The original Eastleigh borough was formed in 1936 following the incorporation of the former Eastleigh Urban District Council. The borough as it is today was formed in 1974, when the existing Borough of Eastleigh expanded to include part of the former Winchester Rural District as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. The borough's Latinmotto, "Salus populi suprema lex" translates as "The Welfare of the People is the most important Law".[2]
The borough's origins begin with the formation of an ecclesiastical parish covering the hamlets of Eastley and Barton in 1868, in an area which was beginning to be developed around Bishopstoke railway station which had opened in 1839 to serve the older village of Bishopstoke a mile to the east.[3][4] Author Charlotte Mary Yonge, a resident of Otterbourne, donated £500 (£60,000 at 2024 values)[5] towards the cost of building a parish church and in return was asked which of the two villages to name the parish after; she chose Eastley, but also chose to alter the spelling to Eastleigh as she considered this more modern.[3][6] The parish grew rapidly: it had a population of 515 in 1871, over 1,000 in 1881 and 3,613 in 1891.[3]
Despite the creation of the ecclesiastical parish, Eastleigh remained part of the civil parish of South Stoneham. In order to facilitate the creation of pavements with kerbs, drains and sewers, and street lights, a local government district covering the ecclesiastical parish of Eastleigh was established in 1893, governed by a local board.[3][7] Such districts were converted into urban districts in 1894, when Eastleigh was also made its own civil parish. Eastleigh Urban District was enlarged to take in the community of Bishopstoke in 1899, becoming the Eastleigh and Bishopstoke Urban District. The name was changed back to just Eastleigh in 1932.[8]
The first Eastleigh Borough was incorporated in 1936 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1882. This conversion from Eastleigh Urban District Council to Eastleigh Borough Council allowed the authority to create byelaws and appoint a mayor. Notice of the petition for incorporation was served on the 1 February 1936, and the matter being raised for consideration on 16 March, along with petitions for the creation of boroughs for Crosby and Sale in North West England, among others.[9]
The council has a strong tradition of attending to environmental matters and in 2008 was named a beacon council under the theme "Tackling Climate Change".[16]
Political control
The council has been under Liberal Democrat majority control since 1994.
The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially acting as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new arrangements took effect on 1 April 1974. Political control since 1974 has been as follows:[17]
The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Eastleigh. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1976 have been:[18]
Since the last boundary changes in 2018 the council has comprised 39 councillors representing 14 wards, with each ward electing two or three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with roughly a third of the council being elected each time for a four year term of office. Hampshire County Council elections are held in the fourth year of the cycle when there are no borough council elections.[20][21]
Old Town Hall, Leigh Road: Council's headquarters 1899–1974, now The Point theatre
The council has its main offices at Eastleigh House on Upper Market Street in Eastleigh.[23] The building does not have a council chamber and so full council meetings are held in various locations, including The Point, a theatre which is the former town hall that was built in 1899 for the old Eastleigh and Bishopstoke Urban District Council. It remained the town hall until 1974 when new offices were built at the junction of Leigh Road and Villeneuve St Georges Way.[24]
Civic Offices, Leigh Road: Council's headquarters 1974–2014, since demolished.
Between 1974 and 2014 the council was based at Civic Offices on Leigh Road, before moving to Eastleigh House, an existing office building in the town centre which was refurbished and extended to become the council's main offices.[25][26]
The southern part of the borough is bounded on the east by the River Hamble (separating it from Fareham) and on the west by Southampton Water (separating it from the New Forest). The Hamble flows into Southampton Water at Hamble-le-Rice, thus accounting for the borough's southern boundary. Further north, the borough borders Southampton to the west and the City of Winchester district to the north. As well as Southampton Water and the River Hamble, a number of watercourses flow through Eastleigh, including the River Itchen, Monks Brook and the Itchen Navigation.
The largest settlement in the borough is the town of Eastleigh itself, with a continuous urban area which now includes Chandler's Ford, Bishopstoke and Boyatt Wood. The only other settlement in the borough with town status is Hedge End. Due to the urban nature of Southampton and the town of Eastleigh, the western side of the borough is generally more built up than the east. There are three country parks in the borough, Itchen Valley in West End and Lakeside, located just to the south of the town of Eastleigh, are managed by the borough council while Royal Victoria Country Park is managed by Hampshire County Council.
The borough is within the Hampshire Basin, with an underlying geology of mainly Cretaceous chalk.
