Borough of Woking

The borough's forebear was formed in 1895 — an urban district under the Local Government Act 1894. The precursor administrative areas were parishes run by vestries, which gradually ceded power after 1895:

• Byfleet
• Horsell
• Pyrford
• Woking[2]

This area was centred radically north of Woking Hundred; the other three parishes lay in Godley Hundred.[3]

The present borough was established in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and is one of two districts in Surrey to retain the boundaries of a single former urban district, the other being Epsom and Ewell.

This is the only district of Surrey which does not border another county; the nearest is Berkshire, northwest of the relatively narrow shape of Surrey Heath, which is another district.

Woking Borough Council's head offices — named the Civic Offices — are in the centre of the town of Woking, just outside the town square.[4]

At the 2001 Census, the population of the borough was 88,125, over 70% of whom (62,796) lived in the town itself. The rest of the borough is divided into five villages with a modest semi-rural hinterland (which includes some of Surrey's 141 golf courses as at 2013):[5]

• Brookwood, population 1,442
• Byfleet, population 6,995
• Knaphill, population 10,062
• Mayford, population 1,776
• West Byfleet, population 5,054[6]

Byfleet constituted a civil parish in the borough (no longer covering West Byfleet); a third-tier of local government does not serve the remaining bulk of the borough.

Elections to the council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the 30 seats on the council being elected at each election. The elections are normally battled out between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. From the 1998 election to 2007 no party had a majority on the council, but in the 2007 election the Conservative party won a majority.[7] Since then until 2009, the Conservatives had 19 seats on the council compared to 17 for the Liberal Democrats.[8] Following the resignation of councillor Peter Ankers from the Conservatives to sit as an independent in 2009[9] the Conservatives continued in administration as the largest Party with 18 seats but with no overall control. At the 2011 election 20 Conservative and 16 Liberal Democrats were elected giving the Conservatives an overall majority once again.[10] In the 2012 election the Conservatives took a further seat from the Liberal Democrats, giving them 21 seats to the Liberal Democrats 15.

At the 2018 election, the Liberal Democrats gained one councillor at the expense of the Conservatives. This gave the Conservatives a majority of 2 on the Council. However, a Conservative councillor defected to the Liberal Democrats just prior to the 2019 election, putting the council in to No Overall Control.[11] The council remained in No Overall Control after the election with the Conservatives dropping to 15 out of 31 seats but still forming a minority administration.

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Woking.

• List of places of worship in Woking (borough)
• Woking power station

• Woking Borough Council