Your Independent Councillors working for you

Your Independent Councillors working for you (Sept 1, 2026)

Your Ashtead Independent Councillors all continue to work hard on behalf of the

residents of Ashtead. County Councillor Chris Townsend and District Councillors

Mary Cooper, Chris Hunt, Gerry Sevenoaks, Garry Stansfield, Andy Smith and

Patricia Wiltshire are all busy representing the interests of our local community in the

final months of the County and District Councils. Both Surrey CC and Mole Valley

DC will be ‘stood down’ on 31 st March 2027 and all the roles and responsibilities of

these councils and their members will transfer to the new East Surrey Council which,

the following day, will become a fully operational ‘sovereign authority’ and will deal

with all the local services currently provided by the County and District councils.

For the time being East Surrey Council is what’s called a ‘shadow authority’ and the

next few months are being spent organising the new council and deciding its strategy

and action plan going forward. Ashtead has two representatives on this new East

Surrey Council – Ashtead Independents Chris Hunt and Andy Smith, who were

elected in May this year with substantial majorities. They are already playing an

active role at East Surrey, speaking at meetings of the ‘shadow authority’ and

serving on key committees. In addition, Cllr Hunt has been elected as Vice-Chair of

East Surrey’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee. We will keep you informed as East

Surrey makes its journey from shadow authority to sovereign authority.