Bristol City Council | |
---|---|
Type | |
Type | |
Leadership | |
Structure | |
Seats | 1 executive mayor 70 councillors [4] |
Council political groups |
|
Joint committees | West of England Combined Authority |
Length of term | Executive mayor elected every four years Full council election every 4 years. [5] Formerly a third elected three years out of four until 2016. |
Elections | |
Council voting system | Plurality-at-large |
Mayor voting system | Supplementary vote |
Last Council election | 6 May 2021 (all councillors) |
Last Mayor election | 6 May 2021 |
Next Council election | 2 May 2024 (all councillors) |
Motto | |
Virtute et Industria (By Virtue and Industry) | |
Meeting place | |
City Hall, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TR | |
Website | |
www |
Bristol City Council is the local authority of Bristol, England. The council is a unitary authority, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by its directly elected mayor. Bristol has 34 wards, electing a total of 70 councillors. [6]
The council was formed by the Local Government Act 1972. It was first elected in 1973, a year before formally coming into its powers and prior to the creation of the non-metropolitan district of Bristol on 1 April 1974.
Under the Local Government Act 1972 Bristol as a non-metropolitan district council would share power with the Avon County Council. This arrangement lasted until 1996 when Avon County Council was abolished and Bristol City Council gained responsibility for services that had been provided by the county council.
In 2012, Bristol voted to change to a mayor run council, but in 2022 voted to return to a councillor committee run council to spread power and decision making. Following the 2024 Bristol City Council election, eight policy committees will take charge of different parts of the council. Policy committees will have about nine councillors from different political parties, with the committee chairs having a similar role to the previous cabinet members under the mayoral system. There will also be nine area committees to provide more district direction. [7]
The mayor of Bristol following the 2021 mayoral election is Marvin Rees for the Labour Party. Originally intended to serve for four years from 2016, his first term was extended by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was re-elected for a shortened three-year term in 2021. [8]
Rees previously ran in the first Bristol mayoral election, coming second place to the independent George Ferguson.
On 7 December 2021, the majority of opposition councillors backed a legally binding motion to hold a referendum on the future of the role of the Elected Mayor of Bristol. The referendum on in May 2022 offered Bristolians the choice of keeping an elected mayor or reverting to a committee system of governance. [9] [10] The result was to abolish the role of mayor from May 2024. [11]
Following the 2021 Bristol City Council election, no party held a majority in the chamber, with both the Green Party and Labour holding the same number of seats. The council had previously been controlled by the Labour Party since 2016, and the council continues to be led by the directly-elected executive Mayor.
The Liberal Democrats gained eight seats in the election. However, on 13 December 2021, former Lord Mayor Chris Davies and former Lib Dem Bristol group leader Gary Hopkins defected from the party to form the Knowle Community Party. [12]
On 24 December 2021, the Labour councillor for Southmead, Helen Godwin, announced she would be resigning, triggering a by-election for 17 February 2022, [13] at which Kye Dudd (former councillor for Central until May 2021) of the Labour Party was elected to replace her. [14]
The Green Party became the largest party in 2023 following the Hotwells and Harbourside by-election, gaining a seat from the Liberal Democrats. [15]
On 12 December 2023, Labour councillor for Filwood, Zoe Goodman resigned from the Labour Party over its response to what she called "the genocide in Gaza", becoming an Independent councillor. [16]
In March 2024, the Green party suspended one of their councillors for Ashley, Jude English, pending investigation of a complaint against her. [17]
Party | Councillors | |
---|---|---|
Green | 24 | |
Labour | 23 | |
Conservative | 14 | |
Liberal Democrats | 5 | |
Knowle Community Party | 2 | |
Independent | 2 |
The cabinet is led by Mayor Marvin Rees and currently consists of nine members (including Rees). All cabinet members are currently part of the Labour Party. [18]
Position | Party | Person | |
---|---|---|---|
Mayor, lead on City Policy, Strategic Planning and Communications, Council Plan | Labour | Marvin Rees | |
Deputy mayor, cabinet member for City Economy Finance and Performance | Labour | Craig Cheney | |
Cabinet member for Children Services, Education and Equalities | Labour | Asher Craig | |
Cabinet member for Waste, Climate, Ecology and Just Transition | Labour | Marley Bennett | |
Cabinet member for Public Health and Communities | Labour | Ellie King | |
Cabinet member for Adult Social Care and Integrated Care System | Labour | Helen Holland | |
Cabinet member for Strategic Planning, Resilience and Floods | Labour | Nicola Beech | |
Cabinet member for Housing Delivery and Homelessness | Labour | Tom Renhard | |
Cabinet member for Transport | Labour | Don Alexander | |
Cabinet member for Housing Services and Energy | Labour | Kye Dudd |
The Bristol City Youth Council (BCYC) are an elected group of young people aged 11 to 18. Members are voted for in the Bristol Big Youth Vote, which takes place in schools, with students voting. The constituencies for Youth Council are divided into Bristol North, Bristol East Central, and Bristol South, with each area having eight members. This is in addition to several co-optees from special representation groups such as Young Carers, Unity Youth, and the Children in Care Council.
