Have Your Say!
Tell us your views on Local Representation and help shape how decisions are made in your community.
MVDC is running the first stage of a Community Governance Review (CGR). As part of this, we are inviting existing parish councils, residents’ associations, neighbourhood organisations, individual residents, people who work in our district and other interested parties, to put forward suggestions for areas in Mole Valley and have their say on how they should be represented.
Our consultation is open for 12 weeks and will finish at 5pm on the 17 October.
Before sharing your views, please read the background information below.
Background Information
1. Keep Things As They Are
You can choose to make no changes. This means keeping the current parish and boundary arrangements as they are.
2. Modify Existing Parishes
You can suggest updates such as:
- Changing parish boundaries
- Renaming a parish
- Changing how a parish is governed (e.g. style or council setup)
- Adjusting the number of councillors or warding
3. Remove a Parish
If a parish no longer reflects the local community, you can propose that it be abolished. You’ll need to explain why this would improve local governance.
4. Create a New Parish
You can suggest:
- Setting up a parish in an area that doesn’t have one
- Merging or splitting existing parishes
- Combining parished and unparished areas
5. Decide on Parish Councils
For any new or existing parish, you can say whether it should have a council, and if so:
- What it should be called
- How many councillors it should have
- How elections should be arranged
We want to hear your views as part of Mole Valley District Council’s Community Governance Review.
You can share your feedback by:
1. Completing our online survey
2. Via Email
3. In Writing
Community Governance Review
Democratic and Electoral Services
Mole Valley District Council
Pippbrook, Dorking
RH4 1SJ
- The survey should take around 5-10 minutes to complete and you have until 5pm on 17 October to do this.
- All responses will be published, along with reasons for accepting or rejecting them. Final recommendations will follow as second round of consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
A CGR looks at how local communities are represented and whether changes are needed. This could include:
- Creating, merging or changing parish boundaries
- Naming new parishes or changing their style
- Reviewing the number of parish councillors or warding arrangements
- Considering other local governance options
Please note, the CGR cannot decide if a parish becomes a Town Council – that’s up to the parish itself once it’s formed.
The aim of the CGR is to ensure local governance:
- Represents the local community
- Works well and is easy to manage
- Brings people together
This review follows a Council decision on 15 July 2025. Government guidance recommends reviews every 10–15 years, and Mole Valley hasn’t had a full review in that time.
Previous reviews in Bookham and Dorking didn’t lead to new parishes, but views may have changed—so these areas are included again.
They could take on ownership of play spaces, open spaces, community halls and other facilities, and could have powers to organise street cleaning, local festivals and celebrations. Additionally, a town council can appoint a mayor.
Local councils are funded through a sum of money called a ‘precept’ – this is a separate charge which is added to, and collected along with, your existing Council Tax. The local council sets its own precept depending on what services and facilities are needed by the local community.
Only after considering the initial ideas and suggestions from the Stage One survey will we be able to determine if there could be any impacts on Council Tax for a particular area.
Please note that any proposals developed from the Stage One responses will include information about potential impacts for the public and key stakeholders to consider before responding to the consultation on the draft recommendations.
Local council councillors are not usually paid an allowance but may incur costs which can be reimbursed.
This is a number of parishes that have come together under a common council. Electors of each parish elect a designated number of councillors to the common council. It can be an effective way of ensuring small parishes (that might otherwise be unworkable as separate units) are more empowered and can guarantee their separate community identity.
We are a local community group/organisation and would like to discuss the Community Governance Review with a Councillor / Officer, how can we arrange this?
If any community groups are holding meetings to discuss possible proposals and would like a council officer to come along to explain more about the process, please email us at cgr@molevalley.gov.uk, and let us know the date, location and time of your meeting and we can see if this can be accommodated.
If a parish has a council, the review will decide:
• When elections should happen (next scheduled for May 2027, then every 4 years)
• How many councillors there should be
• Whether the parish should be split into wards for elections
Each parish council must have at least 5 councillors, but there’s no maximum. The number should reflect:
• The size and layout of the community
• How easy it is to find people to stand for election
• The level of services the council provides
National guidance suggests between 7 and 25 councillors depending on the area.
Wards divide a parish into smaller areas for electing councillors. The review will consider
• Whether the number or spread of voters makes warding necessary
• Whether certain areas should have their own representation
If wards are created, the review will also decide:
• Ward names (often based on local or historic place names)
• How many councillors each ward should have
The aim is to make sure everyone’s vote carries equal weight and that no area is over- or under-represented.
