Bedfordshire County Council was elected every four years. Luton was administered by the county council until 1997, when it became a unitary authority. Bedfordshire County Council was abolished in 2009, when unitary councils were introduced across the rest of Bedfordshire. Services which prior to 2009 were provided by Bedfordshire County Council are now provided by either Bedford Borough Council or Central Bedfordshire Council.
The county council was first established in 1889. The Local Government Act 1972 significantly reformed the council's powers and responsibilities. After those reforms, political control of the council was held by the following parties:
Party in control | Years | |
---|---|---|
No overall control | 1974–1977 | |
Conservative | 1977–1981 | |
No overall control | 1981-1997 | |
Conservative | 1997-2009 |
The leaders of the council from 2002 until the council's abolition in 2009 were:
Councillor | Party | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Philip Hendry [1] | Conservative | 2002 | ||
Angela Roberts | Conservative | 2002 | 2005 | |
Madeline Russell [2] | Conservative | 2005 | 31 Mar 2009 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 1,280 | 57.9 | +3.2 | ||
Labour | 673 | 30.4 | +2.6 | ||
Liberal Democrats | 259 | 11.7 | -5.8 | ||
Majority | 607 | 47.3 | |||
Turnout | 2,212 | 40.0 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 681 | 47.8 | -4.2 | ||
Conservative | 411 | 28.8 | -19.2 | ||
Independent | 333 | 23.4 | +23.4 | ||
Majority | 270 | 19.0 | |||
Turnout | 1,425 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 1,001 | 69.3 | +11.4 | ||
Liberal Democrats | 318 | 22.0 | +6.9 | ||
Labour | 84 | 5.8 | -11.2 | ||
Green | 41 | 2.8 | +2.8 | ||
Majority | 683 | 47.3 | |||
Turnout | 1,444 | 23.5 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 679 | 70.3 | +20.7 | ||
Liberal Democrats | 287 | 29.7 | +13.2 | ||
Majority | 392 | 40.6 | |||
Turnout | 966 | 20.1 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Luton (225,262), and Bedford is the county town.
Huntingdonshire is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right. It borders Peterborough to the north, Fenland to the north-east, East Cambridgeshire to the east, South Cambridgeshire to the south-east, Central Bedfordshire and Bedford to the south-west, and North Northamptonshire to the west.
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The counties of England are divisions of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are two main legal definitions of the counties in modern usage: the 84 counties for the purposes of local government, and the 48 counties for the purposes of lieutenancy, also termed the ceremonial counties.
Mid Bedfordshire was a local government district in Bedfordshire, England, from 1974 to 2009.
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Bedfordshire is an English ceremonial county which lies between approximately 25 miles and 55 miles north of central London.
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On 1 April 2009 structural changes to local government in England took place which reformed the local government of seven non-metropolitan counties: Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, County Durham, Shropshire, Northumberland, and Wiltshire. In each case the government of the county was changed from a two-tier to a unitary system, with Bedfordshire and Cheshire being divided into two new unitary authorities.
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Central Bedfordshire Council is the local authority for the a unitary authority of Central Bedfordshire in Bedfordshire, England. It was created on 1 April 2009 replacing Mid Bedfordshire, South Bedfordshire and Bedfordshire County Council.
Buckinghamshire Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire in England. It is a unitary authority, performing both county and district-level functions. It was created on 1 April 2020, replacing the previous Buckinghamshire County Council and the councils of the four abolished districts of Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks, and Wycombe. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Milton Keynes.