The proposal to bring Brighton and Hove, East Saltdean, Telscombe Cliffs and Peacehaven into a new local authority has understandably prompted a strong response.
Council boundaries are not merely lines on a map. They determine how services are delivered, where decisions are made and how communities are represented.
Brighton and Hove has gone from a fishing village on the south coast to a thriving iconic city that Time Out Magazine named the 34th best city in the world in 2025 – beating Prague, Los Angeles and Valencia.
Brighton and Hove’s present boundaries are 29 years old. The city we know today was created through repeated expansions, mergers and reorganisations.
In 1873, Queen Victoria gave royal assent to an Act of Parliament incorporating Preston into the Borough of Brighton which was formed in 1854 to deliver basic local services such as education and sanitation.
Due to Victorian Brighton’s rapid expansion beyond its older boundaries, it made sense to incorporate Prestonville and the areas around what is now Preston Park into the borough.
In 1923, King George V gave royal assent to another Act of Parliament which brought into Brighton the Parish of Patcham which at that time included land which would go on to become Moulsecoomb in the inter-war years.
In 1927, Parliament approved the Brighton Corporation Act – the largest expansion of our footprint.
The law transferred responsibility for Rottingdean, Ovingdean and Withdean to the Borough of Brighton, with the land which would go on to become Woodingdean and Bevendean also transferred from Newhaven Urban District Council which was abolished in 1974.
In that same year, Hangleton and West Blatchington become part of Hove.
In 1951, Hollingbury, Coldean and Stanmer joined Brighton as the Attlee government’s post-war house-building boom began.
The biggest shake-up of English local government in modern history happened in 1974 and it was then that Portslade and Mile Oak merged with Hove.
There was no movement from then until the seismic 1997 merger between Brighton and Hove when we left East Sussex to become a unitary authority on the footprint that we have today, stretching from Longridge Avenue, in Saltdean, to Fishersgate railway station.
These changes created the city inherited by those of us living and working here today. Incorporation did not mean that every community became the same.
Rottingdean did not lose its postcard-worthy English charm. Portslade, with its access to the port, is still an industrial hub. Hovarians are proud to point out they live in Hove, actually. Administrative unity does not require cultural uniformity.
What this history of shifting borders shows is that we are always playing catch up so that administrative boundaries reflect the geography of everyday life.
