The Government has asked councils to propose options to reduce the number of local authorities in Essex.

In three years, you’ll have one, larger council managing most of your local services as the 15 councils in Essex are replaced by a much smaller number of unitary authorities.

Right now, Essex councils are developing various different proposals about how all this could work.

The ‘5 council’ proposal

A group of councils, including Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Maldon, Southend and Uttlesford is working on a proposal for 5 future unitary authorities in Greater Essex.

The vision is for 5 new councils that retain a strong local identity and sense of place, each centred around one of Essex’s major towns or cities.

For residents of Chelmsford, this proposal would mean a new unitary authority covering the city council area, combined with Brentwood and Maldon.

This map shows what Greater Essex could look like under the ‘5 council’ proposal. 

Some local authorities are developing other proposals for fewer than 5 councils, generally serving bigger areas than those shown in the map above. 

Have your say

We’re still working on the ‘5 council’ proposal and this consultation is a chance to have your say.

We want to know what’s important to you.

It takes less than ten minutes to complete and your thoughts will help guide this proposal before it’s sent to the Government.

Share your views by 5pm on Sunday 20 July.