Southend-on-Sea City Council is the local authority of the

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

district in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England. It is a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It is a member of the

East of England Local Government Association The East of England Local Government Association (EELGA) is an association of the 52 local authorities in the East of England. It is a regional grouping of the Local Government Association and the regional employers organisation. It was establishe ...

. It is based at

Southend Civic Centre Southend Civic Centre is a municipal building in Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. The structure is the meeting place of Southend-on-Sea City Council. History The first municipal building in Southend was the municipal offices in ...

Politics

Seventeen wards each return three councillors, a total of 51. Councillors serve four years and one third of the council is elected each year, followed by one year without election. The current composition of the council is (as of 5 May 2019): The council is currently run by a rainbow coalition of Labour, Independent Group and Liberal Democrat councillors following a no confidence motion that was passed on 3 June 2019. The council had previously been run by the same coalition between May 2014 and May 2016. Apart from these occasions, since the 2000 election the council had been run by a Conservative administration.

Performance

In 2007, Southend Borough Council was criticised as one of the worst financially managed local authorities in England by the Audit Commission report for 2006/7, one of three to gain only one of four stars, the others being

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and the Isles of Scilly. In March 2012, Southend Borough Council was awarded the title of 'Council of the Year 2012' by the

Local Government Chronicle The ''Local Government Chronicle'' (''LGC'') is a British weekly magazine for local government officers, and is published by Metropolis. The magazine was launched in 1855 by bookseller and publisher Charles Knight . It was then published by E ...

Arms

References

External links

* {{Authority control Unitary authority councils of England Local authorities in Essex Southend-on-Sea (district) Local education authorities in England Billing authorities in England Leader and cabinet executives