Worthing Borough Council is a district council in the county of
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
, based in the borough of
Worthing
Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...
. The borough council was created in 1974 under the
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
out of the existing Worthing Municipal Council, which also had borough status. It forms the lower tier of local government in Worthing, responsible for local services such as housing, planning, leisure and tourism. Since 2014 it has been a constituent council of the
Greater Brighton City Region.
It is composed of 37 councillors, three for each of 11 electoral wards and two each for the electoral wards of Durrington and Northbrook wards. The council is currently led by the
Labour Party, who have 23 councillors; the opposition consists of 13
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
councillors, and one
Liberal Democrat councillor
Dr Catherine Howeis the chief executive. Many of the council's staff are based at
Worthing Town Hall
Worthing Town Hall, or New Town Hall, is a municipal building in Chapel Road, Worthing, West Sussex, England. The town hall, which is a meeting place of Worthing Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building. Located at Chapel Road in the cent ...
.
History
Worthing Town Commissioners (1803–1865)
The early town was run by 72
town commissioners following the Worthing Town Improvement Act of 1803. The first chairman of the commissioners was
Timothy Shelley, who chaired the first meeting at the Nelson Inn on South Street.
Commissioners were elected by ratepayers rather than the general population of the town. Their remit was to raise rates for the purpose of providing pavements, lighting, the disposal of sewage and a local police force. Following further Acts in 1809 and 1821 further powers were given to commissioners, who established a market between Market Street and Ann Street in 1810. Further activities included laying down, widening, and paving streets and building a new road from Worthing to South
Lancing.
From 1812, town commissioners met at the Royal George at the corner of Market Street
and George Street until Worthing's first purpose-built town hall was built in 1835.
Worthing Board of Health (1865–1890)
The Worthing
Local Board of Health
Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environmenta ...
replaced the commissioners as Worthing's local government in 1852.
Worthing Town Council (1890–1974)
In 1890 Worthing and the new town of
West Worthing
West Worthing is a neighbourhood of Worthing in West Sussex, England that was developed within Heene and later expanded beyond Heene's boundaries. Intended as an exclusive resort, the township of West Worthing was developed from around 1864 and m ...
were incorporated by charter as the
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
of Worthing. Six aldermen and 18 councillors, including the mayor, at first represented five wards. In 1902 the borough of Worthing expanded to include parts of
Broadwater and
West Tarring
Tarring, officially West Tarring, is a neighbourhood of Worthing, in the borough of Worthing in West Sussex, England. It lies on the A2031 road north-west of the town centre. It is called "West Tarring", or less commonly "Tarring Peverell", to di ...
. In 1929 the borough of Worthing expanded to include
Goring and
Durrington and in 1933 the borough of Worthing expanded again to include the west of
Sompting
Sompting is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the coastal Adur (district), Adur District of West Sussex, England between Lancing, West Sussex, Lancing and Worthing. It is half grassland slopes and half developed plain at ...
and the south of
Findon.
Alfred Cortis was Worthing's first mayor.
One notable councillor was
Frederick Linfield, who was one of the first councillors when Worthing was incorporated as a borough in 1890 and was mayor of Worthing twice, from 1906 to 1908. Linfield went on to become
Liberal MP for
Mid Bedfordshire.
In 1910
Ellen Chapman became Worthing's first woman councillor and one of the first women councillors in the UK. She subsequently became the first female Mayor of Worthing in 1920.
The
Labour Party first put up candidates in Worthing in 1919, and its first councillor, Charles Barber, was elected to Broadwater ward in 1922. Worthing was the first town in the UK to establish a branch of the conservative
Middle Class Union The Middle Classes Union was founded in February 1919 to safeguard property after the Reform Act 1918 had increased the number of working-class people eligible to vote. Sir George Ranken Askwith and Conservative MP and Irish landowner J. R. Pr ...
, largely made up, in Worthing, of retired army personnel. An MCU candidate, Colonel Connolly, was elected in 1921. The elections of Connolly and Barber brought about an end to the tradition in Worthing of non-party participation in elections.
On 31 March 1930, Charles Bentinck Budd was elected to the Offington ward of the West Sussex County Council. Later that year, Budd, who lived at Greenville, Grove Road, was elected to the town council as the independent representative of Ham Ward in Broadwater. At an election meeting on 16 October 1933, Budd revealed he was now a member of the
British Union of Fascists
The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, f ...
