A by-election has been called to fill the seat left vacant following the death of a Runnymede Borough Councillor.

Councillor Jonathan Wilson was 38 years old when he died - with friends and colleagues describing his passing last August as “unexpected and tragic”.

The former Royal Holloway student served the community for 16 years. First as a Conservative ward councillor representing Egham Hythe between 2008 and 2018 and later for Addlestone South from 2019.

The cut-off date to submit nomination papers for the by-election, due into the council’s Station Road civic offices in Addlestone, is 4pm on Friday, September 13. As such, the final list of candidates to stand in the ward has yet to be finalised.

The by-election is scheduled to take place on Thursday, October 10, in what will be one of the first polls at any level since the Labour General Election landslide in July. 

Runnymede Borough Council is currently under no overall control having four parties, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green and Runnymede Independent Residents Group working in coalition.

As recently as 2016 the council was made up of 36 Conservative councillors and six independents. 

The Tory party’s grip has slipped over the last few voting cycles – the council holds elections on an annual basis with a third of the seats up for grabs. Every fourth year is left fallow while the county council elections are held.

It’s most recent leader Cllr Tom Gracey relied on a confidence and supply arrangement with the Ottershaw independents. 

In May 2024, the pendulum had swung too far for the Tory’s to stay in power and the new leadership alliance was formed which the council described  as an “innovative arrangement, believed to be the first of its kind in England”.