2023 Guildford Borough Council election

The 2023 Guildford Borough Council election was held on 4 May 2023, to elect all 48 seats to the Guildford Borough Council in Surrey, England as part of the 2023 local elections. The results saw the Liberal Democrat take overall control of Guildford Borough Council.

Boundary changes
The election was contested on new ward boundaries following a periodic electoral review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The council size remained unchanged at 48 councillors.

Guildford town

The boundary changes resulted in the abolition of Holy Trinity, Friary & St Nicolas and Christchurch wards in the town centre. St Nicolas was split off to become a new single-member ward. A new three-member Castle ward replaced most of Holy Trinity ward, and a new three-member ward named Stoke replaced most of the Friary area of Friary & St Nicolas ward. The area covered by the former Christchurch ward was split between the new Stoke and Castle wards and also between Burpham and Merrow wards, the latter of which were both expanded in the direction of the town centre. Elsewhere in the town the ward formerly known as Stoke kept the same boundaries but was renamed as Bellfields & Slyfield with the 'Stoke' name being transferred to the new town centre ward. The ward of Stoughton was split into Stoughton North and Stoughton South, both two-member wards. Westborough ward had its boundary with Onslow adjusted to follow the A3 and the railway line, and also had its boundary with Stoughton South adjusted to largely follow the Aldershot Road. Onslow had its boundary with Stoke and St Nicolas adjusted to follow Farnham Road and the railway line.

Western villages

Worplesdon ward remained completely unchanged. Normandy ward and Pirbright ward were merged to create a new two-member Normandy & Pirbright ward. Ash South & Tongham was split into a new two-member Ash South ward, which has an adjusted boundary with Ash Wharf, and the Tongham area was moved into Pilgrims ward, making it a two-member ward. The boundary between Ash Vale and Ash Wharf was moved to north of Foxhurst Road cul-de-sac. Shalford ward's boundaries were unchanged.

Eastern villages

Effingham, Tillingbourne, and Clandon & Horsley wards remained completely unchanged. Send ward and Lovelace ward were merged to create a new three-member Send & Lovelace ward.

Background
There have been changes to the political make up of the council since the 2019 election. Three by-elections were held, simultaneously with the 2021 Surrey County Council election, to fill vacancies on the council (two due to resignations, one due to the death of a councillor). However, each seat was won by the same party that won it at the 2019 election. Subsequently, in November 2021, a Liberal Democrat councillor defected to the Conservatives, but defected from the Conservatives to sit as an Independent in July 2022. A Conservative councillor died in May 2022 and the subsequent by-election was won by the Liberal Democrats. In November 2022 an R4GV councillor left his group to sit as an Independent, and in April 2023 a R4GV councillor defected to the Liberal Democrats. Additionally, the sole Green Party councillor chose to sit as part of the R4GV group on the council shortly after the May 2019 election, but continued to be a Green Party councillor, before leaving the R4GV group in October 2022 to sit alone as a Green Party councillor again.

The cumulative impact of these changes resulted in there being 18 Liberal Democrats, 13 R4GV, 8 Conservative, 4 GGG, 2 Labour and 2 Independent councillors going into the election.

After the close of nominations it was revealed that 176 candidates were contesting the 48 seats on the council. The Conservatives contested all 48 seats, the Liberal Democrats stood in 45, Labour contested 31 and R4GV 37 in a partial electoral pact with GGG who were standing another 5 candidates.

One feature of the election was a campaign by a registered non-party campaigner, Robin Horsley, about the proposed re-development of the North Street site in Guildford town centre by property developer St Edwards, which Horsley had previously campaigned against. A planning application for North Street had been rejected in January 2023, and had been the cause of acrimony between R4GV councillors, who had supported the application, and Liberal Democrat councillors who had opposed the application. Robin Horsley's campaign, which attracted significant media coverage, featured a series of videos on what he termed 'the Battle for Guildford', which were promoted on social media and in leaflets, and he urged a vote against R4GV in the election, and for whichever parties or candidates were best placed to defeat R4GV in individual wards, on the grounds that if R4GV were elected he believed they would push through the North Street planning application.

Pre-election composition
Going in to the election, the council administration consists of a Liberal Democrat/R4GV coalition, with the Conservatives forming the main opposition party.

Election result


Number of councillors per ward is shown in brackets after the ward name.

Wards won solely by the Liberal Democrats – Ash Vale (2); Ash Wharf (2); Burpham (2); Effingham (1); Onslow (3); Shalford (2); Stoke (3); Stoughton North (2); Stoughton South (2); St Nicolas (1)

Wards won solely by the Conservatives – Normandy & Pirbright (2); Pilgrims (2); Worplesdon (3)

Wards won solely by Residents for Guildford and Villages (R4GV) – Ash South (2) Clandon & Horsley (3)

Wards won solely by Guildford Greenbelt Group – Send & Lovelace (3)

Wards won solely by Labour – Bellfields & Slyfield (2)

Wards electing councillors of more than one party – Castle (3 – 2 Con, 1 R4GV); Merrow (3 - 2 Lib Dem, 1 R4GV); Tillingbourne (2 - 1 Lib Dem, 1 Con)

The results saw the Liberal Democrat take overall control of Guildford Borough Council, increasing from 17 seats to 25. Their former coalition partners, R4GV, fell from 15 seats to 7. The Conservatives increased from 9 to 10 seats, making them the official opposition on the council, making a mixture of gains from R4GV and the Greens as well as losses to the Liberal Democrats in Ash Vale and Ash Wharf.

The Guildford Greenbelt Group lost 1 seat, bringing their representation down to 3 seats whilst Labour gained a seat from the Liberal Democrats in Westborough, bringing their representation up to 3 seats. The Green party also lost their sole seat in Tillingbourne ward.

Ward results
The following is a list of candidates and results for each ward of the council.