Southend & district · Local news you can trust
Free on Saturday 31 October: the parade leaves Eastern Esplanade at 6pm, reaches the pier by 6.45pm and ends at 7.30pm with fireworks. Route, parking, joining.
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Southend Airport
Southend Airport: Belfast, Budapest, Edinburgh from 25 Oct
Belfast City starts on 25 October, Budapest on 26 October and Edinburgh on 29 October. Lanzarote is promised for October but has no published date.
Sport
Southend Runner Finishes Dragon's Back in 52hrs 13min
Daniel Dublin covered 112.22 miles and 27,921ft across Wales in six days, eighth in the Hatchling, after an Achilles problem forced him to change the plan.
Airport
Southend Airport: easyJet Adds 4th Jet, Rhodes from 27 Apr
easyJet will base a fourth A320neo at Southend from summer 2027 and fly to Rhodes twice a week from 27 April. The airport expects to pass a million passengers next year and employ more than 400 people.
Schools
Southend Early Years: Record 74.9% Reach a Good Level
74.9% of Southend's Reception children reached a good level of development in 2025/26, up from 68.4% a year earlier and 65.5% the year before. That is 0.2 points short of the council's 2028 target.
What's On
What's on in Southend this weekend, 25 to 27 September
The seafront fireworks return on Saturday at 7.30pm, the Vulcan opens for its last visit day of 2026 on Sunday, Southend United host Barrow, and Sunday's c2c trains divert to Liverpool Street.
Remembrance
Southend Remembrance Sunday 2026: Cenotaph Service at 11am
Remembrance Sunday in Southend is 8 November 2026. Last year the parade formed at Prittlewell Square at 10:15am for the 11am service at the Cenotaph.
New Year's Eve
Southend New Year's Eve Fireworks 2026: 6pm and Midnight?
Southend has held free New Year's Eve fireworks at 6pm and midnight off the pier for two years running. What is confirmed for 31 December 2026 so far.
Christmas
Southend Santa's Grotto 2026: Adventure Island From 28 Nov
Adventure Island's Father Christmas opens 28 November 2026 at £40 per child with one adult free. Prittlewell Priory's £16 visits, and what else is confirmed.
Southend Pier
Southend Pier Winter Opening Times: Wednesday to Sunday
Southend Pier is open daily 10:15am to 6pm now, but last winter it opened Wednesday to Sunday only, 10:15am to 5pm. Ticket prices, the train and the museum.
Licensing
Southend Licensing: KFC Eastwood Bids to Serve Until 5am
KFC on Stephenson Road wants to serve until 5am and objections close on 29 September. Five licence bids are open in Southend, with deadlines to 15 October.
Leigh-on-Sea
Leigh Port Rebuild: £21.8m Contract Goes Without a Tender
Cabinet approved the £21.8m Leigh Port contract as a direct award, not a competition, and the Levelling Up grant runs out in March 2028, before the work ends.
Southend Airport
Southend Airport Is the UK's Most Punctual, at 83.9%
Southend ran 83.9% of flights on time from April to June, first of 25 UK airports. In June it beat Stansted by 20 points. We read the CAA's own tables.
Southend is a city made of towns that never quite merged. Leigh keeps its own life down by the cockle sheds. Westcliff and Chalkwell shade into one another along the cliffs. Thorpe Bay is not Shoeburyness, and Prittlewell is neither of them. What everybody shares is the estuary in front and one council behind.
Southend Today reports on that council and on what it publishes: the planning register, budgets, licensing decisions, alongside police crime data and food hygiene inspections. We write it up in plain English and show the paperwork, so anything you doubt you can go and read for yourself.
We also keep the pages people look up all year. Which parking zone you are actually in and what it costs there, when your bin is collected, how the council tax bands work in the city. Practical first, then the news, and nothing published that we cannot point at a source for.