Looking to The Future – 2026 and beyond
On 9th March 2026, Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) concluded its Community Governance Review (CGR) and agreed that Bookham Residents were against creating a Bookham Parish Council (PC). The same ‘No’ result was recorded in Fetcham, Leatherhead and Ashtead.
At the Council meeting some Councillors spoke of their disappointment with the CGR results. Others spoke of the CGR being rushed, badly conducted and that it failed to provide residents with sufficient information on the pros and cons of having a PC. Two Councillors professed a lack of knowledge about PCs, at least initially, to answer resident’s questions[1]. The inadequacies of the CGR process were compounded by MVDC’s freely admitted rush to conclude the process before the enactment of the Surrey Orders which would constrain its implementation, with the Council’s vote on 9th March preceding the Orders coming into effect on 10th March by less than five hours. These comments echoed the BRA’s and other Residents’ Associations (RAs) views of the CGR being: premature, lacking sufficient information, rushed and potentially undemocratic.
The BRA’s Elected Directors met on 4th March to discuss the BRA’s future depending on whether MVDC would or would not create a PC for the Bookhams. With the CGR now concluded the BRA can look forward to continuing its work for the community. However, the residents’ comments included in MVDC’s CGR report gives us an opportunity to think about how we might further enhance what we do and how we do it.
Members of the BRA’s Main Committee and Planning Committee have contributed to this paper and agreed the areas of focus for the BRA from 2026 to 2030. We will now produce a “one page summary” of our plans to be shared with residents for their information and comment.
The BRA’s 2026 AGM could be an appropriate point to formally announce what is decided – celebrating the BRA’s 100 years of service to the community and presenting our aims for the future.
This paper includes three Appendices covering:
A. a list what the BRA does now;
B. a BRA Strategy for 2026 to 2030;
C. copies of the parts of MVDC’s CGR report that relate specifically to the Bookhams.
We will start with a summary of residents CGR comments and the BRA’s responses, in the table overleaf, but before that we need to think about the new UA context the BRA will be working in.
[1] https://molevalley.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/1075805 (at 31.32 and 35.41 minutes of the debate).
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