BREAKING NEWS: Councillors reject bid for Bexhill Town Council

Councillors at Rother District Council’s meeting tonight (Monday, December 18) voted against the option, which was one of four as part of the Community Governance Review (CGR).

Ahead of the authority’s full council meeting demonstrators from Democracy4Bexhill held a rally, waving placards calling for the town to have the chance to govern its own affairs.

As part of the CGR, the district council ran a public consultation this year asking townsfolk to choose their preferred from four options.

These were making no change, forming an RDC area committee, setting up several parish councils or setting up a single parish council to be styled as a town council.

Out of the four options, the creation of a town council was the overwhelming favourite, with 93.5 per cent of the 9,227 residents who responded giving it their backing.

This option was backed by the campaign group Democracy4Bexhill (D4B), which leafleted homes in an effort to raise awareness of the consultation.

However at tonight’s meeting 18 councillors voted for the option to leave things as they are, with 11 voting against. There were five abstentions.