page_title: Bexhill-on-Sea
section_title: Governance
hierarchical_section_title: Bexhill-on-Sea / Governance
caption_attribution_description: Built by Henry Ward in 1895.
context_page_description: Bexhill or Bexhill-on-Sea is a seaside town situated in the county of East Sussex in South East England. An ancient town and part of the local-government district of Rother, Bexhill is home to a number of archaeological sites, a Manor House in the Old Town, an abundance of Edwardian and Victorian architecture, and the famous De La Warr Pavilion: today a centre for contemporary art – which has featured the work of Andy Warhol, Cerith Wyn Evans and Richard Wilson amongst others – and an auditorium, where Bob Marley had his first UK appearance and has since seen performances by Elvis Costello, Goldfrapp, Ray Davies, Years & Years, Patti Smith and Laurie Anderson.
context_section_description: Due to local governance reform in 1974, Bexhill became part of Rother District Council, thereby losing its Town Council. In its place, Bexhill became a Charter Trustees town, represented by the Bexhill councillors of Rother District Council. A quarterly forum is held to provide a voice to the community at a local level.
  Bexhill is the home of Rother District Council, for which elections are held every four years. In total, thirty-eight Councillors are elected for the Rother area, eighteen coming from Bexhill's nine wards. Following the 2019 election, the council is composed of 14 Conservative, 13 Independent, 7 Liberal Democrat, 1 Green and 3 Labour councillors.
  In 2017, local campaigners initiated a public consultation on the issue of regaining a town council for Bexhill. 9,227 people participated in the consultation, of whom  93.5% expressed a preference for a town council. The consultation was non-binding and, at a meeting in December 2017, Rother District Councillors voted against the formation of such a council by 18 to 13. The meeting was fully attended.
  Those who voted against the consultation's mandate were primarily concerned with the added burden to rate-payers that a town council would induce.
  The changes to the make up of the district council since the 2019 elections (the Conservatives lost 15 seats overall from their 2015 result) have meant that the issue of a town council for Bexhill has been reopened. The Independents, supported by Labour and others, assented to a motion that would have a 'Bexhill Town Council' up and running by 2021.
  Above Rother, the next level of government is the East Sussex County Council, with responsibility for Education, Libraries, Social Services, Civil Registration, Trading Standards, and Transport. Elections for the County Council are held every four years. For these elections, Bexhill is divided into four wards: North, East, South and West.
  The latest County Council election was held on Thursday 4 May 2017. Following boundary changes in 2016, 50 Councillors were elected. The County Council now has 30 Conservative, 11 Liberal Democrat, 4 Labour, 3 'Independent Democrat' and 2 Independent councillors. The UK Independence Party lost all six of the seats it had won in the County Council elections in 2013. Following the result of a by-election in 2019, Bexhill returns 2 Independent and 2 Conservative councillors to the County Council.
  The Parliament Constituency for Bexhill includes the nearby town of Battle. The constituency was created in 1983 and was served by Charles Wardle until the 2001 election, when Wardle left the Conservative party. He was replaced by Gregory Barker, who was the MP until the 2015 General Election when he was replaced by Huw Merriman, the current MP.
  At the European level, Bexhill is represented by the South-East region, which holds ten seats in the European Parliament. The 2019 election returned four Brexit Party MEPs, three Liberal Democrat, one  Labour, one Conservative and one Green.
  As with most other areas along the South Coast, the Rother district voted in the 2016 referendum to leave the EU. Leave dominated in Rother by a margin of 58.5% to 41.5%.
caption: Bexhill Town Hall
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