Saved at the Eleventh Hour? Government Pauses Plans to Scrap Eastbourne Borough Council

Will Eastbourne Borough Council be saved?

Will Wealden District Council continue?

And will East Sussex County Council no longer undergo huge change?

IT’S a subject that confuses many of us – and this week the way our Councils will work in the future became even more unclear.

On Monday, the government announced that it was pausing the Local Government Reorganisation programme. This would have seen both Eastbourne Borough Council and Wealden District Council disappear.

The government will now review if decisions already taken, and those to be made, are the right ones.

No timeline has been given to local authorities as to when the review is to be carried out or when it will be concluded.

Here is Cllr Andy Woolley, leader of East Sussex County Council: ‘A pause in the process is surprising but is very good news, especially for people in East Saltdean, Peacehaven and Telscombe who overwhelmingly said they wanted to remain in East Sussex.

This will now be the case until further notice.

It’s also welcome news for all residents of East Sussex who are being spared, for now, the additional costs from the government’s plan for reorganisation.

While we’ve been working closely with our partners to build a sound and effective unitary council, we’ll use this pause to ask for more evidence for the reasoning behind the government’s decision in July to separate a part of East Sussex for transfer to Brighton and Hove.

This review will offer the chance to present the detailed evidence behind that decision. We hope the Secretary of State will permanently think again.

We are continuing to hold government to account to ensure that decisions on LGR are evidence based and in the best interests of local people, and will be seeking to understand how local areas will be involved in the review and the new timelines that we are expected to work towards.

We also look forward to seeing further government proposals for rewiring the relationship between local government and other parts of the state.

Local government services urgently require funding which matches the needs of people in East Sussex, now and in future.

We await further details from the government as to what this means in practice. We note that borough and district elections planned for 2027 in many parts of East Sussex will now take place as originally planned. 

We are ready to resume local government reorganisation for East Sussex as soon as a final decision is made.

Meanwhile all services will continue as normal.’

Pictured is Cllr Andy Woolley. Image credit: Reform UK