Brighton’s boundaries are set to expand as far as Peacehaven as the government approved plans for a new local authority area – but it won’t be taking on Falmer.
East Saltdean, Telscombe and Peacehaven will come under Brighton and Hove City Council’s auspices from 1 April 2028.
The city’s current councillors are likely to have their term extended by a year – but a new shadow council with responsibility for setting up the new authority will be elected in May 2027.
This means each ward will technically have two councillors, their current one and a new shadow one – although it’s possible the same person could be elected to both roles.
Residents in all areas will continue to receive services as they do today until April 2028.
Brighton and Hove City Council, East Sussex County Council and Lewes District Council will remain responsible for services in their areas during the transition.
The role of the shadow council will agree the structure of the new council, approve its budget and constitution and how it will operate.
It will also prepare the council for staff and services to transition into the new authority.
The timetable for these changes to be put in place is:
Autumn 2026 – Structural Changes Order creating the new council laid in Parliament
May 2027 – Elections to the new shadow council for Brighton and Hove on the new footprint
1 April 2028 – Vesting Day when the new authority formally comes into effect and takes over from the shadow council
In other words the fact that the residents of those towns were overwhelmingly opposed to the plan has just been totally ignored.
So much for the consultations!
Agreed.
Is that you Professor?
Highlights the disconnection about what is being asked vs. what people want to answer, Goodall.
“Takes on” is an appropriate description. The people of Peacehaven aren’t quite as docile as the place name may suggest and BHCC could well end up with a civil war on its hands.
There’s many a slip between cup and lip though. Nearly two years is a VERY LONG time in politics these days. Pundits are already predicting the new plastic PM won’t even last as long as his predecessor did.
Civil War? Your hyperbole knows no bounds Tracy.
The reorganisation is now set. No one is going to undo it no matter how much they may dislike it.
What are residents going to do? Refuse to have their bins emptied by B&H CC staff and lorries?
It’s not really a party political issue either. Reform run Kent CC are all in favour of it for example. The Tories in both East & West Sussex were in favour as well. Any disagreements are on the margins and in the detail.
If Lewes District made a better fist of of arguing why Peacehaven should remain with the new East Sussex Council to the government it might have been different. But it’s leaders didn’t really engage in the process other than in slanging matches which don’t help anyone.
Peacehaven is in such a state that is incredible that someone would want to combine with it. The roads are terrible, there are no services. It would be just merciful to flatten the all place down and give the land back to the national park.
You must be thinking of a very different Peacehaven to the one I know. Maybe I just know the nice bits.
As usual Peacehaven residents are treated as second class citizens who have no say!! It was an overwhelming NO to this proposal but it had obviously been decided long before.
Perhaps our MP can get this decision overturned on behalf of his constituents, as he knows we are all against this.
How does this work out for all the Families bidding, can Tenants now bid for places as Far as Peacehaven.
Great question. My thoughts is that they’d be able to bid for places like Peacehaven when it officially becomes part of Brighton in April 2028, although I am by no means certain.
Could another Party bring back the committee system?
Nothing changes on that front, so yes.
Incorrect the Devo Act requires a cabinet model stays for eternity 🤣
Oh yeah, I forgot that went in force April! I stand corrected.
Interesting to note people often refer to this as a council decision, when it’s dictated by law.
Labour did make a council decision to switch to a cabinet model so that is on them. If we had stayed committee system then like Bristol & Sheffield we could have kept it. However, once you have a cabinet system there is no legal mechanism to go back to committee.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/23/enacted
Having read through the relevant parts of the Act, my interpretation is that that’s no longer the case, Councillor. S.5 & S.12 of the Act specifically dictates the ability to change system and how to do it respectively. It doesn’t seem to impose any restrictions, other than a time limit, and S.22 recommends a review every four years.
My understanding is the original provision to changing to a cabinet, the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Modification of England) Order 2006, was indeed a one-way transition.
So I might need to correct my correction back to my original answer to Christopher, and say, a council could indeed regress to a committee system, should it choose to.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Section 61 seems to say you can’t change but I’ll ask someone better trained at reading this to see.
I would hope it would at least amend the Cabinet system so there is more scrutiny and accountability. For example, having scrutiny committees before Cabinet meetings, chaired by the opposition and giving more opportunity for all councillors to take part in Cabinet discussions rather than limiting their involvement to a few minutes at the start would be a good step. Along with more transparency on issues like performance on freedom of information.
