Merger of Eastleigh Town Council and Boyatt Wood Parish Council agreed

Borough Councillors have given the green light to the creation of a larger decision-making body for the centre of Eastleigh town and the area to the immediate north.

The community governance review (CGR) to merge the existing Eastleigh Town Council and Boyatt Wood Parish Council was approved over Summer 2025 following detailed public consultation that attracted more than 600 responses.

Residents’ and stakeholders’ views were then sought on the number of councillors and the boundaries and makeup of electoral wards for the council, which represents the first tier of local democracy.

The final recommendations were agreed at the meeting of the Full Council on 17 November  2025 and the newly created authority will be named Eastleigh Town Council. It will have 22 councillors across seven wards. The names of the wards are Blenheim and Barton Park; Boyatt Wood East; Boyatt Wood West; Brookwood; Cable; Chestnut, and Nightingale and North Stoneham.

Strengthening town and parish councils means that householders are represented by elected councillors who are responsible for more tightly drawn local areas than the much larger unitary authorities that will be introduced under Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

With devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR) set to create much larger unitary local authorities in Hampshire, Eastleigh Town Council and Boyatt Wood Parish Council identified a number of benefits of merging:

• a new unitary authority is likely to devolve more responsibilities to town and parish councils, which would put a larger central Eastleigh council in a better position to take on additional services;
• local decision-making would remain as close to the community as possible;
• the new council would have a stronger voice when engaging with the new unitary authority on issues like planning, infrastructure and community investment, and
• there would be greater financial efficiencies and more consistency in the planning and delivery of services.

The election for seats on the council will take place in May 2026.