On Dec 31, 12:45*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

Not as daft as putting Surrey County Council in London, admittedly...

Was it "put there", or did London 'expand' past it?

The same might have happened in Essex, had the original County Town been
Romford.

It's a bit of an odd saga.

The historic county town of Surrey is Guildford, but for reasons that
aren't entirely clear the county administration was moved to Southwark
in the 1790s. After the Local Government Act 1888 moved Southwark into
the County of London, they had to find a new site - bizarrely, given
that it was already becoming suburban London even at this point, they
chose Kingston.

Following the LGA 1963, Surrey County Council has spent the last 45
years failing to deal with the absurdity of having their
administrative centre outside the county. In 2003, they finally
managed to put forward a plan to move County Hall to Woking... but
then axed it in 2006 at the last minute due to complete ineptitude.

Coincidentally I'm sure, SCC is rock-solid Tory and has been almost
without exception since forever.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

John B wrote:

Following the LGA 1963, Surrey County Council has spent the last 45
years failing to deal with the absurdity of having their
administrative centre outside the county.

I don't think Kingston is a good place to have Surrey's admin, but Surbiton
would be, because it's probably easier to reach from any part of Surrey than
any place that's actually in Surrey.

In 2003, they finally
managed to put forward a plan to move County Hall to Woking... but
then axed it in 2006 at the last minute due to complete ineptitude.

Coincidentally I'm sure, SCC is rock-solid Tory and has been almost
without exception since forever.

I don't understand your point.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.

On Dec 31, 1:55*pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:
Following the LGA 1963, Surrey County Council has spent the last 45
years failing to deal with the absurdity of having their
administrative centre outside the county.

I don't think Kingston is a good place to have Surrey's admin, but Surbiton
would be, because it's probably easier to reach from any part of Surrey than
any place that's actually in Surrey.

Hmm. On that basis, the 19th century location in Southwark would be
ideal.

In 2003, they finally
managed to put forward a plan to move County Hall to Woking... but
then axed it in 2006 at the last minute due to complete ineptitude.

Coincidentally I'm sure, SCC is rock-solid Tory and has been almost
without exception since forever.

I don't understand your point.

I'm suggesting that only a weigh-the-vote council would be
sufficiently inept that it failed to sort something like this out for
50 years. I'm also making a mildly snide jibe against the Tories,
although realistically I suspect that a weigh-the-vote Labour council
would be nearly as inept.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

In article
,
(John B) wrote:

I'm suggesting that only a weigh-the-vote council would be
sufficiently inept that it failed to sort something like this out for
50 years. I'm also making a mildly snide jibe against the Tories,
although realistically I suspect that a weigh-the-vote Labour council
would be nearly as inept.

I suspect the difference is that the latter would have been more
spendthrift in the past (no chance these days) so would have built a
prestige new HQ with more alacrity.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Basil Jet wrote

I don't think Kingston is a good place to have Surrey's admin, but
Surbiton
would be, because it's probably easier to reach from any part of
Surrey than
any place that's actually in Surrey.

Since Surrey HQ is between the two and less than a mile from Surbiton
that is in fact the situation. The SWT rail net radiates from Surbiton
but for the A3 the other (Hook/Tolworth) side would be slightly better.


--
Mike D

In message
, at
05:22:42 on Thu, 31 Dec 2009, John B remarked:
Following the LGA 1963, Surrey County Council has spent the last 45
years failing to deal with the absurdity of having their
administrative centre outside the county.

Does it matter that much, that the administrative centre is a mile
outside[1] the county (rather than a mile inside[2], which would
apparently offend people less)?

[1] 1.1 miles according to Google Maps.

[2] Cheshire (West) County Hall is less than a mile from the Welsh
border.
--
Roland Perry

In article
,
(John B) wrote:

Coincidentally I'm sure, SCC is rock-solid Tory and has been almost
without exception since forever.

To be precise since the County Council was first elected, apart from
1993-1997.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message
,
John B writes

The historic county town of Surrey is Guildford, but for reasons that
aren't entirely clear the county administration was moved to Southwark
in the 1790s.

At that time the main venue for the Surrey Quarterly Sessions was
Kennington and, before the Acts of the late Victorian period, the
Quarterly Sessions were responsible for a number of functions that are
now the responsibility of councils, such as licensing, road repair and
the like.

Much the same happened in Middlesex, where the Quarterly Sessions were
held in Clerkenwell before moving out to Westminster.

Both no doubt due to the fact that the judiciary and legal teams had
little distance to travel from the Inns of Court in Temple and around
Holborn.

After the Local Government Act 1888 moved Southwark into
the County of London, they had to find a new site - bizarrely, given
that it was already becoming suburban London even at this point, they
chose Kingston.

They considered six alternatives: Epsom, Guildford, Kingston, Redhill,
Surbiton and Wimbledon.

I suspect that Kingston appealed to the historically-minded Victorians
because of its association with the coronation of ancient kings - plus
the fact that it had two gaols to support the local judicial work.

With hindsight, we can see that it's absorption into the metropolis was
inevitable, but I doubt that was the case at the time: a lot of the
early intensive housing in outer SW London dates from after 1900.

--
Paul Terry