Molesey Residents' Association

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About the MRA

Aims & Activities

TO PROMOTE the interests of all Molesey Residents.
TO TAKE ACTION on matters of interest to Molesey People.
TO GIVE PLANNING ADVICE to Residents.
TO GAIN SIGNIFICANT REPRESENTATION on the Council by Directly Sponsored Councillors.
TO PRODUCE INFORMATION for residents principally by means of Seasonal Newsletters.
TO WORK WITH OTHER RESIDENTS ASSOCIATIONS for the benefit of Molesey.

How and why the MRA was formed

Back in 1965 Molesey came under the Conservative controlled Esher District Council. At that time a plan was going through the Council which proposed to demolish the mostly large Victorian houses in Palace Road, Wolsey Road and Arnison Road and replace them with high density housing. Nobody was aware of this until very late in the planning procedures. When the plan was discovered a non party-political action group (which later became the Molesey Residents’ Association) was formed to fight the plan, and after a traumatic period, won the case. Those roads now form the main part of the East Molesey Conservation Area.

The early members of the Association decided that the only way to ensure that this sort of thing could not happen again without the populace being aware was for the Association to put up it’s own candidates for election to the Council. This was done, and over the years the Association has spread its influence to cover the whole of Molesey, East and West.

Elmbridge Borough Council was formed in 1973 from the old Esher and Walton Councils with a Borough of 60 Councillors, 9 of whom represent Molesey. At present MRA has 8 councillors on Elmbridge Council.

Party politics and Local Councils

Until the end of the Second World War local councils were independent and free of national party politics. Then, increasingly, the national parties took control of local councils, often with paid party parliamentary agents organising campaigns. So today local elections in many Boroughs are relegated to little more than opinion polls on the state of the national parties.

At the same time, council chambers have been turned into mini-Westminster bear- pits with ‘shadow cabinets’, ‘whips’ and political point scoring exchanges.

Some communities, however, have successfully reversed this trend and your Borough of Elmbridge is one of them. Since 1992 Residents’ Association councillors have been a dominant group in Elmbridge Council.

Today, Elmbridge Council consists of 60 councillors and is made up as follows:

- a very significant demonstration that an increasing number of people believe that their best interests are served by Councillors outside of national party politics.

Individual Associations maintain their own separate identity whilst working with each other, free from National Party Political pressures, to improve the quality of life in Elmbridge. Local councillors should represent local interests and not have to vote according to a PARTY WHIP!.