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Gloucestershire County Council

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Gloucestershire County Council
Coat of arms of Gloucestershire County Council
Council logo
Type
Type
Leadership
Vernon Smith,
Conservative
since 24 May 2023[1]
Mark Hawthorne,
Conservative
since 19 May 2010
Pete Bungard
since May 2007
Structure
Seats53 councillors[2]
Political groups
Administration (26)
Conservative(26)
Other parties (27)
Liberal Democrats(16)
Labour(5)
Green(5)
Independent(1)
Length of term
4 years
Elections
First past the post
Last election
6 May 2021
Next election
1 May 2025
Meeting place
Shire Hall,Westgate Street,Gloucester,GL12TG
Website
www.gloucestershire.gov.uk

Gloucestershire County Councilis the upper-tier local authority for thenon-metropolitan countyofGloucestershire,in England. The council was created in 1889. The council's principal functions are county roads and rights of way, social services, education and libraries, but it also provides many other local government services in the area it covers. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than theceremonial county,the latter additionally includingSouth Gloucestershire.The council went underno overall controlfollowing a change of allegiance in May 2024, having previously been underConservativemajority control. It is based atShire HallinGloucester.

The area administered by the county council comprises 2,653 square kilometres (1,024 sq mi).[3]

History

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Elected county councils were created in 1889 under theLocal Government Act 1888,taking over many administrative functions that had previously been performed by unelectedmagistratesat theQuarter Sessions.The cities ofBristoland Gloucester were both considered large enough to provide their own county-level services, so they becamecounty boroughs,independent from the county council. The county council was elected by and provided services to the remainder of the county outside those two boroughs, which area was termed theadministrative county.[4]

The first elections were held in January 1889, and the council formally came into being on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first official meeting at Shire Hall in Gloucester. The first chairman of the council wasJohn Dorington,aConservative,who was also theMember of ParliamentforTewkesburyat the time.[5]

Local government was reformed in 1974 under theLocal Government Act 1972,which made Gloucestershire anon-metropolitan county.As part of the 1974 reforms it ceded an area in the south of the county to the new county ofAvon,but gained the former county borough of Gloucester. The lower tier of local government was rearranged at the same time, with the county being divided into sixnon-metropolitan districts.[6]

Avon was abolished in 1996 and a newunitary authoritycalledSouth Gloucestershirecreated covering the area which had been ceded from the old administrative county of Gloucestershire to Avon in 1974.[7]As a unitary authority South Gloucestershire is independent from Gloucestershire County Council, although it is classed as part of the widerceremonial countyof Gloucestershire for the purposes oflieutenancy.[8]

Political control

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The council has been under no overall control since 2024.[9]

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:[10][11]

Party in control Years
No overall control 1974–2005
Conservative 2005–2013
No overall control 2013–2017
Conservative 2017–2024
No overall control 2024–present

Leadership

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Theleaders of the councilsince 2001 have been:[12]

Councillor Party From To
Peter Clarke Labour 3 Sep 2001 8 May 2005
Barry Dare Conservative 18 May 2005 19 May 2010
Mark Hawthorne Conservative 19 May 2010

Composition

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Following the2021 electionand changes of allegiance in February 2022 and May 2024, the composition of the council was:[13][9]

Party Councillors
Conservative 26
Liberal Democrats 16
Labour 5
Green 5
Independent 1
Total 53

The independent councillor describes themselves as an "independent Conservative", having been elected in 2021 as a Conservative.[14]The next election is due in 2025.

Premises

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The county council has its headquarters at Shire Hall on Westgate Street in Gloucester.[15]The building had originally been built in 1816 as a courthouse and had served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council. The county council then used the Shire Hall as its meeting place and built various extensions to accommodate its offices. Most of the building was demolished and rebuilt in the 1960s behind the retained façade of the 1816 building, with the reconstructed building being completed in 1970.[16]

Elections

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Since the last boundary changes in 2013 the council has comprised 53councillors,each representing anelectoral division.Elections are held every four years.[17]

Notable members

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^"Council minutes, 24 May 2023".Gloucestershire County Council.Retrieved27 August2023.
  2. ^"Open Council Data UK - compositions councillors parties wards elections".
  3. ^"Land Area of Gloucestershire"(PDF).
  4. ^"Local Government Act 1888",legislation.gov.uk,The National Archives,1888 c. 41,retrieved27 August2023
  5. ^"Gloucestershire County Council: First general meeting of the council".Gloucestershire Echo.Cheltenham. 2 April 1889. p. 3.Retrieved27 August2023.
  6. ^"The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972",legislation.gov.uk,The National Archives,SI 1972/2039,retrieved31 May2023
  7. ^"The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995",legislation.gov.uk,The National Archives,SI 1995/493,retrieved27 August2023
  8. ^"Lieutenancies Act 1997",legislation.gov.uk,The National Archives,1997 c. 23,retrieved27 August2023
  9. ^abRowe, Edward (13 May 2024)."Tories lose county council majority after defection".BBC News.Retrieved13 May2024.
  10. ^"Compositions calculator".The Elections Centre.4 March 2016.Retrieved10 August2022.
  11. ^"Cotswold".BBC News Online.4 May 2007.Retrieved25 September2009.
  12. ^"Council minutes".Gloucestershire County Council.Retrieved25 June2022.
  13. ^Horton, Kim (3 February 2022)."Gloucestershire councillor to appear in court accused of breaching Animal Welfare Act regulation".Gloucestershire Live.Retrieved27 August2023.
  14. ^"Your Councillors by Party".Gloucestershire County Council.Retrieved27 August2023.
  15. ^"Our address".Gloucestershire County Council.Retrieved27 August2023.
  16. ^Historic England."Shire Hall (Grade II) (1245084)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved27 August2023.
  17. ^"The Gloucestershire (Electoral Changes) Order 2012",legislation.gov.uk,The National Archives,SI 2012/877,retrieved27 August2023
  18. ^F. W. S. Craig,British parliamentary election results 1918–1949(Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services, 1983 edition), p. 359
  19. ^'ELWES, Sir Henry (William George)' inWho's Who 2013(London: A & C Black, 2012)
  20. ^'GIRLING, Julie McCulloch', inWho's Who 2014(London: A. & C. Black, 2014); online edition by Oxford University Press, December 2013, accessed 17 January 2014
  21. ^Watson, Sarah Phaedre (24 January 2018)."Can you help uncover the history of a 'dangerous woman' of Stroud?".Stroud Journal.Retrieved3 March2018.
  22. ^"No. 57683".The London Gazette.23 June 2005. p. 8169.
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