Application for Parish Council Status

The Forum applied to form a Parish Council earlier this year, and we can now report that Runnymede Borough Council's (RBC) Full Council meeting on 23rd October approved proceeding to the second stage of public consultation. Significantly, approval has been unanimous at both Council meetings.

The second stage of public consultation will be from from 3 November to 15 December, which will follow the same pattern as the first phase in the form of a survey to residents. So, if RBC have your email address, you should receive notification by email on 3 November and also by post a few days later.

Specifically, this stage seeks your approval of the following recommendations that:

• the parish of Englefield Green should be created

• the parish will not be warded (ie, it will be treated as one area as opposed to being divided into several areas)

• the name of the parish council should be Englefield Green Parish Council

• the parish council for Englefield Green shall consist of 14 councillors

The proposed Parish Council will be practical, not political and will exist to care, serve and do its best for residents as well as securing funding for projects.

Please vote for a second time, as it's important to ensure that we achieve as good a response as possible as we move towards securing final approval in 2026. Thank you!

As you will no doubt have read in the press and via social media, Surrey is to have two new unitary authorities replacing both Surrey County Council and the twelve existing councils (in our case Runnymede Borough Council) in April 2027. It would appear that the new West Surrey Council in which we will fall, will inherit a significant debt in the order of £4.5 billion! This process will lead to there being a lower number of local Council Representatives serving larger areas with considerably further distance between local needs and administering body and greater competition between resources and their allocation. This reinforces the initiative to establish a Parish Council in Englefield Green so that local people can have their say and be able to protect their local environment.