Warwickshire County Council | |
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Type | |
Type | |
Leadership | |
Monica Fogarty since October 2018 [2] | |
Structure | |
Seats | 57 councillors |
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Political groups |
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Length of term | 4 years |
Elections | |
First past the post | |
Last election | 6 May 2021 |
Next election | 1 May 2025 |
Meeting place | |
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Shire Hall, Market Place, Warwick, CV34 4RL | |
Website | |
www |
Warwickshire County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Warwickshire in England. Its headquarters are at Shire Hall in the centre of Warwick, the county town. The council's principal functions are county roads and rights of way, social services, education and libraries, but it also provides numerous other local government services in its area.
Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions which had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. The cities of Birmingham and Coventry were considered large enough to provide their own county-level services and so were made county boroughs, independent from Warwickshire County Council. [lower-alpha 1] The county council was elected by and provided services to the rest of the county, which area was termed the administrative county. The 1888 Act also said that any urban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries were to be placed entirely in the county which had the majority of that district's population, which saw Warwickshire cede its part of Tamworth to Staffordshire and its part of Hinckley to Leicestershire. [3]
The first elections to the county council were held in January 1889 and it formally came into being on 1 April 1889. On that day it held its first official meeting at the Shire Hall in Warwick, the courthouse which had served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council. John Dugdale, the Conservative MP for Nuneaton, was appointed the first chairman of the council. [4]
The administrative county ceded Aston Manor and Erdington to Birmingham in 1911. [5] Solihull was made a county borough in 1964. [6]
The administrative county was reformed in 1974 to become a non-metropolitan county, at which point it also ceded Sutton Coldfield, Hockley Heath and much of the Meriden Rural District to the new West Midlands metropolitan county, which also covered the already independent county boroughs of Birmingham, Coventry and Solihull, alongside other territory from Staffordshire and Worcestershire. [7] [8] At the same time, Warwickshire was divided into five non-metropolitan districts which form a lower tier of local government. [9]
In 2024 the Council became the centre of a national controversy following comments made by three Conservative Councillors during a Children’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee discussing spending on Special Educational NeedS (SEND). [10]
The comments by Cllr Brian Hammersley, Cllr Clare Golby and Cllr Jeff Morgan were considered to be 'derogatory' [11] and attracted national and local media and video footage of the meeting was shared on social media. Following the media attention the Council published a statement and apologies from the three Councillors. [12]
The Conservative Group received criticism for their decision not to discipline the Councillors by removing the whip and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked to intervene by the Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western during Prime Minister Question Time. [13] A letter about the incident was published by Disability Rights UK and co signed by 12 other disability charities. [14] Following a large number of official complaints the Council hired solicitor firm to conduct an investigation into the complaints. [15] There report is expected to be published in June 2024. [16]
A petition with over 30,000 signatures calling for the three Councillors to resign was submitted to the Council with Leader Izzi Seccombe accepting the petition but declining to debate the petition. [17] As a result of the comments a joint Labour and Liberal Democrat motion was submitted for all elected members to receive training on SEND. This received cross party support and was unanimously voted for. [18]
Warwickshire County Council provides county-level services. District-level services are provided by the five district councils:
Much of the county is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government. [19]
The county council has been under Conservative majority control since 2017.
Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows: [20] [21]
Party in control | Years | |
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No overall control | 1974–1977 | |
Conservative | 1977–1981 | |
No overall control | 1981–1989 | |
Conservative | 1989–1993 | |
No overall control | 1993–2009 | |
Conservative | 2009–2013 | |
No overall control | 2013–2017 | |
Conservative | 2017–present |
The leaders of the council since 1993 have been: [22]
Councillor | Party | From | To | |
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John Vereker [23] | Conservative | 20 May 1993 | ||
Ian Bottrill [24] [25] | Labour | 20 May 1993 | 8 May 2005 | |
Alan Farnell | Conservative | 17 May 2005 | 5 May 2013 | |
Izzi Seccombe [26] | Conservative | 21 May 2013 |
Following the 2021 election the composition of the council was: [27]
Party | Councillors | |
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Conservative | 42 | |
Labour | 6 | |
Liberal Democrats | 5 | |
Green | 3 | |
Whitnash Residents Association | 1 | |
Total | 57 |
The next election is due in 2025.
