Brighton and Hove

Brighton & Hove
City of Brighton and Hove
City and unitary authority

Brighton and Hove shown within East Sussex and England
Sovereign state  United Kingdom
Constituent country  England
Region South East England
Historic county  Sussex
Ceremonial county East Sussex
Administrative seat Hove
City status 2001
Government
  Type Unitary authority & City
  Governing body Brighton and Hove City Council
  Local government form Committee System
  Control Green (council NOC)
  MPs Simon Kirby (C)
(Brighton Kemptown)
Mike Weatherley (C)
(Hove)
Caroline Lucas (G)
(Brighton Pavilion)
Area
  City and unitary authority 87.54 km2 (33.80 sq mi)
  Urban 89.4 km2 (34.5 sq mi)
Population (2011)
  City and unitary authority 273,400[1]
  Urban 474,485 (12th)
  Metro 769,000 (15th)
  Ethnicity
(2011 Census)
80.5% White British
8.5% Other White
3.7% Mixed Race
3% South Asian
1.5% Black
1.1% Chinese
0.8% Arab
0.6% Other
Time zone Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
Postcode districts BN1, BN2, BN3, BN41
ONS code 00ML (ONS)
E06000043 (GSS)
ISO 3166-2 GB-BNH

Brighton and Hove (/ˈbrtən ən ˈhv/) is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of East Sussex in South East England. It is England's most populous seaside resort with a population of 273,400 (2011 census).

Following the unification of borough councils, the towns of Brighton and Hove formed a unitary authority in 1997. In 2001, the two towns, Portslade and other surrounding areas and villages were granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the millennium celebrations in 2000, forming the City of Brighton and Hove.

"Brighton" is often referred to synonymously with the official "Brighton and Hove" name although many locals still consider the two to be separate towns.

History

Brighton and Hove is the result of a number of historic local government reorganisations:

On 15 October 2004, Brighton and Hove was granted Fairtrade City status.

City Council

Political composition

Elections are held every four years, with the last elections occurring on 5 May 2011.[2]

Party Councillors
Green 21
Conservative 18
Labour 14
Liberal Democrat 0
Independent 1
Total 54
Source: Brighton & Hove City Council

Brighton and Hove represents the first ever council in the United Kingdom where the Green Party have both been the largest group and leads the council.

Industrial relations

In 2013 the council was obliged to finalise single status across its workforce, resulting in a strike of its refuse collectors and street cleaners, whose allowances the council reformed to equalise them with other staff at the organisation conducting similar work.[3]

Administration

The Leader of the Council and Green minority administration since May 2012 has been Councillor Jason Kitcat (Green Party). The Greens are the largest political group of councillors – but as with the two prior council administrations, do not have enough seats for overall control.

Since May 2012, the authority has been run on a cross-party committee basis, with five policy committees meeting regularly to make decisions. Due to the margin of political balance, all decisions require the support of at least two political parties.[4]

The current mayor of Brighton and Hove is Councillor Brian Fitch[5] Penny Thompson is the current chief executive.[6]

DVLA database ban

In 2012 it was revealed that the Brighton and Hove unitary authority has been permanently banned from accessing information from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. This information is normally made available to local authorities for purposes such as enforcing parking fines, but access can be withdrawn if they are found to be misusing the service. The Big Brother Watch organisation, which obtained the information about the ban under a Freedom of Information request, claimed that "the public are right to be worried that their privacy is at risk across a range of government services."[7]

Census

The first census of Brighton was in 1801.

The resident population of Brighton and Hove at the 2011 census was 273,369 persons, 50% male and 50% female.

The 2011 census found the ethnic composition of Brighton and Hove to be 89.08% white (80.48% white British, 1.38% white Irish, 7.21% other white), 4.13% Asian (1.10% Chinese, 1.10% Indian, 0.50% Bangladeshi, 1.43% other Asian), 3.81% mixed race (1.54% mixed black/white, 1.23% mixed white/Asian, 1.05% other mix), 1.53% black and 0.80% Arab.[8]

The 2011 census found the religious composition to be 42.90% Christian, 42.42% nonreligious, 2.23% Muslim, 1.00% Buddhist, 0.98% Jewish.[9] 1.66% were adherents of some other religion, while 8.81% did not state their religion.[9]

In the 2001 census, Brighton and Hove had the highest percentage of citizens indicating their religion as Jedi among all principal areas of England and Wales.[10]

Wording of the Letters Patent

The Letters Patent of 2001 that confers City status is worded thus:

ELIZABETH the SECOND BY THE GRACE OF GOD OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND & OF OUR REALMS & TERRITORIES QUEEN HEAD OF THE COMMON WEALTH DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.

To all to whom these Presents shall come Greeting. Whereas We for divers good causes and considerations Us thereunto moving are graciously pleased to confer on the Towns of Brighton and Hove the status of a city Now Therefore Know Ye that We of Our especial grace and favour and mere motion do by these Presents ordain declare and direct that the TOWNS OF BRIGHTON AND HOVE shall henceforth have the status of a CITY and shall have all such rank liberties privileges and immunities as are incident to a City. In witness whereof We have caused Our Letters to be made Patent Witness Ourself at Westminster the thirty first day of January in the forty ninth year of our reign.

By Warrant under The Queens Sign Manual.[11]

Economy and demography

Main article: Brighton § Economy

As mentioned in the Brighton article, the economy of the city is service-based with a strong emphasis on creative, digital and electronic technologies compared to the national average economic sectors. Universities (of Brighton and Sussex) and other educational institutions are present here compensating for the absence of such large scale institutions in the surrounding upper tier authorities, with a larger population overall, of East Sussex and West Sussex but with such population spread over a much larger area. Tourism and entertainment are important sectors for the City including hotels, amusements, Brighton Pier and Shoreham/Portslade Harbour.

In the demography of the neighbouring county the most clearly deprived claimant count, people claiming benefits for very low income or worklessness, varied from district to district but stood overall for that county at 3.6%, as at August 2012, reaching 6.7% as to the Borough of Hastings. As to England the average figure was 4.5%. For Brighton and Hove, containing approximately one two-hundredth of England's population (0.467%) as at the United Kingdom Census 2011 this data is:

Population at latest censuses. Claimants of JSA or Income Support (DWP).[12]
Population (April 2011)Population (April 2001)
273,369 247,817
JSA or Inc. Supp. claimants (August 2012)JSA or Income Support claimants (August 2001)
12,250 24,920
% of 2011 resident population% of 2001 resident population
4.5%10.1%

References

  1. Office for National Statistics. "Census 2011 result shows increase in population of the South East". Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  2. "Elections – dates and results". Brighton & Hove City Council. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  3. "Allowances modernisation". Brighton & Hove City Council. Brighton & Hove City Council. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  4. "How the council works". Brighton & Hove City Council. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  5. "Who is the Mayor of Brighton & Hove?".
  6. "New chief wants Brighton and Hove's potential fulfilled". The Argus. 18 December 2012. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  7. DVLA bans councils from database over abuses, BBC News, 8 December 2012, retrieved 10 December 2012
  8. Neighbourhood Statistics. "British government census statistics for race and ethnicity". Neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  9. 9.0 9.1 Neighbourhood Statistics. "British government census statistics for religion". Neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  10. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/rank/jedi.asp statistics.gov.uk
  11. "The Brighton & Hove crest". Brighton & Hove City Council. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  12. Key Statistics: Population; Quick Statistics: Economic indicators. (2011 census and 2001 census) Retrieved 2015-02-27.

External links

Coordinates: 50°49′40″N 0°09′10″W / 50.82778°N 0.15278°W