Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council | |
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Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Founded | 1 April 1965 |
Leadership | |
Maxine Holdsworth since 2022 [2] | |
Structure | |
Seats | 50 councillors |
Political groups |
|
Length of term | Whole council elected every four years |
Elections | |
Plurality-at-large | |
Last election | 5 May 2022 |
Next election | 7 May 2026 |
Meeting place | |
Town Hall, Hornton Street, London, W8 7NX | |
Website | |
www |
Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council, also known as Kensington and Chelsea Council, is the local authority for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Conservative majority control since its creation in 1965. It is based at Kensington Town Hall.
Chelsea and Kensington were both ancient parishes in the historic county of Middlesex. From 1856 the two parishes were in the area governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London. [3] In 1889 the Metropolitan Board of Works' area was made the County of London. From 1856 until 1900 the lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards, with both Chelsea and Kensington being governed by their respective vestries. In 1900 the lower tier was reorganised into metropolitan boroughs, two of which were called Chelsea and Kensington, corresponding to the two earlier vestries and parishes. [4] The borough of Kensington was given the honorific title of royal borough in 1901. [5]
The modern borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963. It was a merger of the old metropolitan boroughs of Chelsea and Kensington, and it inherited Kensington's royal borough status. [6] The council's full legal name is the "Mayor and Burgesses of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea", although it styles itself Kensington and Chelsea Council or RBKC. [7] [2] [8]
From 1965 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the Greater London Council. The split of powers and functions meant that the Greater London Council was responsible for "wide area" services such as fire, ambulance, flood prevention, and refuse disposal; with the boroughs (including Kensington and Chelsea) responsible for "personal" services such as social care, libraries, cemeteries and refuse collection. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to the London Boroughs, with some services provided through joint committees. [9] Kensington and Chelsea became a local education authority in 1990 when the Inner London Education Authority was dissolved. [10]
Since 2000 the Greater London Authority has taken some responsibility for highways and planning control from the council, but within the English local government system the council remains a "most purpose" authority in terms of the available range of powers and functions. [11]
The local authority derives its powers and functions from the London Government Act 1963 and subsequent legislation, and has the powers and functions of a London borough council. It sets council tax and as a billing authority also collects business rates and precepts for Greater London Authority functions. [12] It sets planning policies which complement Greater London Authority and national policies, and decides on almost all planning applications accordingly. It is a local education authority and is also responsible for council housing, social services, libraries, waste collection and disposal, traffic, and most roads and environmental health. [13]
The first election was held in 1964, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until it came into its powers on 1 April 1965. The Conservatives have held a majority of the seats on the council since its creation. [14] [15]
Party in control | Years | |
---|---|---|
Conservative | 1965–present |
The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Kensington and Chelsea. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1965 have been: [16] [17]
Councillor | Party | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ernest Anslow-Wilson | Conservative | 1965 | 1968 | |
Malby Crofton | Conservative | 1968 | 1977 | |
Nicholas Freeman | Conservative | 1977 | 1989 | |
Joan Hanham | Conservative | 1989 | 12 Apr 2000 | |
Merrick Cockell | Conservative | 12 Apr 2000 | 22 May 2013 | |
Nicholas Paget-Brown | Conservative | 22 May 2013 | 30 Jun 2017 | |
Elizabeth Campbell | Conservative | 19 Jul 2017 |
Following the 2022 election and changes of allegiance up to April 2024, the composition of the council was as follows: [18]
Party | Councillors | |
---|---|---|
Conservative | 35 | |
Labour | 8 | |
Independent | 3 | |
Liberal Democrats | 2 | |
Green | 1 | |
Vacant | 1 | |
Total | 50 |
Two of the three independents sit together as the 'Independent Group'. [19] A by-election to fill the vacancy is due in May 2024, otherwise the next election is due in May 2026.
