Woking's Civic Offices and Victoria Gate are recommended as West Surrey Council's HQ, but full council meetings would go to Guildford. Vote on 12 October.
Woking’s Civic Offices and the Victoria Gate building next door are recommended as the headquarters of the new West Surrey Council. But the new council’s full meetings would be held in Guildford, at Millmead House, not in Woking’s council chamber.
The West Surrey Shadow Executive decides on the plan on Monday 12 October. The proposal is in report WSE26-014, published on the meeting page. West Surrey Council takes over from Woking Borough Council, the other western borough and district councils and Surrey County Council in the west of the county on vesting day, 1 April 2027.
What the report recommends
The shadow executive is asked to:
- approve Millmead House in Guildford as the Day 1 civic headquarters, where full council meets
- approve the Woking Civic Offices and Victoria Gate together as the Day 1 operational headquarters
- approve a one-off budget of £200,000, subject to procurement, paid from the £900,000 West Surrey fund
- let the head of paid service make minor changes without coming back to members
The operational headquarters is the council’s statutory address and the base for its leadership team. The report plans for about 60 people on 30 desks. It says this is “not a proposal” for where the rest of the council’s staff will work.
Why Woking won one role and lost the other
Seven offices across West Surrey were scored on capacity, deliverability, location, cost and how long the building could last. Woking’s two buildings, scored together, came top as the operational headquarters with 4.13 out of 5. Millmead and the Woking Civic Offices alone tied second on 4.03.
For council meetings the picture is different. Millmead scored 4.63. Surrey Heath House in Camberley was second on 3.75, and Woking’s Civic Offices came third on 2.99.
The new council will have 90 members. Woking’s chamber seats 120 people, but only 53 of those are desk positions for councillors and officers. The rest are about 23 press seats and a 44-seat public gallery. Woking scored 2 out of 5 for member and democratic capacity. Millmead scored 5.
The report calls Millmead “the only site currently capable of accommodating full attendance at council meetings”. It also says the vacant floor of Woking’s offices is “dated in appearance and needs some significant works”.
The two Woking buildings in figures
The report gives these details:
| Woking Civic Offices | Victoria Gate | |
|---|---|---|
| Owner today | Woking Borough Council | Surrey County Council |
| Desks | 396 (313 equipped) | building holds 700 under fire rules |
| On-site parking | 4 spaces | 38 bays |
| Running cost | about £1.1m a year | £968,000 to £1m a year |
| Rental income | about £533,000 a year from DWP and Surrey Police | none |
About 2,500 people already have Victoria Gate as their contracted base. Its space is “fully allocated” to county council staff, so some would have to move or hot desk. Victoria Gate would transfer to West Surrey because it is in Woking. That still needs the East and West Surrey executives to agree the list of buildings that move to each council.
Scrutiny councillors questioned the scoring
The shadow authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee looked at the report on 8 October. Its draft recommendations record questions about how walking routes were scored and whether rail and active travel should have been separate.
Members asked the shadow executive to share the scoring evidence. They also asked for a cost reconciliation and a sensitivity analysis “before treating the ranking as conclusive”. Officers said a different scoring would not have changed the buildings’ overall results.
What it means for you
Day to day, nothing changes. The report says residents will still be able to visit local council offices, and online and phone services carry on. This decision is about where the new council’s leaders sit and where its councillors meet.
If you want to watch or speak at West Surrey Council meetings after April 2027, expect to go to Guildford. Millmead is about a 10-minute walk from Guildford station, the report says. The arrangement is described as a Day 1 solution only, and the new council will decide its long-term offices after vesting day.
The shadow executive meets at 10am on Monday 12 October in the Council Chamber at Woking’s Civic Offices, and the meeting is webcast. We will report the decision. The other items on the agenda are in our Woking council this week round-up.
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