Eastbourne Live is an independent news and information site for Eastbourne and the East Sussex coast. We work from public records, we link to them, and we are not connected to any of the councils involved.
Four towns, four councils
Eastbourne is under Eastbourne Borough Council. Hastings is under Hastings Borough Council. Bexhill-on-Sea is in Rother District. Seaford is in Lewes District. They sit within a few miles of each other along one coast, and they are run separately, so bin days, car park charges, planning registers and council tax bands all differ from town to town. We name the responsible authority in every story and on every reference page. East Sussex County Council runs roads, schools and social care across all four.
What we report
Each council’s planning register and committee papers, licensing notices, police.uk crime data, HM Land Registry sold prices, Food Standards Agency hygiene ratings, Environment Agency flood and coastal warnings, and company filings in The Gazette. On this coast, seafront schemes, pier and promenade works and coastal defence are recurring subjects, and they are all decided on paper first.
The council shake-up, on pause
East Sussex was due to be reorganised in April 2028. The government’s July 2026 decision chose two new unitary councils, an East Sussex Council covering Eastbourne, Hastings, Rother, Wealden and most of Lewes district, and an expanded Brighton and Hove. On 7 September 2026 ministers put that decision under review and told councils to stop implementation work, with May 2027 elections going ahead on existing boundaries. We will report each stage from the published documents and keep the practical pages pointing at whoever actually answers on the day you read them.
Tips and corrections
Email hello@eastbournelive.co.uk with a tip, an event worth listing, or a correction. Tips are treated in confidence, and corrections go up quickly and are noted on the page.
Eastbourne Live is published by the GOB Media Group.