told by Government to shelve its ambitions for the time being.
Your Councillors
Waverley Borough Council has 57 seats, representing local people in 29 wards that make up the Borough.
Councillors are elected by the community to decide how the council should carry out its various activities. They represent the wider public interest as well as individuals living within the ward in which he or she has been elected to serve.
Each councillor is elected for a four-year term. The most recent elections took place on 2 May 2019. The next Waverley Borough Council elections will take place in 2023.
Councillors have regular contact with the general public through council meetings, telephone calls or surgeries.
According to the council’s website, Fifty-six borough councillors are members of a political party registered with the Electoral Commission; one is Independent. They are currently divided as follows:
Councillors are not paid a salary for their work, but they do receive allowances. By law, all members of the Council are required to complete a declaration of interest form, the details of which are published annually.
In 2018/2019 the council paid out £395,000 in Basic Allowances, Special Responsibility Allowances, Travelling and Subsistence Allowances. it also included just £3,000 on internet charges.
in 2019/20 the figure was £397,000 – which WW believes is amazing value for money. This is low, compared with many other councils across the country that pay considerably more.
Surely it’s Surrey Council Council that needs to lose some blubber?
81 councillors enjoying more that £1.7 million in allowances and expenses between them.
The average UK wage is £38k and the Top Ten Conservative Councillors took home allowances in excess of that. With Tim Oliver, their Leader pulling out all the stops at £65k!
On 6 May, will we see some well deserved weight loss?
When a new council takes over in May – let us hope there will be a great many changes. We just hope the people of Surrey will grab the opportunity they have and run with it. The Waverley Web would like to see someone like Paul Follows taking Surrey County Council by the scruff of its neck and shaking the place up. As for a £65,000 salary package for the Leader! Where did the bit about public service go? Down the drain along with our money invested in dubious retail projects. Didn’t someone tell us that the Deputy Leader of Waverley Borough Council doesn’t claim any allowances. Please, someone, confirm this – because we will shout it from Surrey’s rooftops if this rumour is correct.