Since the last boundary changes in 2014 the council has comprised 50 councillors representing 18 wards, with each ward electing two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years. [20]
The council is based at Kensington Town Hall on Horton Street, which was purpose-built for the council to the designs of Basil Spence between 1972 and 1976 and opened in 1977. [21] [22]
Prior to 1977 the council's functions were split between several buildings, notably including the Old Town Hall on Kensington High Street and Chelsea Town Hall on King's Road, both of which had been inherited from its predecessor councils. The council held its meetings at the Old Town Hall in Kensington. [23]
In 1982 the then leader of the council, Nicholas Freeman, provoked a storm of opposition amongst people of all political persuasions by ordering the overnight destruction of Kensington's Old Town Hall, which had been completed in 1880. [22] The government had refused a planning appeal for the site's redevelopment, and the Greater London Council had signalled that it was about to designate a conservation area covering the Old Town Hall and surrounding area, after which demolition works in the area would require planning permission. Starting in the early hours of Saturday 12 June, two days after the planning appeal was dismissed, the façade of the Old Town Hall was demolished. [24] [25]
The Royal Fine Art Commission condemned the action as "official vandalism... decided upon covertly, implemented without warning and timed deliberately to thwart known opposition". [26] The Kensington Society predicted that the council would be "completely condemned" for its actions [27] and a journalist writing in The Times recorded the council as being "deeply shamed for the example it had set to other listed-building owners". [28] Demolition work was temporarily halted, but in 1984 it was decided that the building was beyond repair and the rest of the building was demolished and the site redeveloped. [22]
Grenfell Tower , the fire ,and its aftermath |
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Category |
On 14 June 2017, a major fire destroyed the council-owned, 24-storey Grenfell Tower, a public housing building in the mainly working-class area of North Kensington, causing 72 deaths. [29] The tower block was managed on behalf of (but independently of) the council by Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), the largest tenant management organisation (TMO) in England, which is responsible for the management of nearly 10,000 properties in the borough. [30]
On 15 June, Kensington and Chelsea invoked the help of the other London boroughs in supporting the survivors. Responsibility was handed over to a Grenfell fire-response team led by a group of chief executives from councils across London. Resources available to them included central government, the British Red Cross, the Metropolitan Police, the London Fire Brigade and local government across London. Neighbouring councils sent in staff to improve the rehousing response. [31] [32]
On 21 June, the council chief executive Nicholas Holgate resigned amid criticism over the borough's response to the fire. [33] The Prime Minister Theresa May commented that the council "couldn't cope" in the response to the fire, and that it "was right" that the chief executive had resigned. [34] The Conservative leader of the council, Nicholas Paget-Brown, initially resisted calls to resign, [31] but announced on 30 June that he would step down. [35] He was replaced as leader by Conservative councillor Elizabeth Campbell on 19 July 2017. [36] Lewisham Council's chief executive, Barry Quirk, was seconded to take over from Nicholas Holgate in June and took up the chief executive role on a permanent basis in September 2017. [37]
The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London, England; each is governed by a London borough council. The present London boroughs were all created at the same time as Greater London on 1 April 1965 by the London Government Act 1963 and are a type of local government district. Twelve were designated as Inner London boroughs and twenty as Outer London boroughs. The City of London, the historic centre, is a separate ceremonial county and sui generis local government district that functions quite differently from a London borough. However, the two counties together comprise the administrative area of Greater London as well as the London Region, all of which is also governed by the Greater London Authority, under the Mayor of London.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the United Kingdom. It includes affluent areas such as Notting Hill, Kensington, South Kensington, Chelsea, and Knightsbridge.
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The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Parks Police is a body of constables responsible for policing the parks and open spaces of the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. In 2013, it was merged with the Hammersmith and Fulham Parks Constabulary to form the Parks Police Service. Then, in July 2019 The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Parks Police moved away from The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Parks Constabulary, once again becoming a single service.
Nicholas Hall Freeman, OBE (1985) was the Conservative Party leader of the London Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council in the United Kingdom from 1977 until 1989; he was also its mayor in 1988.
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Kensington and Chelsea TMO (KCTMO) was the largest tenant management organisation (TMO) in England, managing nearly 10,000 properties on behalf of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council – the entire council housing stock in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
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Daniel Michael Gerald Moylan, Baron Moylan is an English Conservative politician and a member of the House of Lords.
Emma Dent Coad is a British architectural historian and politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kensington from 2017 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, she has been a member of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council since 2006. She resigned her Labour membership on 27 April 2023, but remains on the local council as an independent.
On 14 June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, at 00:54 BST and burned for 60 hours. Seventy people died at the scene, and two people died later in hospital, with more than 70 injured and 223 escaping. It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 Piper Alpha oil-platform disaster and the worst UK residential fire since the German Bombings of World War II.
Nicholas Paget-Brown is an English Conservative politician who was leader of the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council. He was first elected as a councillor for Hans Town on 8 May 1986. He became leader of the council on 23 May 2013. On 30 June 2017, he announced that he would step down as leader due to the council's response to the Grenfell Tower fire, and was replaced as leader by Conservative Elizabeth Campbell on 19 July 2017.
The 2018 Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council election took place on 3 May 2018 to elect members of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council in England. The election was held on the same day as other local elections in England. While Kensington and Chelsea is usually regarded as a Conservative stronghold, there was media speculation that Labour could win control of the council in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. However the Conservatives maintained control, losing just one Councillor, in St. Helen's Ward, winning 36 seats to Labour's 13.
On 14 June 2017, the Grenfell Tower fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, at 00:54 BST; it caused 72 deaths, including those of two victims who later died in hospital. More than 70 others were injured and 223 people escaped. It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster and the worst UK residential fire since the Second World War.
The old Town Hall was a municipal facility at Kensington High Street in Kensington, West London. It was demolished in 1982.
The 2022 Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council election was held on 5 May 2022. All 50 members of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council were elected. The elections took place alongside local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom.