Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ

Neighbourhood Area Committees will aim to bring people together and create real opportunities for local collaboration and insight gathering in towns and villages. The purpose and focus of the NACs is to:

• Understand key local issues​
• Agree priorities and champion collaborative action ​
• Promote preventative activity ​
• Support thriving communities​
• Act as advisory bodies (not constituted)​
• Supported by a range of engagement tools

We started with a pilot phase in three local areas in summer 2025 with a view to reviewing progress and learnings by end of 2025, Farnham joined as the fourth pilot NAC in September. There is a vision to further rollout across Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ.

The initial four pilot areas are:

• East Elmbridge  formerly known as Esher and Cobham
• Dorking and the villages
• North Tandridge formerly known as Caterham, Warlingham and North Tandridge
• Farnham

The latest Boundary Commission electoral divisions were used as the building blocks for each area.  Boundaries have been adjusted to create a manageable number of potential NAC areas across new unitaries including taking into account:

• Total number of committees;
• Average population per area (c.50,000), while accommodating Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ’s urban-rural diversity;
• A mix of parished and unparished areas

Learnings and insights gathered from the initial four pilot areas, will be used to shape how Neighbourhood Area Committees will be rolled out further across the county in 2026. This pilot phase in four areas is a “Test, Learn and Grow” process which will inform the design of future community engagement structures under a unitary authority model. At this point we envisage learnings to be compiled by the end of 2025 and announcements about further rollout made in early 2026.

Membership of the Neighbourhood Area Committees aims to comprise:

• Elected representatives: Elected members from Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ, District and Borough Councillors and Town and Parish Councillors
• Partner representatives: Key partners including representatives from Health, Police, Fire and Rescue, Education and Business.
• Community representatives:  Voluntary Community Faith Social Enterprise (VCFSE) partners and nominated individuals from a range of relevant community groups to ensure diverse input
• Officer support: Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ Community Partnership Officers, plus additional officer support covering communications and engagement, research and policy, and subject matter expertise to be made available as resources allow.

We recognise that no single partner, member, VCFSE representatives or individual can speak for all organisations or communities in an area. Our approach aims to ensure broad and inclusive representation while remaining practical and focused. Each representative will bring their own views while the structure of the NACs will encourage collaboration, shared learning, and agreement on local priorities.

In addition to the NAC meeting membership, we will look to create a network of stakeholders and seek relevant expertise depending on the topics discussed.

The NACs are not constituted so they do not have direct decision making powers. They will act as advisory bodies sharing local intelligence and insight with decision making organisations. Existing local authorities and partners do have a duty to implement any recommendation from the NAC.

We are very much in the design phase of shaping the committees. Partners will be coming together in each of the pilot areas, to work together to establish:

• Agreed terms of reference
• Membership representation and chairs
• Action plans and priorities for their NAC
• Meetings and engagement cycle
• Outputs and mechanisms for feedback and resident engagement

During the pilot phase (until the end of December 2025), meetings with the pilot NAC working groups will be held privately. This is to give the groups time to build relationships and decide and shape together how future committee meetings should be run. Meeting formats will be reviewed as part of the overall pilot evaluation, considering format, outputs, venues, timings etc to ensure that members of the public will be able to engage with this work.

Town and parish councils are key partners in this work.  Their work is essential to ensuring that NACs are locally grounded and representative.  We are actively engaging town and parish councils in the pilot areas and will work together with their representatives to determine their role.

Town and parish councils, where they are established in Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ are vital partners in these pilots.  However we recognise it is not feasible to accommodate representatives from all parish councils on the various NAC pilots.  To ensure effective representation for the pilots we have asked each parish within the North Tandridge and Dorking and the villages  pilot areas to nominate a contact to participate in discussions and agree on the representative(s) who will attend NAC meetings on behalf of all parishes in that area.

These sessions will be held ahead of the first meetings of the NACs and will explore how best to reflect parish voices.

Each Neighbourhood Area Committee will have a unique context that will need to be considered. It’s important that membership reflects that context and partners involved will vary by area. Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ will work together with partners to ensure that the local geography and demography is reflected in the pilot membership.

Our modelling currently anticipates up to 24 Neighbourhood Area Committees could exist in Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ. This will be reviewed following the pilot process, resourcing requirements, and partner availability.

Various options have been considered including an expression of interest process. However, due to time constraints, an alternative process has been proposed.

Stakeholders invited to participate in the initial planning workshops for the pilots NACs recommended that a pragmatic approach to appointing Chairs and Vice Chairs for the duration of the pilot period should be taken. Individuals who are well known in the local area and have support from identified partners would be approached and invited to become either the Chair or Vice-Chair.

Additionally, at least one of the positions would be held by an elected member from Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ or the relevant district and borough council. This approach would enable engagement with the Chair and Vice-Chair to start more quickly ahead of the first meetings and ensure they understand the concept and objectives of the pilots. This process has been coordinated by Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ officers in agreement with members of the NACs.

A fuller process of nominations/expressions of interest could be scoped to take place in the longer-term running of the NACs following evaluation and the potential future scaling up of the model.