Application for Parish Council Status

The Forum applied to form a Parish Council last year, and we can now report that the West Surrey Shadow Authority Executive formally approved a Parish Council for Englefield Green on Wednesday 15th September 2026.

The Final Recommendations are that:

• the parish of Englefield Green should be created.

• the parish will not be warded

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

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

The new Parish Council will operate from 1 April 2027. Elections for councillors will take place on 6 May 2027 and take up office on 10 May 2027. The transitional arrangements are that the new Parish Council will initially be represented by those West Surrey Council councillors who immediately before 1 April 2027 are the elected councillors our area. Further updates will follow.

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.

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.