(BUF). He was duly re-elected and the national press reported that Worthing was the first town in the country to elect a fascist councillor. Street confrontations took place culminating on 9 October 1934 when
anti-fascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers wer ...
protesters met outside a blackshirt rally at the
Pavilion Theatre in what became known as the
Battle of South Street
The Battle of South Street was a riot that took place on 9 October 1934 in Worthing, Sussex, England. The riot took place as members of the British Union of Fascists and various anti-fascist protesters clashed following a meeting of Fascists ...
.
Between 1933 and 1939 the Worthing Corporation purchased of downland to the north of Worthing, which forms the
Worthing Downland Estate
The Worthing Downland Estate, ''Worthing Downs'' or ''Worthing Downland'', is an area of land in the South Downs National Park in West Sussex, England, close to the town of Worthing. It was bought by the public, following threats to the beauty s ...
.
In 1939 the Worthing Corporation purchased acres of land at High Salvington. This land adjoined another acres that were purchased around the same time.
Worthing's new
town hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
was opened in 1933. The first Labour mayor, Charles Barber, was selected in 1936. After the 1950s the corporation had a
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
majority.
Worthing Borough Council (1974 onwards)
The borough council was formed in 1974, under the
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
. The borough of Worthing became a district with borough status granted by a new charter. In 1976 30 councillors still represented 10 wards, but aldermen had been abolished.
In 2017 Alex Bailey also became Director of Innovation and Infrastructure’ at the Coastal West Sussex NHS
Clinical Commissioning Group
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integ ...
, in addition to his role as Chief Executive of Worthing Borough Council and Adur District Council.
On 18 July 2019, Worthing Borough Council declared a
climate emergency, which aims to see the council
carbon-neutral
Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the " ...
by 2030.
The
Labour Party took control of the council for the first time in 2022.
Joint administration with Adur District Council
Since 2008 Worthing Borough Council has worked in partnership with
Adur District Council, as
Adur and Worthing Councils, sharing a joint management structure, with a single Chief Executive.
Composition
For electoral purposes, the borough is divided into 13 wards: Broadwater, Castle, Central, Durrington, Gaisford, Goring, Heene, Marine, Northbrook, Offington, Salvington, Selden, and Tarring. There are thirty-seven borough councillors with two councillors assigned to Durrington and Northbrook wards and three councillors assigned to each other ward.
The party composition of the council is 23 Labour, 13 Conservative, and 1 Liberal Democrat.
The highest non-elected official is the Chief Executive, Dr Catherine Howe, who is also the joint Chief Executive of
Adur District Council.
Historical composition
Historical compositions are as follows:
Political control
Councillors
Wards
The Borough consists of 13 wards, each of which is represented by three Councillors, except for Durrington and Northbrook wards which have two members each. Since boundaries were revised in 2002 these have been:
For full election results see
Worthing Borough Council elections.
Leadership roles
A new mayor and deputy mayor are elected every May by the full Council at its annual general meeting. The current mayor is Councillor Henna Chowdhury, the borough's first female Muslim mayor and the borough's first Labour mayor since the 1930s. The mayor's duties are almost entirely ceremonial, although the mayor chairs meetings for the full Council.
The leader of the Council is Councillor Rebecca Cooper (
Labour) and the Deputy Leader is Councillor Carl Walker (
Labour).
The official opposition is the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
, with Councillor Kevin Jenkins leading that group.
Coat of arms
The borough's
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
includes three silver mackerel, a
Horn of Plenty overflowing with corn and fruit on a cloth of gold, and the figure of a woman, considered likely to be
Hygieia, the ancient Greek goddess of health, holding a snake. The images represent the health given from the seas, the fullness and riches gained from the earth and the power of healing.
Worthing's
motto
A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. M ...
is the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''Ex terra copiam e mari salutem'', which translates as 'From the land plenty and from the sea health'.
The borough's coat of arms was created in 1890 after it received borough status. Designed by Mr TR Hyde the arms were only granted officially by the
College of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the British Sover ...
in 1918 and were formally granted in 1919.
See also
*
Adur and Worthing Councils
*
Worthing Borough Council elections
*
History of local government in Sussex
*
West Sussex County Council
West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is the authority that governs the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex. The county also contains seven district and borough councils, and 158 town, parish and neighbourhood councils. The county council has 7 ...
*
Worthing Rural District
Bibliography
*
References
{{Authority control
Local authorities in West Sussex
Worthing
Non-metropolitan district councils of England