Three meetings, 12 to 15 October: West Surrey picks its Woking HQ, and Full Council votes on a 3.3% pay rise and new licensing and taxi policies.

Three council meetings are held at Woking’s Civic Offices between Monday 12 and Thursday 15 October. The one with the most lasting effect is Monday’s: the West Surrey Shadow Executive is asked to make Woking the new council’s operational headquarters.

All three are in the Council Chamber and broadcast live, according to the council’s meetings calendar.

Monday 12 October, 10am: West Surrey Shadow Executive

This is the shadow body for the council that replaces Woking Borough Council on 1 April 2027. The agenda includes:

  • Headquarters. Woking’s Civic Offices and Victoria Gate as the operational headquarters, with full council meetings at Millmead House in Guildford. We cover this in full in our report on the HQ choice.
  • Which council hosts which service. Some county services will be run by one new council for both from April 2027. The report moves the children’s emergency duty team to East Surrey and the Surrey Online School to West Surrey. Its appendix gives the county’s historic environment planning team to West Surrey, because its records are kept in Woking near Surrey History Centre.
  • Adult safeguarding and health boards. Options for how statutory partnerships such as the Surrey Adults Safeguarding Board and the Surrey Health and Wellbeing Board are run after the split (report WSE26-016).
  • Consents for the old councils. Until vesting day, big decisions by Woking and its neighbours need the shadow executive’s consent. This round covers sales and leases in Surrey Heath, Waverley and Runnymede, and a new contact centre phone system for the county council. None of the items is in Woking borough (report).
  • Progress and risk. The regular programme and risk update.

Wednesday 14 October, 7pm: Shareholder Executive Committee

Councillors receive the July management accounts of the ThamesWey and Victoria Square companies, plus ThamesWey’s 2026/27 budget and September risk update. The public report is one page. The figures are in a private report, so expect most of the meeting to be held without the public.

For the scale of what is at stake, see our report on the £156 million cut to the ThamesWey Housing loans.

Thursday 15 October, 7pm: Full Council

The agenda includes:

  • Staff pay. A 3.3% rise for council staff, backdated to 1 April 2026 and paid in the November payroll. The lowest pay point rises 5.8% to £25,949 a year, or £13.45 an hour, to match the Real Living Wage. Three employees are on it (pay report).
  • Licensing policy 2026 to 2031. The current policy expires on 14 October. The consultation drew one response, about access to licence information, and no objections (report). The new text says the council “does not currently operate” a Cumulative Impact Assessment and will keep the need for one under review.
  • Taxi and private hire policy. Six people responded to the summer consultation. The changes add wording on accessibility and clarify safeguarding (report).
  • Planning call-ins. Changes to the constitution for the national planning scheme of delegation, in force from 31 October. We explained what changes in our report on councillor call-ins.
  • Scrutiny annual report. The three scrutiny committees reviewed 42 topics in 2025/26, with average attendance of 69.6% (report).

Next week

The rearranged Planning Committee meets on Tuesday 20 October at 7pm. Its agenda had not been published when we checked on 10 October.

What it means for you

You can watch every meeting live from its agenda page. Each agenda page also names a Democratic Services contact for questions about the meeting.

Last week’s Executive decisions are now out. The Sheerwater deal was approved and took effect at once. The other decisions take effect on 19 October unless councillors call them in by 16 October. See our update on the Sheerwater vote.