This petition is to Woking Borough Council from the residents of Woking.

An independent report from Grant Thornton found the following in their report published on 5^th November 2024.

‘The financial deficit identified by the Council has the highest ratio compared to the resource base of any major council in recent years. The expected deficit of approximately £1.2bn as June 2023 is estimated by the Council to be 107 times greater than the amount raised in Council Tax in each financial year, which totals £11m’

‘Although the former statutory officers argued that the main purposes of the many loans were to further the Council’s local placemaking agenda, some of the loans which the Council made to third parties were for purposes which are outside the usual role of a small district council.’

‘Most of these acquisitions were made by the former CEO, without any business cases or independent valuations on a ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ basis.’

At the Council meeting on 20 November, representatives of Grant Thornton made it clear that identifying beneficiaries was outside the scope of the report presented.

Identifying beneficiaries in all transactions would be prohibitively expensive to Woking Borough Council, so this petition seeks to use a sample of transactions to identify anyone personally benefiting.

The undersigned petitioners demand that the council take reasonable steps to identify whether council officials or councillors benefited personally from transactions involving property purchases, land purchases, or commercial loans.

If there are beneficiaries who cannot be identified as bona fide or might be suspicious, that information is passed on to the relevant authorities.

Sign the petition below!