Council’s Woking dream a disaster

Misguided ambitions to create the ‘Singapore of Surrey’ have been buried by a heap of debt. Mattie Brignal reports

Over the past decade, Woking borough council’s misguided dream to transform the quiet commuter town into the “Singapore of Surrey”, a shiny modern metropolis, has backfired disastrously.

Hundreds of millions of pounds have been pumped into risky property investments and regeneration deals that locals have branded “appalling” and “shameful”.

The spending spree forced the local authority to declare itself effectively bankrupt in June after racking up a £1.2bn deficit. It is a level of debt that might be expected of a large city rather than a borough of 100,000 inhabitants.

The brakes have been slammed on all non- essential spending and a drastic package of cuts was passed last month to keep the council afloat. Community care projects, buses and public lavatories are all earmarked for the chop.

The council has even called on residents of Woking to voluntarily donate money to keep services running.

“It’s disgusting,” says Annie Hunt, a local physiotherapist. “They’ve badly overspent and been really stupid. Everyone’s quite unhappy.”

Woking town centre is filled with reminders of the council’s grand ambitions. A trio of 30-storey towers dominate the skyline. On a clear day, the council wanted these buildings – part of the Victoria Square redevelopment – to be visible from the Shard in London.

The project has been dogged with problems. Originally estimated to cost £150m, the figure ballooned to £700m because of delays, construction setbacks and the pandemic. Then, panels of cladding fell from the tower block in Oct 2021. Woking council issued a statement at the time to say that Victoria Square Woking – the joint venture company behind the project – was “working closely” with the site contractor to “resolve the current situation”.

Most upsetting, Ms Hunt says, is the planned closure of all but one day centre for elderly and disabled residents in the borough. “It’s incredibly sad.”

She is standing next to a sculpture of a barefoot man lying on his back, one of a series by the Woking-born sculptor Sean Henry dotted around the town. Two of the statues, The Seated Man and The Wanderer, cost the local authority a total of £157,500.

A verdant array of 9,700 trailing plants was installed above the shopping centre at Wolsey Place. The “living wall” – dubbed the “Hanging Gardens of Woking” by locals – was designed to add vibrancy to a tired-looking block of 1960s maisonnettes. But many residents see it as another white elephant.

The scale of the council’s financial mismanagement is staggering. Its annual tax take of £11m is dwarfed by the £62m it spends servicing its debt. It has £ 1.8bn of loans for assets whose value has plunged by about £ 600m since they were bought. By 2026, it will have accumulated debts of £ 2.4bn, which is 100 times the size of its annual £24m budget, according to a government review in May. That works out at a notional debt of £19,000 per resident, and would make it England’s most indebted council relative to its size.

To prop up the beleaguered authority, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has agreed an “exceptional” £785m bailout package. Eighteen other indebted councils have also been given handouts to stop them going bust. The Government has granted permission for Woking to raise council tax to 10pc next year, double the usual maximum permitted.

To secure the bailout money, the authority must follow through with a drastic series of cuts worth £ 8.4m, including closing public lavatories, scrapping funding for daycare projects and increasing prices at the much-loved Pool in the Park. Woking Community Transport, which runs the door-to-door Dial- a- Ride bus service for elderly residents, will lose its £170,000 grant from April 1. Citizens Advice Woking has said it has received a funding cut

Woking borough council spent heavily on two city centre sculptures and trailing plants for a block of 1960s maisonettes

from £200,000 a year to just £30,000, and will be forced to cut its opening times from five days a week to three mornings. Grounds maintenance and street cleaning services are set to be scaled back to statutory levels.

The prevailing sense in Woking is that residents are being forced to pay more but getting much less. The council has gone as far as to urge residents to voluntarily donate to a fund to support non- essential services: Will Forster, the deputy council leader, has previously said that residents, “especially those in the band H council tax group, the most expensive houses”, should be asked to donate.

Judith Davis, a pensioner, is furious about the reckless spending and the

cutting of the Dial-A-Ride bus grant. “It’s horrendous, it’s appalling. These buses are needed by people who otherwise can’t get out. We’re talking about people’s quality of life. They’ve got no social connection on their own. It’s their lifeline. I’m so upset.

“The parks are going to be unkempt. The [ WI] has said they’ll take over the maintenance. Local people are trying to do their best. But you can’t rely on this – people don’t have the time or energy to look after the parks. Where’s the oversight? It’s shameful.”

Woking council was approached for comment. Most locals blame Woking’s problems on the Tories, who either controlled or led the council for the decade up to May 2022, when they were ousted by the Liberal Democrats.

Woking’s local Conservative group has previously apologised, saying it took its share of responsibility for “not ensuring a more robust financial platform” to protect the council against “unforeseen global challenges”.

Suzanne Yeo, a mother of one, says it’s “sad” that financial mismanagement has taken the buzz out of Woking. “So much work’s been done already to bring the Hilton and create lots of jobs, but now it’s all gone silent.

“There are a lot of places closing. Woking has the potential to be really, really good, but the money’s dried up. It’s going to impact families.”

Councillor Ann- Marie Barker, leader of Woking council, says that while the Victoria Square development was built “at great cost” to the council, “the build-to-rent apartments are 98pc rented out, Marks & Spencer is trading well and there are new shops coming to the centre”.