The Rother Labour Group has written to Ministers urging them to give Sussex residents a genuine choice between two restructuring options: a single East Sussex unitary authority or a five-council Sussex-wide model.

Over the coming weeks, the Government will carefully review submissions from Rother District Council and other local authorities before launching public consultations from November through to early spring next year. At a specially convened Full Council and Cabinet meeting, Rother’s Labour Group argued that both models should be included in the statutory consultation process, enabling communities to make properly informed comparisons.

“As local councillors, we have serious concerns about the proposed One East Sussex model,” said Cllr Bayliss. “The geographical spread and population size are simply too large. Despite promises of neighbourhood committees, we genuinely believe this model won’t serve local people effectively at this end of the County.”

The Rother Labour Councillors on Rother’s cabinet set out why they feel the Five-Council model should be given serious consideration. This model would:

Create Balanced Authorities: Each council serving 300,000-400,000 residents across Sussex’s 1.72 million population, avoiding extremes of scale while ensuring effective service delivery.
Strengthen Coastal Communities: Reflecting the reality of shared journeys and interconnected communities between Chichester in the West, through Brighton, and on to Rye in the East.
Improve Daily Life: Align boundaries with how people actually live and work, making services easier to access and better coordinated with partners like the NHS, schools, and police.
Enhance Democracy: Keep councils large enough to be financially resilient but small enough to remain rooted in local communities, where local voice can shape decisions.

They have now written to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, and the Minister for Local Government, Alison McGovern MP, setting out why both models should be put out to consultation by the Government.

As the Government reshapes how local democracy works across England and introduces new devolved powers over transport, skills, growth, and net zero, Sussex needs to be positioned for long-term success.

“This is not just about lines on a map,” concluded Cllr Bayliss. “It’s about creating the foundations for Sussex to thrive for the next generation, with every community recognised and every voice heard in the process.”