Since the last boundary changes in 2017 the council has been divided into 57 electoral divisions, each electing one councillor. Elections are held every four years. [28]
The county council is based at the Shire Hall in Market Place, Warwick, a complex of buildings built over many years. The oldest part was a courthouse built in 1758 facing Northgate Street. [29] As the county council's functions grew it built new offices in 1929–32 on the adjoining site of the former county jail, retaining the jail's 1783 façade to Northgate Street. A large extension completed in 1958 included a new council chamber, and a further extension in 1966 created a new frontage and main entrance for the building facing Market Place. [30]
Nuneaton is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east. Nuneaton's population at the 2021 census was 88,813, making it the largest town in Warwickshire. Nuneaton's urban area, which also includes the large villages of Bulkington and Hartshill, had a population of 99,372 at the 2021 census.
Warwick is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is 9 miles (14 km) south of Coventry, and 19 miles (31 km) south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whitnash.
Nuneaton and Bedworth is a local government district with borough status in Warwickshire, England. It includes the towns of Nuneaton and Bedworth, as well as a modest rural hinterland including the village of Bulkington.
The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of International Territorial Level for statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. The region consists of the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire. The region has seven cities; Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Lichfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton and Worcester.
The Borough of Rugby is a local government district with borough status in Warwickshire, England. The borough comprises the town of Rugby where the council has its headquarters, and the rural areas surrounding the town. At the 2021 census the borough had a population of 114,400, of which 78,125 lived in the built-up area of Rugby itself and the remainder were in the surrounding areas.
Warwickshire is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire to the south, and Worcestershire and the West Midlands county to the west. The largest settlement is Nuneaton and the county town is Warwick.
North Warwickshire is a local government district with borough status in Warwickshire, England. The borough includes the two towns of Atherstone and Coleshill, and the large villages of Polesworth, Kingsbury, Hartshill and Water Orton along with smaller villages and surrounding rural areas.
Warwick is a local government district in Warwickshire, England. It is named after the historic county town of Warwick, which is the district's second largest town; the largest town is Royal Leamington Spa, where the council is based. The district also includes the towns of Kenilworth and Whitnash and surrounding villages and rural areas. Leamington Spa, Warwick and Whitnash form a conurbation which has about two thirds of the district's population.
The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough in West Midlands county, England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of seven boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region. Much of the large residential population in the north of the borough centres on the communities of Castle Bromwich, Kingshurst, Marston Green and Smith's Wood as well as the towns of Chelmsley Wood and Fordbridge. In the south are the towns of Shirley and Solihull, as well as the large villages of Knowle, Dorridge, Meriden and Balsall Common.
This is about the history of the County of Warwick situated in the English Midlands. Historically, bounded to the north-west by Staffordshire, by Leicestershire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the east, Worcestershire to the west, Oxfordshire to the south, Gloucestershire to the south-west, an exclave of Derbyshire to the far north, and less than 400 yards from the border with Shropshire in the far west.
Meriden was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It was named after the village of Meriden, halfway between Solihull and Coventry.
Coventry City Council is the local authority for the city of Coventry in the West Midlands, England. Coventry has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974 the council has been a metropolitan borough council. It provides the majority of local government services in the city. The council has been a member of the West Midlands Combined Authority since 2016.
Warwickshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Warwickshire in England. It is the second smallest territorial police force in England and Wales after the City of London Police, with only 823 regular officers as of September 2017. The resident population of the force area is 554,002.
Warwick District Council elections are held every four years. Warwick District Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan district of Warwick in Warwickshire, England. Since the last boundary changes in 2019, 44 councillors have been elected from 17 wards.
Rugby is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by John Slinger, of the Labour Party.
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, also known as Solihull Council, is the local authority for the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government services in the borough. The council has been a member of the West Midlands Combined Authority since 2016.
An election to Warwickshire County Council took place on 2 May 2013 as part of the 2013 United Kingdom local elections. 62 councillors were elected from 56 electoral divisions, which returned either one or two county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. The electoral divisions were the same as those used at the previous election in 2009. The election saw the Conservative Party lose overall control of the council.
Shire Hall is a building complex located in Northgate Street in Warwick, England. It is the main office and the meeting place of Warwickshire County Council. It comprises both the original Shire Hall of 1758 and the more recent adjoining county council offices, both of which are Grade I listed buildings.
Matthew Raymond Western is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Warwick & Leamington since the snap 2017 general election. He was re-elected at the 2019 general election, and the 2024 general election.
The 2021 Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council election was held on 6 May 2021 as part of the 2021 United Kingdom local elections and alongside elections for Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner. Half of the borough council seats were up for election and the results provided the Conservative Party with a majority on the council, with the party winning all but two seats up for election.