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