The Borough of Basildon is a

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

in south

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 ...

in the East of England, centred on the town of

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

. It was formed as the Basildon District on 1 April 1974 from the former area of

Basildon Urban District Basildon Urban District (from 1934 to 1955 Billericay Urban District) was a local government district in south Essex, England from 1934 to 1974. The district was created in 1934 from the following parishes (all from Billericay Rural District): ...

and the part of Thurrock Urban District that was within the Basildon New Town. The population of the district as of 2010 is about 172,000. The local authority is Basildon Borough Council. The council made an application for borough status in February 2010 and this was given approval that year, with Mo Larkin becoming the first mayor in October. Junction of Wickford High Street and the A129 - geograph

Junction of Wickford High Street and the A129 - geograph

History

The Basildon District was created on 1 April 1974 as part of the local government reorganisation of the Local Government Act 1972. It comprised the former area of the

and the part of Basildon New Town that had been in Thurrock Urban District. Ramsden Bellhouse - geograph

Governance

Elections to Basildon Borough Council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the 42 seats on the council being elected at each election. Both the

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 ...

and Labour parties have controlled the council at different times, as well as periods when no party has had a majority. The Conservative party controlled the council through a cabinet system of governance after winning a majority at the 2003 election. In May 2017 the council switched to a committee system with no party in overall control. The council is currently composed of the following councillors:

Parish and town councils

There are nine town, parish and village councils at present. They cover one quarter of the district and are: *Billericay Town Council *Bowers Gifford and North Benfleet Parish Council *Great Burstead & South Green Parish Council *Little Burstead Parish Council *Ramsden Bellhouse Parish Council *Ramsden Crays Parish Council *Noak Bridge Parish Council *Shotgate Parish Council *Wickford Town Council

Boundaries

To the north it borders the Borough of Chelmsford, to the east it borders the District of Rochford district, to the south east the Borough of

Castle Point Castle Point is a local government district with borough status in south Essex, east of central London. The borough comprises the towns and villages of Canvey Island, Hadleigh, South Benfleet, and Thundersley. The borough council is situated ...

and to the west it borders the Borough of Brentwood. To the south the district has a boundary with the

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 ...

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The ...

Geography

The

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

has three main population centres. The towns of

Billericay Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin and constitutes a commuter town east of Central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces. It i ...

and

Wickford Wickford is a town and civil parish in the south of the English county of Essex, with a population of 33,486. Located approximately 30 miles (50 km) east of London, it is within the Borough of Basildon along with the original town of Basil ...

are two of the areas which both have surrounding villages. Occasional proposals have been made to move Billericay and Wickford to other districts, leaving Basildon more focused on the new town.LGCE. ''Final Recommendations on the Future Local Government of: Basildon & Thurrock, Blackburn & Blackpool, Broxtowe, Gedling & Rushcliffe, Dartford & Gravesham, Gillingham & Rochester Upon Medway, Exeter, Gloucester, Halton & Warrington, Huntingdonshire & Peterborough, Northampton, Norwich, Spelthorne and the Wrekin.'' December 1995. The other, largest, population centre is commonly referred to as

and comprises three original settlements:

Laindon Laindon is a commuter town in Essex, between Basildon and West Horndon. It was an ancient parish in Essex, England, that was abolished for civil purposes in 1937. It was based on the (probably smaller) manor of the same name and now lies mostly ...

, Basildon and

Pitsea Pitsea is a small town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Basildon, in south Essex, England. It comprises five sub-districts: Eversley, Northlands Park Neighbourhood (previously known as Felmores), Chalvedon, Pitsea Mount and B ...

(from west to east) which have merged with other minor settlements to form the New Town, which is a continuous urban area. The remaining land, approximately half of the district is designated as

green belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...

, has several

sites of special scientific interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

. Two are around Billericay and the remainder are to the south of Basildon New Town. There are also wildlife areas of varying sizes around most of the district, except in the East. The source of the River Crouch is in the district. The river runs across the district, through

before it leaves the district. The district is linked well by road and rail with significant surrounding destinations, including

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In the west of the Basildon district, the Dunton Plotlands is an area of small plots of land used as weekend cottages or smallholdings inhabited during the mid twentieth century.

List of settlements

It contains the towns of: *

(the administrative headquarters) **

Langdon Hills Langdon Hills is a township and former civil parish located in Basildon in Essex, England. It is located south of Laindon railway station on the London, Tilbury and Southend line. It is the location of the Langdon Hills Country Park, which i ...

Vange Vange is a former village and civil parish now subsumed within the urban area of the Basildon borough of Essex. As it is much smaller than Basildon, Laindon and Pitsea, it does not have its own town centre or railway station. The London Road (B14 ...

