About This Site

This website sets out Dr Thomas Guilder’s account of the history of Riverbank Surgery, Westcott, together with the contemporaneous public documents on which that account is based.

It exists because decisions affecting both Dr Guilder’s family and the future of healthcare in Westcott should be based on evidence rather than assumption or recollection, and because Dr Guilder had not previously been invited to set out his position directly.

Who wrote what, and who publishes this site

The letter is Dr Guilder’s own personal account, and he is its author. This website is published by his family. Dr Guilder is not its publisher. The supporting timeline, summaries, document extracts and policy material elsewhere on this site were compiled by his son, and the selection, arrangement and presentation of that material are his family’s responsibility rather than Dr Guilder’s.

A village meeting about Riverbank Surgery was held on 24 June 2026, convened jointly by the Westcott Village Association and the Westcott Village Forum. Dorking Medical Practice presented its position on medical services and Riverbank to more than sixty people. Dr Guilder was not invited to present his account at that meeting.

He subsequently submitted a letter setting out that account to Mole Valley District Council and to the independent Examiner. The Council published the letter as one of the representations to its focused consultation, which closed on 21 July 2026.

In early August 2026, after that consultation had closed, Dr Guilder’s family sought to have the letter published through two separate public village channels, so that residents could read his account directly rather than having to find it among the consultation papers. Both approaches were declined. The Westcott Village Forum did not agree to publish the letter on the village website; its reply noted that the Westcott Village Association’s website carried the Council’s notification that all representations on the Neighbourhood Development Plan, including Dr Guilder’s letter, had been sent to the Examiner, and said that the Forum would await the Examiner’s decision.

Because Dr Guilder had not been given an opportunity to present his account to the village directly, his family took the view that this did not give his account fair prominence. That is their opinion, and others may reasonably take a different view. His family therefore created this website, so that his letter can be read clearly and in full by his former patients, his friends and the wider community.

It is a family undertaking rather than a professional or commercial publication, and it is not published on behalf of any organisation. The letter is published with Dr Guilder’s knowledge and agreement.

What this site does and does not do

The site distinguishes public fact from personal account and from disputed legal position. Every entry on the evidence page carries a short status label — showing what kind of source it rests on — and links to the original document wherever a dependable public copy exists. The labels are set out in full on the Sources page.

It does not attempt to decide disputed legal questions. In particular, no occupational underlease or subsequent formal lease to Dorking Medical Practice was executed; the legal basis of the continued occupation is disputed, and nothing here determines it.