The East Surrey Joint Committee met on Friday 13 March 2026, marking its first formal meeting since being established under the Surrey Structural Changes Order 2026. The committee endorsed key sections of the Implementation Plan, including democratic and programme governance arrangements, a high-level timeline, risk management approach, and transition principles, and noted the illustrative financial baseline for the new East and West Surrey Councils. The committee also recommended a draft schedule of meetings for the East Surrey Shadow Authority to its first meeting on 20 May.

Implementation Plan Update

The committee received an update on the Implementation Plan, which builds upon the agreed vision, working principles, and definition of success for the transition. Key sections presented for endorsement included:

• Democratic and Programme Governance Arrangements: This outlines the approach, structures, and decision-making pathways from the current stage through to vesting day.
• High-Level Programme Timeline: A timeline mapping key milestones and deliverables for the implementation team.
• Approach to Risk Management: This section details the programme-level risks and mitigation activities, including those related to capacity pressures within councils, safe and legal requirements for vesting day, gaps in discovery data, potential cost overruns, and the complexity of contract transfers.
• Transition Principles: These principles will guide how services are configured for day one, covering aggregation, disaggregation, and blueprinting activities.

The report also highlighted that £11.2 million of the £35.3 million Implementation Fund has been committed, including election costs. An administrative financial baseline for the new West and East Surrey councils was presented, indicating a challenging financial environment with reliance on council tax, limited funding growth, and significant debt pressures for West Surrey. Officers offered an informal session for members to discuss the financial baseline in more detail.

The committee also noted that the Code of Conduct, originally scheduled for this meeting, will be brought forward to the May meeting alongside the constitutional item, allowing for a dedicated workshop to shape the final proposals.

Schedule of Meetings for the East Surrey Shadow Authority

The committee considered a proposed schedule of meetings for the East Surrey Shadow Authority, which is required to hold its first meeting no later than 14 days after the election of councillors on 7 May. The draft calendar, to be recommended to the Shadow Authority's first meeting on 20 May, includes proposed committees such as Full Council, Executive, Overview and Scrutiny, Audit and Governance, Standards, and Employment.

Factors taken into account in compiling the calendar include:

• Essential business as set out in the Surrey Structural Changes Order 2026¹.
• Essential business referred from sovereign councils.
• Existing meeting schedules of the 12 sovereign councils.
• Alignment with the West Shadow Authority's schedule for simultaneous decision-making.
• Avoiding Fridays and school holidays where possible, with no meetings scheduled for August.

Proposed start times for most meetings are set at 2 pm to mitigate diary clashes for existing councillors who may be required to attend meetings at more than one authority. Members noted concerns about the potential impact on councillors' ability to stand for election and attend meetings, particularly regarding afternoon and evening schedules. Discussions also touched upon the government's ongoing consideration of hybrid meetings with full voting rights.

Further points raised included the need to decide on venues for these meetings, with a study of suitable buildings underway, and a suggestion to increase the number of Employment Committee meetings from bi-monthly to monthly due to the significant number of appointments required early on. The mismatch between the number of executive and full council meetings was also queried, with officers explaining that the calendar reflects typical meeting frequencies at their current councils.

The committee resolved to recommend the draft schedule of meetings to the first meeting of the East Surrey Shadow Authority.