It would also bring Brighton & Hove more in line with the constitutions of other local authorities in the region. The Cabinet system implemented here – with no consultation – seems to give the maximum power to the executive with limited opportunity for challenge and questions. Which is a shame – as policy often improves when it is able to be questioned and tested rather than nodded through.
I can get behind opposition scrutiny. A good idea is made better with scrutiny and a bad one is revised. And perception is often as important, regardless of performance.
Parking permits coming soon.
And “City of Sanctuary” status !
So they get an automatic undemocratic extension on councillors contract and then we have to pay for 2 people doing the same job!! They think we’re all daft!!
Well, Reform campaigned to prevent the delay to prevent a shadow council election. Maybe people didn’t realise this is the consequence of that? It’s a fairly common pattern with them.
People of Peacehaven…. No one asked us in Brighton and Hove either!
If Labour lose the election in 2027 they will keep running the city for another year on the pretext that LGR requires it. I hope current councillors who don’t win seats on the new shadow unitary step down from the existing authority to avoid having 2 parallel council administrations where the one elected in 2023 has all the power and shadow unitary councillors elected in 2027 have the democratic mandate but no power.
Not like you to be partisan, Councillor! You’re quite right to highlight the potential risk during the transition period. However, the legal framework is clear: the shadow council elected in May 2027 will assume full authority on Vesting Day on 1 April 2028. There is no provision for the existing council to retain power beyond that date.
Perhaps a way forward is to propose the establishment of a formal agreement between all parties represented on the council that, during the transition period, the shadow council will be treated as the democratically legitimate authority for decision-making on strategic matters related to the new authority to ensure that the elected mandate of the 2027 shadow council is respected in practice?
I don’t agree with the choice not to opt for a continuing authority. While I try to take my political opponents at their best, I think this choice is politically motivated and not based on any legal requirement.
Everyone was kept in the dark over this, even most Labour Councillors, some of whom were expecting to stand down next May. We knew West & East Sussex County Council administrations + district councils would go till 2028 but the context is totally different there given the greater complexity of LGR there.
I wonder if any such agreements have happened with other instances of LGR. I imagine it’s very hard to implement even if there was willingness to do it which seems doubtful. Officer briefings won’t go to the shadow authority members while they will to the current cabinet.
The arbitrary population count, for example? Yeah.
Certainly speaks to importance of how the transition period is handled, and how the shadow council is implemented; it makes sense to me that the shadow is integrated as seamlessly as possible, and unless there’s some specific legal reasoning, should be involved as much as possible to minimise an “introduction” period to maintain momentum of running the council, however that looks.
Looking to other instances of LGR is a really good shout…some weekend reading for me, methinks!
But the shadow authority will have a heck of a lot of power. It’s job is to prepare for when the new council officially comes into being in 2028 whether it’s developing it’s new budgets, departmental structures and other policies.
Plus it will be working with both Lewes District and East Sussex on the transfer of staff and facilities and finances from them.
The existing council will still have responsibility for maintaining all the day to day services and so on.
This is a model used for decades when it comes to changing local government organisations and structures.
It even happened in B&H in the 1990s prior to the creation of B&H CC
Existing council elections were held in 1995 for Brighton Council and Hove Council
Elections to the shadow council in 1996 in preparation for the new B&H unitary coming into effect. Complicated by them having to take over all the East Sussex CC functions as they applied to B&H.
If the existing council has its existence extended by a year (which has happened in the past even when the Tories reorganised councils) if a councillor resigns then there will still be byelections for any vacancies. The current and Shadow council (which will include councillors from Peacehaven etc) are two separate legal bodies and aren’t interchangeable and nor are their members.
I wonder how cityclean will cope with this addition to its work and lugging the stuff to Hollingdean instead of its current destination.
So our vote gets postponed for another year? So we dont get a chance to vote the current lot out? So So WRONG. People think the Coast Road is congested enough? Wait until Sankey has built over every bit of green space surrounding Telscombe, East Saltdean and Peacehaven. How many houses do B&H need to build? 40k wasn’t it!
A land grab with zero benefits for Peacehaven and Telscombe. Umlikely to see any investment until beyond 2028 why wouls East Sussex spend for Brighton. No one wants it but Labour , democracy and public good are never in the same room. Should go to a public vote.
It did. It was called the General Election.
How about the residents of East Saltdean. As a former resident of, and still a homeowner in East Saltdean I’m not at all happy about this. What can I do to lend my support here? Thank you.