Villages within the district are: * Bowers Gifford * Crays Hill * Dunton Wayletts * Great Burstead * Havering's Grove (part) * Little Burstead * Nevendon * North Benfleet * Ramsden Bellhouse * Shotgate *

Great Berry Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

Regeneration plans

Basildon District is a prosperous business location and has in recent years seen significant inward investment and jobs growth. Throughout Basildon District there are major developments planned estimated to total nearly £2 billion. These include: *The regeneration of Basildon, Wickford, Pitsea, and Laindon Town Centres *A new Sporting Village and improvements to playing pitches and sports facilities throughout the District to make Basildon the Centre for Sport in South Essex. The sporting village is expected in 2010, and is being highly sought after as an Olympic training base for one of the top teams, including the Russians. Its combined benefits, of having some of the top facilities so close to London, including one of the few Olympic (50m) size pools in the UK, will make it a true asset to whatever team(s) use it. *The creation of a health and education research centre near Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital and FE College *Investment in the Basildon Enterprise Corridor, the largest business area in the Thames Gateway outside London, home to 45,000 jobs and over 5,000 businesses, including Ford, Selex, Visteon, Case New Holland,

First Data First Data Corporation is a financial services company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company's STAR Network provided nationwide domestic debit acceptance at more than 2 million retail POS, ATM, and Online outlets for nea ...

Europe, International Financial Services Limited, RBS, and Starbucks *The creation of one of the largest wetland nature reserves in Europe in the Thames Marshes by the RSPB, Land Restoration Trust, Basildon District Council and Veolia *A strategic review of the District's housing, with investment in housing estates such as Craylands, Five Links and Felmores to create first class places to live Coordinating and promoting this programme of investment is the Basildon Renaissance Partnership which was set up in 2003 by Basildon District Council. Its partners also include the East of England Development Agency, English Partnerships, Essex County Council, and the Thames Gateway South Essex Partnership with support from the Department for Communities and Local Government. The BBC noted the council had decided to sell for £1 a plot of land it bought next to the golf course for £1m in order to build a 4 star hotel. The Conservative leader described the sale as an exciting step forward.

Transport

The district is connected to

and

Southend 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 ...

via two train operators: c2c and

Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the J ...

. The route operated by c2c is the London, Tilbury and Southend line. Three principal stations of the railway line are in the district: Basildon railway station, Laindon railway station and Pitsea railway station The former Great Eastern service (now

) operates on the Shenfield to Southend Line. Trains stop at

and Wickford railway station. At Wickford, the Crouch Valley Line diverges from the Shenfield to Southend line. Three primary routes are within the district. The A127 goes through its centre, the A13 goes through the south-east at Pitsea. Both these primary routes connect the district with Greater London and Southend-on-Sea. At Bowers Gifford at a terminus of the A13's

primary status The United Kingdom has a network of roads, of varied quality and capacity, totalling about . Road distances are shown in miles or yards and UK speed limits are indicated in miles per hour (mph) or by the use of the national speed limit (NSL) sy ...

there is a junction with the beginning of primary status for the A130 with runs along a small section of the western boundary of the district. The A130 connects the district with Chelmsford. The A129 is the major road link between Billericay and Wickford, which are linked via

A-Roads A roads may be *motorways or freeways, usually where the local word for motorway begins with A (for example, ''Autobahn'' in German; ''Autostrada'' in Italian). * main roads or highways, in a system where roads are graded A, B and sometimes lower c ...

to the urban area of Basildon, Pitsea and Laindon by the A176 and the A132, respectively.

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Basildon.

Individuals

* Max Whitlock: February 2016. *

Stuart Bingham Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world and Masters champion. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his professional ...

: February 2016. * Trudi Westmore-Cox: September 2019. * Donald Sheppard: September 2019.

Military Units

* The Royal Anglian Regiment: April 2011.

Organisations and groups

* Basildon & Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group: 27 May 2021. * Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust: 27 May 2021. * North East London NHS Foundation Trust: 27 May 2021. * Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust: 27 May 2021. * The

East of England Ambulance Service The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) is an NHS trust responsible for providing National Health Service (NHS) ambulance services in the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, in the ...

NHS trust An NHS trust is an organisational unit within the National Health Services of England and Wales, generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function (such as an ambulance service). In any particular location there may be several ...

: 23 October 2021.

References

External links

Basildon District Home Page

Basildon Renaissance Partnership

Basildon Heritage

Basildon Borough History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basildon, Borough of Non-metropolitan districts of Essex Boroughs in England