Woking Mayor Set to Survive Council Abolition in 2027

The office of Mayor of Woking looks set to outlive the council that created it. On Tuesday 15 September the West Surrey Shadow Authority’s Executive is asked to support the creation of a body called The Charter Trustees for Woking, which would keep the mayoralty going from 1 April 2027, the day Woking Borough Council ceases to exist (agenda, item 13).

The published report is blunt about what happens if nothing is done. From vesting day the new West Surrey Council will have a Chair but no Mayor, and that Chair “cannot be in multiple places at once on, for example, Remembrance Sunday”. In areas with no parish council, the report says, “most or many locally specific civic responsibilities of Borough Mayors can be expected to end on 31 March 2027 unless charter trustees are established” (WSE26-002).

Woking has no parish councils at present. That is why the question arises here and not in Waverley, which is fully parished and therefore not eligible.

What charter trustees actually are

Charter trustees are a stopgap. They exist to hold on to a borough’s civic traditions when the council is abolished and no parish or town council is there to inherit them.

The report sets out what they can and cannot do:

• they are the sitting councillors for the wards in the trustee area, appointed automatically, with no separate election
• they elect a Mayor and Deputy Mayor from among themselves each year at their annual meeting
• their remit is the mayoralty, the regalia, civic ceremonies and honorary freedoms, plus the historic property attached to them
• they are not a parish council and have none of its service or community powers
• they are wound up if the area ever becomes fully parished

The framework comes from the Charter Trustees Regulations 2009. Creating them is a decision for the Secretary of State, not for any council, and the report notes the Minister “is minded” to set them up in Surrey where asked, provided both the borough and the shadow authority say they want them. The ministry has asked for that confirmation by the end of September 2026.

Woking’s own Full Council made the request on 16 April 2026 (WBC26-021). That report named the proposed area as the whole borough, covering the seven West Surrey Council wards of The Byfleets, Goldsworth East and Horsell Village, Knaphill and Goldsworth West, Woking North, Woking South, Woking South East and Woking South West.

Pyrford is the exception, because it is becoming a parish

One part of the borough is carved out. Woking Borough Council has already made and signed an order creating a civil parish of Pyrford from 1 April 2027, and charter trustees cannot cover an area that is parished.

The order’s effect, as set out in the shadow authority’s report on community governance reviews, is that:

• a civil parish called Pyrford is established, with a parish council
• it is styled a parish, so the body is Pyrford Parish Council
• ten councillors will be elected to it
• the parish is not divided into wards
• the first election is on the first Thursday in May 2027, which is 6 May, with elections every four years after that

Between 1 April and the election, the parish is represented by transitional councillors, who under Woking’s order are the people who were the borough councillors for the local wards immediately beforehand. The report describes appointed councillors of this kind as “custodians, not policymakers” (WSE26-001).

The charter trustee request therefore lists the borough’s other wards, with Mount Hermon and Pyrford both flagged in the appendix as needing small boundary adjustments where the new parish line falls (appendix 1).

Woking is not alone. Spelthorne and Surrey Heath have also asked for charter trustees. Guildford has asked for them only as a fallback, in case its own new parish does not happen. Runnymede’s co-leaders decided not to ask at all.

What it means for you

There is a cost, and it lands on council tax bills, though not straight away.

For the first municipal year, May 2027 to May 2028, the existing civic office staff and budgets transfer to West Surrey Council and it pays for the trustees. The report’s section 151 officer is candid that this “will increase the Councils budget gap where savings will need to be made to cover the additional cost”.

From 1 April 2028 the charter trustees can levy their own precept on households inside the trustee area. The report says that nationally these precepts “tend to be between £1 and £5 per year for a band D council tax-paying household”, which it puts at between 8p and 42p a month. The exact figure would be set by the trustees themselves during their first year. If you want to see how the current bill is built up, our guide to Woking council tax bands sets out the 2026/27 charges.

You will not vote for a charter trustee. Whoever you elect as your West Surrey Council councillor for a ward inside the area becomes one automatically. The report says West Surrey councillors have already had an email from the interim monitoring officer telling them this is expected of them.

Pyrford is the one place where there is a vote to think about: ten seats on a brand new parish council, first contested on 6 May 2027.

What happens next

The shadow authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee looks at the proposal on 10 September, and its comments go back to the Executive before the 15 September meeting. Both meetings are webcast from the Civic Offices in Gloucester Square.

Members of the public can put questions to the Executive, but the notice period has almost run out: questions must reach the monitoring officer by noon on Thursday 10 September.

If the Executive supports the proposals, the requests go to the Secretary of State, who can create charter trustees through what the report calls a “mop-up order” under section 7 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.

The current Mayor is Cllr Rob Leach, elected on 19 May 2026. The council’s own announcement described him as the 53rd and last Mayor of Woking appointed by the borough council (Woking Borough Council). If the order is made, the 54th will be chosen by charter trustees instead.