27/09/2026
In this image, you can see councillors at the West Surrey (Shadow) Council voting to downgrade the Constitution Sub-Committee into an informal Working Group.
I honestly do not think those who voted in favour fully grasped the long-term implications, or the damage this will inflict on the very communities they represent. Instead, they simply fell in line behind their leader, sleepwalking straight into an abyss of future hyper-local misery.
Residents in Deepcut already know the score when it comes to "Working Groups." We saw it first-hand when the administration at Surrey Heath Borough Council set one up behind closed doors with no published agendas, no reports, no minutes, and crucially, no public voting record.
Decisions were hammered out in a smoke-filled room, completely out of sight. That working-group setup was the exact mechanism that allowed them to operate below the radar, and it was only because I blew the whistle on social media that residents found out what was actually going on.
It may take a few years for the ruling group's backbenchers to realise what they have done. Only then will the penny drop on how badly they’ve pi**ed on their own chips, and what that means for their constituents.
I have recorded a fresh "walk and talk" video breaking down why this blow to local democracy and accountability could spectacularly backfire, just as we saw happen in Deepcut. Check out the link to my walk and talk in the comments below ⬇️.