Having read the articles on the proposed Surrey Unitary Authority, I feel a sense of déjà vu having been involved in the 1990s at the last Local Government Review when we were seek-ing unitary authority status for Spelthorne. I was living in Staines and involved as an adviser to the borough council and worked with David Wilshire, MP for Spelthorne supplying histori-cal and geographical evidence as to Spelthorne’s ‘specialness’. We nearly won if it hadn’t been for a Surrey MP (I’m talking about the County of Surrey not Surrey County Council, two separate entities) who allegedly, at the last minute, told the Government ‘if you take Spelthorne out of Surrey our rates will go up here. We lost our big chance to take back control from south of the river. Make no bones about it, the clue is in the name LOCAL government. There is nothing local whatsoever about this Surrey bid for a huge unitary council – it is the exact opposite. What has Spelthorne got to do with what happens in Oxted, Cranleigh or Ca-terham? Apart from being at the sharp end of decisions when Spelthorne could be ganged up against when some of the more unsavoury decisions are made (think incinerator!) Some times money isn’t everything, and the fact that over the past 50 years a Surrey County Council has not promoted or recognised over a thousand years of Spelthorne being in Middlesex (ironically the name of a Middlesex Saxon local government area) is not only a travesty but a blatant disregard for Spelthorne’s role in the making of one of Britain’s finest counties – Mid-dlesex. To agree to a unitary Surrey would be the final destruction of our local and county identity and history with a blatant disregard for Spelthorne’s unique heritage. Do not be brain-washed into believing you’re Surrey. You’re not! You only pay your rates to it’s County Council – a County Council that wanted to airbrush out where you truly belong.