Soil in the borough is principally of poor to moderate agricultural quality although high grade land is present in pockets. The south of the borough has acid soils and gravels, but poorly drained clays predominate in the north. Most of the borough is covered by a series of clays and marls, with sandy and lignitic beds, part of the Bracklesham Group of beds. As well as clay soils, the Bracklesham Beds result in some bands of sandy soil to the north of West End, and podzol soils around the M27 motorway west of Hedge End and on small areas of the gravels on top of the beds themselves. However most of the soil over the beds is more fertile brown earth.[27]
In the north of the borough, small pockets of valley gravels, London clay, Brickearth and Alluvium can be found, although these have mainly been built over with the exception of the Alluvium, which forms peaty soils around the floodplain of the River Itchen.[27]
Climate
As with the rest of the UK, Eastleigh experiences an oceanic climate (KöppenCfb). The nearest weather station to the Borough is in Southampton, which has held the record for the highest temperature in the UK for June at 35.6 °C (96.1 °F) since 1976.[28][29]
Climate data for Southampton (nearest weather station to the Borough of Eastleigh), elevation 3 m, 1981–2010
In the 2021 census, Eastleigh had a population of 136,443 people consisting of 66,700 males (48.9%) and 69,743 females (51.1%). The borough is much more densely populated than South East England and England as a whole, with a population density of 1,712.1 people per square km (South East England and England have population densities of 486.5 and 433.5 people per square km, respectively). 45.7% of Eastleigh's population state their religion as Christian, which is a significant decrease from 61.9% in 2011. 45.0% stated they had no religion (up from 28.5% in 2011) and 5.6% did not state a religion; the most popular non-Christian religions in the borough were Islam (1%), Hinduism (1%) and Sikhism (0.7%). The census also indicates that the residents of Eastleigh are generally in better health than those in England as a whole.
Economy
Hedge End Trade Park is part of a large retail development
Historically, the economy of the area has strong links with the transport industry. The proximity of substantial waterways made shipbuilding a major industry in the south of the borough, and today the pleasure boat industry still dominates the area around Hamble-le-Rice and Bursledon, made famous by the television drama series on the subject, Howards' Way, which was filmed in the area. The borough is also strongly linked with the Spitfire, the first test flights of which took place from Southampton Airport in Eastleigh. Eastleigh was once the heart of the London and South Western Railway, with the Eastleigh Works building most of the company's engines. At present, the works maintains South Western Railway and CrossCountry trains. The works building is now home to Arlington Fleet Services, which provides a multitude of train maintenance services. Finally, Network Rail has a yard here, from which it carries out track maintenance.
The economy of the borough today is dominated by the retail sector, which accounts for around 33 per cent of the jobs in the borough, and this proportion is rising.[32] As well as the large Swan Centre, a shopping centre in the town of Eastleigh, there is a large out-of-town retail development near Hedge End which includes flagship stores for Marks & Spencer[33] and Sainsbury's[34] among others. Eastleigh also has proportionately more manufacturing and construction jobs than the nation, but the number of jobs in these sectors is declining in the borough.[32]
The B&Q head office is in the Portswood House in Eastleigh, Eastleigh borough.[35]
The M3 motorway runs through the north-west of the borough, providing a direct road route to London, and the midlands and north of England via the A34 road which joins the M3 just north of Winchester. The M27 motorway also runs through much of the borough, linking Eastleigh to the rest of the south coast.
Southampton Airport is located in the north west of the borough, just south of the town of Eastleigh itself. The airport is the 20th largest in the United Kingdom and flights operate from there to destinations throughout the British Isles (including the Channel Islands) and some destinations in western continental Europe.
Local bus services in Eastleigh are operated by Bluestar. Stagecoach South also operate some services. National coach operators such as National Express tend not to serve Eastleigh due to the close proximity of Southampton and Winchester to the borough. Megabus does serve Southampton Airport Parkway, on a limited timetable.
Stoke Lock on the Itchen Navigation near Bishopstoke now with sluices and fish pass.
Eastleigh was awarded the European Flag of Honour in 1983 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Borough's twinning with Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. The flag, which is awarded to local authorities which promote pan-Europe relationships, was presented to the council by a European Commission representative on 18 June 1983.[40]
^"Company InformationArchived 10 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine." B&Q. Retrieved on 2 February 2011. "B&Q Plc Portswood House 1 Hampshire Corporate Park Chandlers Ford Eastleigh Hampshire SO53 3YX "
