Charter trustees will keep the mayoralty, the mace and the coat of arms after 1 April 2027. From April 2028 a precept of roughly £1 to £5 a year pays for it.

The office of Mayor of Elmbridge is set to outlive the council that created it.

Elmbridge Borough Council is abolished on 1 April 2027. Without action, the mayoralty, the civic mace, the chains and robes of office and the borough coat of arms would have gone with it, by operation of law.

On 14 September the East Surrey Shadow Authority Executive backed the council’s request to keep them, by asking the government to create a body called “The Charter Trustees for Elmbridge”. The decision was published on 16 September. It can be called in until 23 September, and takes effect on 24 September if it is not.

Elmbridge’s own Full Council agreed to make the request on 22 July, by affirmation of the meeting.

What charter trustees are

Charter trustees are the mechanism in law for preserving a borough’s civic traditions when its council disappears and no parish or town council exists to inherit them. They are not a council. They cannot run services, collect bins or decide planning applications.

What they can do is narrow and specific. The Elmbridge request covers:

  • the office of Mayor, and the right to represent the area at civic and ceremonial occasions
  • the chains and robes of office and the official mace
  • the borough coat of arms, granted in 1976
  • the tradition of appointing Honorary Freemen

Membership is automatic. The trustees will be the East Surrey Council councillors who represent the wards covering the old borough, holding the role alongside their council seat. There is no separate election. At least five are required, and each year they elect one of their number as Mayor and another as Deputy Mayor.

Elmbridge has been a borough since local government reorganisation in 1974, and the council lists every Mayor since then on its own website. The Mayor for 2026 to 2027 is Councillor Judy Sarsby, a Liberal Democrat who represents Weybridge Riverside.

The council’s annual meeting, where the Mayor is chosen, falls in May. The council will not reach May 2027.

Claygate is not in it

The request covers the unparished part of the borough only. That means 15 of the borough’s 16 wards.

Claygate is the exception, and the reason is technical rather than political. Claygate has its own parish council, and the parish is exactly the same shape as the Claygate ward. Charter trustees cannot be created in an area that is already parished.

The papers are explicit that where a new East Surrey ward straddles parished and unparished ground, only the unparished part goes in. The new ward of “Esher, Claygate and Oxshott North” is named in the schedule with the words “not including Claygate” attached.

The borough wards inside the proposed charter trustee area are Cobham and Downside, Esher, Hersham Village, Hinchley Wood and Weston Green, Long Ditton, Molesey East, Molesey West, Oatlands and Burwood Park, Oxshott and Stoke d’Abernon, Thames Ditton, Walton Central, Walton North, Walton South, Weybridge Riverside and Weybridge St George’s Hill.

Who pays, and when

Nothing appears on a bill in the first year. For the municipal year from May 2027 to May 2028, East Surrey Council funds the trustees, using the civic office staff and budgets that transfer across from Elmbridge on 1 April 2027.

From April 2028 the trustees become a precepting body in their own right, and the money comes from council tax bills inside the charter trustee area.

Key dates for the proposed Charter Trustees for Elmbridge Elmbridge became a borough in 1974 and was granted its coat of arms in 1976. Full Council requested charter trustees on 22 July 2026. The East Surrey Shadow Authority Executive supported the request on 14 September 2026. The government wants confirmation by the end of September 2026. Elmbridge Borough Council is abolished on 31 March 2027 and the charter trustees would begin on 1 April 2027. A precept on council tax bills, expected to be between one and five pounds a year at Band D, would start in April 2028. From a borough in 1974 to a precept in 2028 What happens to the Mayor of Elmbridge, and when. 1974 Elmbridge becomes a borough. Arms granted 1976 22 Jul 2026 Full Council asks for charter trustees 14 Sep 2026 Shadow authority backs it. Minister decides 1 Apr 2027 Council abolished. Trustees start, funded by the new council Apr 2028 Precept starts on council tax bills £1 to £5 a year at Band D, the range charged elsewhere in England 15 of 16 borough wards covered. Claygate is parished, so is out £5,255 Royal Licence fee to transfer the borough coat of arms Sources: Elmbridge Borough Council, Council, 22 July 2026; East Surrey Shadow Authority Executive, 14 September 2026. Graphic by Elmbridge News
The request is with the government. If it is granted, the mayoralty continues and a small precept starts paying for it from April 2028.

Neither report fixes the amount, because the trustees set it themselves in their first year. Both give the same national range. The shadow authority’s paper says charter trustee precepts “tend to be between £1 and £5 per year for a band D council tax-paying household”, or 8p to 42p a month.

Elmbridge’s own report is more specific about the comparators. It says most existing charter trustee areas charge about £2 to £4 at Band D, puts the City of Carlisle at around £5, and notes that the former Harrogate and Scarborough trustees charged well under £2 before they were wound up.

A precept may only pay for five things:

  • Mayor and Deputy Mayor expenses
  • civic and ceremonial events
  • regalia, insignia and chains of office
  • civic hospitality connected to the mayoralty
  • administration directly supporting those functions

There is one other cost already priced. Moving the coat of arms needs the permission of the College of Arms and probably a Royal Licence, and the report puts the total fee for the licence and certificate at £5,255. The fee rises with inflation each year, so starting the process in 2026 locks in the 2026 rate.

It is a ministerial decision, and the clock is short

Neither Elmbridge nor the shadow authority can create charter trustees. Only the Secretary of State can, through a section 7 order under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.

The complication is that the Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026, which abolishes the councils, contains no provision for charter trustees at all. So a separate supplemental order is needed, and it has to be made before 1 April 2027.

The papers say the minister is “minded” to set up charter trustees in Surrey where they are requested, but wants both the borough and the shadow authority to confirm support first. MHCLG has asked for that confirmation by the end of September 2026. The 14 September decision is the shadow authority’s half of it.

Epsom and Ewell asked for the same thing and was supported. Reigate and Banstead asked only as a fallback, in case the three new parish councils it wants are not created; if they are, its charter trustee request falls away automatically.

What the trustees would actually do

The proposed terms of reference in the Elmbridge report are unglamorous and worth reading as a description of what a mayoralty is when the council behind it has gone:

  • elect a Mayor and Deputy Mayor and uphold civic protocol
  • appoint an honorary clerk and responsible financial officer
  • hold at least two meetings a year, an annual meeting and a budget meeting
  • keep, insure and maintain an inventory of the regalia, plate and valuables
  • authorise use of the Elmbridge coat of arms
  • decide any town twinning proposals for the borough
  • keep links with the Honorary Freemen, the Lord Lieutenant, the High Sheriff and the local MPs
  • keep links with the Mayor of Elmbridge Trust Fund, which remains a separate charity
  • keep links with the Chair of East Surrey Council, so the two civic roles do not clash or leave gaps

The arrangement is meant to be temporary. If the area is ever fully parished, the charter trustees are wound up.

What it means for you

  • Nothing changes before 1 April 2027. Elmbridge Borough Council, and its Mayor, continue until then.
  • Your bill is unaffected in 2027/28. The first year is paid for by East Surrey Council out of budgets that transfer from Elmbridge. Current bands are on our Elmbridge council tax bands page.
  • From April 2028, expect a small extra line if you live in the 15 unparished wards. On the comparators in the reports it is likely to be a few pounds a year at Band D, not tens.
  • Claygate residents are outside the area and would not pay the precept. Claygate Parish Council already raises its own.
  • It is not settled. The minister has to make the order, and the government has asked for confirmations by the end of this month.

The headquarters of the council that takes over has already been decided, and it is not in Elmbridge: see East Surrey Council HQ goes to Reigate, not Esher.

Sources