Merged council for central Eastleigh proposed
Residents urged to have their say on Community Governance Review
A consultation as part of a community governance review on proposals to create a single, merged decision-making body for the centre of Eastleigh and areas to the north has been given the go-ahead by Borough Councillors.
The planned community governance review (CGR) would merge Eastleigh Town Council and Boyatt Wood Parish Council into one larger organisation, representing the first tier of local democracy.
Residnts can take part in a survey from 14 April to 25 May (a link button will be published at the foot of this page when the survey opens).
Potential benefits
With devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR) set to create much larger unitary local authorities in Hampshire, Eastleigh Town Council and Boyatt Wood Parish Council have identified a number of potential benefits of merging:
- a new unitary authority is likely to devolve more responsibilities to town and parish councils, which would put a larger central Eastleigh council in a better position to take on additional services
- local decision-making would remain as close to the community as possible
- the new council would have a stronger voice when engaging with the new unitary authority on issues like planning, infrastructure and community investment
- there would be greater financial efficiencies and more consistency in the planning and delivery of services.
- There would be greater coordination in the planning process.
Strengthening town and parish councils means that householders are represented by elected councillors who are responsible for more tightly drawn local areas than the much larger local authorities proposed under LGR. They would also have a greater say in how the budget for local services is spent.
If the decision is to merge the two current councils into one larger council, the election for seats on the new council will take place in 2026 which will replace the scheduled elections for the separate councils.
Current council seats and electorate
The current makeup of the three councils is:
Please complete the survey from the link below