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Calls for council name to include 'South Middlesex'

Jacob PanonsSouth East
News imageLaura Palmer/BBC Russell Grant wearing a blue polo smiling at the camera and leaning on the handrail next to a set of stairs.Laura Palmer/BBC
Russell Grant has been a vocal supporter of including South Middlesex in the name of the new authority

Calls have been made for the future unitary West Surrey authority to be called West Surrey and South Middlesex Council.

Local government reorganisation will see councils in Surrey be dissolved and merged into two unitary authorities - East Surrey Council and West Surrey Council - with a provisional start date of 1 April, 2027.

In a video on social media, astrologer Russell Grant said South Middlesex should be in its title, adding: "We need to protect our identity and have our local area recognised. It's lasted for a millennia."

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been approached for a comment.

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Grant said: "Our local history and heritage should be honoured in the name of all new unitary councils from Middlesex to Lancashire, Hertfordshire to Leicestershire."

An official petition to include South Middlesex in the name of the area was rejected by the government as it requested action at a local level.

But on 23 February, Spelthorne MP Lincoln Jopp said in Parliament he had received a "huge number of representations from constituents" who wanted the government to consider calling the authority West Surrey and South Middlesex Council.

He said this was to "take account of the fact Spelthorne has been in Middlesex for 1,000 years and has never really thought of itself as being in Surrey".

Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said he was "happy to consider proposals" from Jopp and would ensure there was a meeting on the possible change.

In Parliament on 25 February, Edward Argar, the Conservative MP for Melton and Syston in the East Midlands, said it was "absolutely vital" new councils had an "identity that those who live in those areas can relate to".

Lewis Cocking, Conservative MP for Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, said he did not believe the government had "spent much time considering that fundamental flaw and how we take communities with us by getting that identity right",

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