Elmbridge News is an independent news and information site for the borough of Elmbridge. We work from public records, we link to them, and we are not connected to the council or to anybody we report on.
The towns
Esher, Weybridge, Walton-on-Thames and Cobham are the four largest, with Hersham, Claygate, Oxshott, Stoke d’Abernon, Thames Ditton, Long Ditton and East and West Molesey around them. Around 94,000 people live across the borough. It is a small authority made up of places that keep their own names and their own high streets, and we write about them individually rather than as “Elmbridge”, which is a council rather than a place.
What we report
Planning takes up most of our time. In a borough this tightly built, with green belt around it and a great deal of replacement and extension work going on, the register is where a change to your road appears first. With it we work from the council’s committee papers and budgets, licensing notices, police.uk crime data, HM Land Registry sold prices, Food Standards Agency hygiene ratings, Environment Agency flood warnings for the Thames and the Mole, and company filings in The Gazette. Flooding along both rivers is a standing local subject and we report the official warnings rather than the rumours.
Reorganisation in 2027
Surrey’s borough and district councils are due to be abolished in 2027 and replaced by a smaller number of unitary authorities. Surrey is ahead of most of the country on this, so the change arrives here before it arrives in most of the South East, and it will alter who is responsible for planning, bins and council tax. We will report each stage from the published papers and keep our reference pages pointing at whoever actually answers.
Tips and corrections
Email hello@elmbridgenews.co.uk with a tip, an event worth listing, or a correction. Tips are treated in confidence, and corrections are made quickly and noted on the page.
Elmbridge News is published by Future Business Media.