Paul Deach (Conservative) and Jacques Olmo (Liberal Democrat) were elected for the Frimley Green & Mytchett Ward of the new West Surrey Council, see the full results.

The Society's AGM was held on Friday 24th April at St. Andrews Church Hall. There were about 40 people attending which was disappointing as there was a Q & A session (hustings) with candidates for the new West Surrey Council.

The Chair Clare Kennedy did a quick rundown on what the Society had done over the past year. This was followed by the treasurer's report and election of the committee, for more details see the full presentaion (pptx). At the end of this section of the AGM Clare asked the audience if anyone would like to join the Society's committee and the Frimley Green Carnival Committee, unfortunately there were no volunteers for the Society's committee but there was a volunteer for the Frimley Green Carnival Committee.

The tea break was taken.

This was followed by the Q & A session with the candidates. Clare Kennedy introduced the candidates, Attieh Fard (Conservative), Ron Whitcher (Reform), Jacques Olmo and Morgan Rise (Liberal Democrats). The picture to the right shows the candidates and our Chair Clare Kennedy. From left to right Attieh Fard, Ron Whitcher, Clare Kennedy, Morgan Rise and Jacques Olmo. There are 10 candidates for 2 positions in the ward, see the full list candidates(pdf).

Each of the casndidates present then gave a short statement, with finally Attieh Fard reading a statement from Paul Deach (Conservative) who was unable to attend.

A synopsis of the Q & A session follows below but a fuller summary can be seen here.

The session focused extensively on the significant financial challenges confronting the newly formed West Surrey Council, starting with debt inheritance along with financial support from the UK Government. How will this impact tax and local services.

The questions then turned to local representation and decision making, there were varying opinions about how this will be handled by the new council.

Questions were then asked about how the new West Surrey Council will handle national issues, again there were varying opinions on this with 2 of the candidates saying the Council should focus on local issues and one emphasizing the need to protect the country from undesirable individuals and improve the armed forces.

Question about how much time the candidates could commit to being councillors, three of the candidates who had day jobs said they could devote enough time with it not being an issue for the fourth candidate as he was retired.

The final questions were about the impact the new council would have on planning. The reply from Councillor Morgan Rise was that planning will likely remain within the area for a period, with area committees for local input.



Before the meeting closed there was the usual raffle.