The purpose of the Youth Council is express young people's views on the decisions that are important to them and that their opinions are voiced and heard. They also run internal and external campaigns
The Youth Council also internally elects two members of youth parliament (MYP), and two youth mayors. The youth mayors act as advisors to the mayor, Marvin Rees, and attend meetings and accompany him to events. [19] As of February 2023, the Youth Mayors are Mya Parker and Felix Massey. [19]
Dan Norris is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Mayor of the West of England since May 2021. He previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wansdyke from 1997 to 2010.
Bristol North West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Darren Jones of the Labour Party.
Sheffield City Council is the local authority for the City of Sheffield, a metropolitan borough with city status in South Yorkshire, England. The council consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under no overall control, with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party each holding chair positions in a proportionate number of committees.
Bristol City Council is the local authority for Bristol, a unitary authority and ceremonial county in England. Until 1 April 1996 it was a non-metropolitan district in Avon. Since 2012 it has also had a directly elected mayor.
Local authority areas in England typically have an executive leader and a cabinet selected from the local council, similar to how the national prime minister and cabinet are selected from Parliament. In contrast, residents of some areas, or groups of areas known as combined authorities or combined county authorities, directly elect the executive mayors of their local government.
The city of Bristol, England, is a unitary authority, represented by four MPs representing seats wholly within the city boundaries. As well as these, Filton and Bradley Stoke covers the northern urban fringe in South Gloucestershire and the north eastern urban fringe is in the Kingswood constituency. The overall trend of both local and national representation became left of centre during the latter 20th century, but there was a shift to the right in the 2010 general election. The city has a tradition of local activism, with environmental issues and sustainable transport being prominent issues in the city.
Bristol City Council is a unitary authority and ceremonial county in England. Originally formed on 1 April 1974 as a non-metropolitan district as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. It was envisaged that Bristol would share power with Avon County Council, an arrangement that lasted until 1996 when it was made into a unitary authority by the Local Government Commission for England, which abolished the county of Avon and gave Bristol City Council control of Avon Council's responsibilities.
The Mayor of Bristol is the political leader of Bristol City Council. The mayor is a directly elected politician who, along with the 70 members of Bristol City Council, is responsible for the strategic government of the city of Bristol, England. The role was created after a local referendum held on 3 May 2012, which followed the passage of the Localism Act 2011. 41,032 voted for an elected mayor and 35,880 voted against, with a turnout of 24%. An election for the new post was held on 15 November 2012.
Marvin Rees is a British Labour Party politician serving as Mayor of Bristol since 2016.
The 2021 West of England mayoral election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of the West of England, on the same day as other local elections across the country. It was the second election for the role. The mayor was elected by the supplementary vote system.
The Mayor of Croydon is a directly elected mayor responsible for the executive function of Croydon London Borough Council. The current mayor is Jason Perry of the Conservative Party, elected in May 2022, and the first holder of the post.
The 2021 Bristol City Council election took place on 6 May 2021 to elect members of Bristol City Council in England. It coincided with nationwide local elections. Voters in the city also voted for the mayor of Bristol, the mayor of West of England and for Avon and Somerset's police and crime commissioner. The election was originally due to take place in May 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carla Suzanne Denyer is a British politician who has served as co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Adrian Ramsay since 1 October 2021. She has been a city councillor in Bristol since 2015. She is also noted for her lead role in bringing about Bristol City Council's declaration of a climate emergency in 2018, which was the first in Europe.
Hotwells and Harbourside is one of the thirty-four council wards in the city of Bristol in the Southwest of England, United Kingdom.
The 2022 London local elections took place on 5 May 2022, as part of the 2022 United Kingdom local elections. All London borough councillor seats were up for election. Mayoral elections took place in Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets, with Croydon electing a mayor for the first time following a local referendum in October 2021.
The 2022 United Kingdom local elections took place on Thursday 5 May 2022. These included elections for all London borough councils, for all local authorities in Wales and Scotland. Most seats in England were last up for election in 2018 and in Scotland and Wales in 2017. The elections coincided with the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election. In 91 cases, most of them in Wales, council seats were uncontested, each having only one candidate. Three seats in Scotland remained unfilled as no one nominated to fill them.
In the 2022 Croydon London Borough Council election, on 5 May 2022, all 70 members of Croydon London Borough Council, and the Mayor of Croydon, were up for election. The elections took place alongside the local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom. Jason Perry of the Conservative Party narrowly won the mayoral election.
The 2022 Newham London Borough Council election took place on 5 May 2022. All 66 members of Newham London Borough Council were elected. The election took place alongside local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom.
The 2024 Bristol City Council election is scheduled to be held on Thursday 2 May 2024, alongside the other local elections in the United Kingdom, which are being held on the same day. It will elect all 70 councillors to the Bristol City Council for a four-year term.
A by-election took place on 15 February 2024 in the UK Parliament constituency of Kingswood in South Gloucestershire. This followed the resignation of Conservative MP Chris Skidmore, in protest at the UK government's decision to issue more oil and gas licences. Skidmore announced his resignation on 5 January and it was effected three days later.