Gloucestershire County Council

Gloucestershire County Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan county
Leadership
Chair	Vernon Smith, Conservative since 24 May 2023 [1]
Leader	Stephen Davies, Conservative since 11 September 2024
Chief Executive	Pete Bungard since May 2007
Structure
Seats	53 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
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	6 May 2021
Next election	1 May 2025
Meeting place
Shire Hall, Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2TG
Website
www.gloucestershire.gov.uk

Gloucestershire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire, 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 the ceremonial county, the latter additionally including South Gloucestershire. The council went under no overall control following a change of allegiance in May 2024, having previously been under Conservative majority control. It is based at Shire Hall in Gloucester.

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

History

Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions that had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the Quarter Sessions. The cities of Bristol and Gloucester were both considered large enough to provide their own county-level services, so they became county 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 the administrative 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 was John Dorington, a Conservative, who was also the Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury at the time. ^[5]

Local government was reformed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, which made Gloucestershire a non-metropolitan county. As part of the 1974 reforms it ceded an area in the south of the county to the new county of Avon, 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 six non-metropolitan districts. ^[6]

Avon was abolished in 1996 and a new unitary authority called South Gloucestershire created 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 wider ceremonial county of Gloucestershire for the purposes of lieutenancy. ^[8]

Political control

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] [12]}

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

The leaders of the council since 2001 have been:

Councillor	Party		From	To
Peter Clarke [13] [14]		Labour	3 Sep 2001	Apr 2005
		Independent	Apr 2005	May 2005
Barry Dare [15] [16]		Conservative	18 May 2005	19 May 2010
Mark Hawthorne [16] [17]		Conservative	19 May 2010	11 Sep 2024
Stephen Davies [17] [18]		Conservative	11 Sep 2024

Composition

Following the 2021 election and changes of allegiance in February 2022 and May 2024, the composition of the council was: ^{[19] [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. ^[20] The next election is due in 2025.

Premises

The county council has its headquarters at Shire Hall on Westgate Street in Gloucester. ^[21] 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. ^[22]

Elections

See also: Gloucestershire County Council elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2013 the council has comprised 53 councillors, each representing an electoral division. Elections are held every four years. ^[23]

Notable members

• Thomas Davies, later member of parliament for Cirencester and Tewkesbury ^[24]
• David Drew (born 1952), later member of parliament for Stroud
• Sir Henry Elwes (born 1935), later Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire ^[25]
• Julie Girling (born 1956), later a Member of the European Parliament for South West England ^[26]
• Margaret Hills (born 1882) first female councillor on Stroud Urban District Council and a suffragist. ^[27]
• Nigel Jones (born 1948), later member of parliament for Cheltenham and a life peer ^[28]

See also

• Category:Councillors in Gloucestershire

Notes

1. "Council minutes, 24 May 2023". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
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, retrieved 27 August 2023
5. "Gloucestershire County Council: First general meeting of the council". Gloucestershire Echo. Cheltenham. 2 April 1889. p. 3. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
6. "The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, SI 1972/2039, retrieved 31 May 2023
7. "The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, SI 1995/493, retrieved 27 August 2023
8. "Lieutenancies Act 1997", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, 1997 c. 23, retrieved 27 August 2023
9. Rowe, Edward (13 May 2024). "Tories lose county council majority after defection". BBC News. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
10. "Compositions calculator". The Elections Centre. 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
11. "Cotswold". BBC News Online . 4 May 2007. Retrieved 25 September 2009.
12. "Compositions Calculator". The Elections Centre. University of Exeter. Retrieved 26 November 2024. (Put "Gloucestershire" in search box to see specific results.)
13. "Council minutes, 3 September 2001". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
14. "County council leader quits party". BBC News. 21 April 2005. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
15. "Council minutes, 18 May 2005" (PDF). Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
16. "Council minutes, 19 May 2010". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
17. "Council minutes, 11 September 2024" (PDF). Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
18. Ashcroft, Esme (11 September 2024). "New council leader promises to tackle potholes". BBC News. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
19. Horton, Kim (3 February 2022). "Gloucestershire councillor to appear in court accused of breaching Animal Welfare Act regulation". Gloucestershire Live. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
20. "Your Councillors by Party". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
21. "Our address". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
22. Historic England. "Shire Hall (Grade II) (1245084)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 27 August 2023.
23. "The Gloucestershire (Electoral Changes) Order 2012", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, SI 2012/877, retrieved 27 August 2023
24. F. W. S. Craig, British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services, 1983 edition), p. 359
25. 'ELWES, Sir Henry (William George)' in Who's Who 2013 (London: A & C Black, 2012)
26. 'GIRLING, Julie McCulloch', in Who's Who 2014 (London: A. & C. Black, 2014); online edition by Oxford University Press, December 2013, accessed 17 January 2014
27. Watson, Sarah Phaedre (24 January 2018). "Can you help uncover the history of a 'dangerous woman' of Stroud?". Stroud Journal. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
28. "No. 57683". The London Gazette . 23 June 2005. p. 8169.

External links

• Official website