Established 1 April 1974 Founded 1 April 1974 | Area 270.9 km² Population 133,100 (2006) | |
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Points of interest Guildford Castle, Hatchlands Park, Watts Gallery, Stoke Park - Guildford, Loseley Park Destinations | ||
The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Guildford is its largest settlement, only town and is the location of the council.
Contents
- Map of Borough of Guildford UK
- Functions
- Population
- Budget
- Housing owned by the Borough
- Taxation
- Councillors
- Composition
- Third tier of local government
- References
Map of Borough of Guildford, UK
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 by an amalgamation of the municipal borough of Guildford and Guildford Rural District.
Functions
Borough councillors and officers work on devolved issues such as parks, leisure, older residents' services, youth services, streetscene, refuse collection, planning and aspects of business and tourism; Surrey County Council deal with transport, publicly owned infrastructure planning and maintenance, education, social services and overall waste management. The Borough owns significant heritage assets that include monuments such as Guildford Castle, as well museums, art collections and civic regalia.
Population
Guildford has the second largest population of Surrey's eleven districts (based on census statistics, only 600 residents behind Reigate and Banstead). Approximately half of the Borough’s population live in the town of Guildford.
Budget
To the year ending 31 March 2012, £106.629m was received by Guildford Borough Counil, plus £7.43m from its financing/investment arm, plus £17.571m in other taxation and non-specific grants.
A large wholly exceptional overspend resulted from Guildford acquiring from central UK government all self-financing rights over housing for £192.435m, otherwise spending amounted to £136.778m. Of this spending the largest item was non-Local Authority housing benefits and services amounting to £33.93m however accounting for £32.74m of income. The largest item producing a net cost was Environmental and Regulatory Services costing £16,643m while contributing £6,861m. Spending on this item fell by 2.63% compared to the 2010-2011 period.
Housing owned by the Borough
Housing stock owned by Guildford Borough Council is valued, as securely tenanted at £359.316m as at 1 April 2012.
If all of the housing stock were sold untenanted, or to present occupants at full value, then the correct value at that date was £995 million.
Taxation
Of the eleven Surrey districts, Guildford has the third-lowest Band-D council tax for 2012-13 and fourth-lowest average overall council tax (the level of difference is a reflection on an area's skew as to higher band properties).
Councillors
Borough elections take place for the whole council on a four-year basis.
7 May 2015 saw the most recent cross-borough election that produced 35 Conservative seats, 9 Liberal Democrat seats, 3 Guildford Greenbelt Group seats, and 1 Labour borough councillor.
Composition
The central 'Guildford Town' area of the borough comprises the town centre and immediately surrounding areas, including: Bellfields, Boxgrove, Onslow Village, Park Barn, Stoughton, Westborough, and the (former) villages of Burpham, and Merrow.
Third tier of local government
Apart from the town of Guildford which has no third tier, the rest of the borough has civil parishes of unpaid councillors who are entitled to charge a small extra precept for services they pay out for: