Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

Last updated

Dudley Metropolitan Borough
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council logo.svg
Type
Type
Leadership
Andrea Goddard,
Conservative
since 18 May 2023 [1]
TBA
since 2 May 2024
Kevin O'Keefe
since 2019 [2]
Structure
Seats72 councillors
Political groups
  Conservative (34)
  Labour (34)
  Independent (1)
  Liberal Democrat (3)
Elections
First past the post
Last election
 4 May 2023
Next election
 2 May 2024
Motto
Unity and Progress
Meeting place
The Council House, Dudley - geograph.org.uk - 2002474.jpg
Council House, Priory Road, Dudley, DY1 1HF
DudleyMBC UK locator map.png
Dudley Metropolitan Borough shown within West Midlands
Website
www.dudley.gov.uk

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for Dudley metropolitan borough. It is more commonly known as Dudley Council or Dudley MBC.

Contents

The present authority was formed as a result of further reorganisation of local government in 1974. It incorporates the areas of Dudley, Brierley Hill, Stourbridge and Halesowen.

History

The town of Dudley had been a seigneurial borough from the thirteenth century, under the control of the lord of the manor. [3] More modern forms of local government for the town began in 1791 when a body of improvement commissioners was established to pave, light and clean the streets, and supply water. [4] The commissioners were replaced in 1853 with an elected local board. [5]

The town was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1865, governed by a body formally called the "mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Dudley", generally known as the corporation, town council or borough council. [6] The old local board's functions passed to the new borough council, which also replaced the ancient borough corporation. [7]

When elected county councils were established in 1889, Dudley was considered large enough to provide its own county-level functions, and so it was made a county borough, independent from Worcestershire County Council. [8] The County Borough of Dudley was enlarged on several occasions, notably in 1966 when it absorbed the majority of the abolished urban districts of Brierley Hill, Coseley and Sedgeley, alongside boundary adjustments with several other neighbours. [9]

The modern metropolitan borough was established in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the combined area of the old county borough of Dudley plus the municipal boroughs of Halesowen and Stourbridge (the latter having absorbed the main part of the abolished Amblecote Urban District in the 1966 reforms). The enlarged district was named Dudley, and the borough status previously held by the county borough passed to the new district on its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Dudley's series of mayors dating back to at least the sixteenth century. [10] [11]

From 1974 until 1986 Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council was a lower-tier authority, with the West Midlands County Council providing county-level services. Following the abolition of the county council in 1986 Dudley took on county-level functions in the area again. Since 2016 the council has been a constituent member of the West Midlands Combined Authority, which has been led by the directly-elected Mayor of the West Midlands since 2017.

The council bid for the borough to be awarded city status in 2011 and again in 2021, but was unsuccessful on both occasions. [12] [13] [14]

Governance

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council provides both county-level and district-level services, with some functions across the West Midlands provided via joint committees with the other West Midlands authorities, overseen by the combined authority and mayor. There are no civil parishes in the borough, which is an unparished area. [15]

Political control

The council has been under Conservative majority control since 2021.

Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows: [16] [17]

Party in controlYears
Labour 1974–1976
Conservative 1976–1980
No overall control 1980–1982
Conservative 1982–1984
No overall control 1984–1986
Labour 1986–1992
No overall control 1992–1994
Labour 1994–2003
No overall control 2003–2004
Conservative 2004–2012
Labour 2012–2016
No overall control 2016–2021
Conservative 2021–2024
No overall control 2024-present

Leadership

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Dudley. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1998 have been: [18]

CouncillorPartyFromTo
Tim Sunter Labour 199815 May 2003
David Caunt Conservative 15 May 200321 May 2009
Anne Millward Conservative 21 May 20098 May 2011
Les Jones Conservative 19 May 201117 May 2012
Dave Sparks Labour 17 May 20121 Dec 2014
Pete Lowe Labour 1 Dec 201418 May 2017
Patrick Harley Conservative 18 May 201726 Sep 2018
Pete Lowe Labour 26 Sep 201815 Nov 2018
Qadar Zada Labour 15 Nov 201816 May 2019
Patrick Harley Conservative 16 May 2019

Composition

Following the 2024 election and subsequent by-elections, the composition of the council was: [19]

PartyCouncillors
Conservative 34
Labour 34
Independent 1
Liberal Democrats 3
Total72

Premises

The council has its main offices at Dudley Council House on Priory Road, which was built in phases between 1928 and 1935 for the old county borough council. [20] The main customer services reception is in a converted shop in the town centre at 259 Castle Street. [21]

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2004 the council has comprised 72 councillors representing 24 wards, with each ward electing three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with a third of the council (one councillor for each ward) being elected each time for a four-year term of office. Elections for the Mayor of the West Midlands are held in the fourth year of the cycle when there are no borough council elections. [22] New ward boundaries are being prepared to take effect from the 2024 election, which will require all seats to be contested at that election. [23] [24]

Wards

The 24 wards of the Dudley Borough are each represented by 3 councillors. The council groups wards together into 5 Community Forums to enable community engagement under the banner 'Your home, your forum'. [25]

Community ForumWard name
Brierley Hill Brierley Hill
Brockmoor and Pensnett
Kingswinford North and Wall Heath
Kingswinford South
Wordsley
Stourbridge Amblecote
Lye and Stourbridge North
Norton
Pedmore and Stourbridge East
Wollaston and Stourbridge Town
Dudley Castle and Priory
Netherton, Woodside and St. Andrews
Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood
St. James's
St. Thomas's
Dudley North Coseley East
Gornal
Sedgley
Upper Gornal and Woodsetton
HalesowenBelle Vale
Cradley and Wollescote
Halesowen North
Halesowen South
Hayley Green and Cradley South

Members of parliament

Current members of parliament for constituencies within Dudley MBC area are:

ConstituencyMember of ParliamentPolitical Party
Dudley North Marco Longhi Conservative
Dudley South Mike Wood Conservative
Stourbridge Suzanne Webb Conservative
Halesowen and Rowley Regis James Morris Conservative
Wolverhampton South East Pat McFadden Labour

Chief Executives

DatesName
1973-1986John Francis Mulvehill
1986Leslie Thomas Barnfield
1986-1988Tom Headley Meredith
1988-1999Alistair Vivian Astling
1999-2008Andrew Sparke
2009-2015John Polychronakis
2015-2019Sarah Norman
2019–presentKevin John O’Keefe

Mayor of Dudley and Civic Awards

The Mayor presides over meetings of the full Council to ensure that business is carried out properly and efficiently, with due regard to the rights of Councillors and the interest of the Community. [26] The Mayor of the Borough is elected at the Annual Meeting of the Council (usually in May each year) from the existing elected councillors.

The Mayor also nominates charities they wish to support during their mayoral year [27] and hosts the annual Mayors Ball and Civic Awards. The Civic Awards aim to recognise individuals and groups who make a difference in the borough. Each award is named for a local personality in that field. [28]

Civic arms and motto

Dudley’s coat of arms was designed in 1975. [6] It symbolises each of the authorities that came together to form the present borough. Key themes on the civic arms reflect the area’s pride in its industrial past.

The council adopted “Unity and Progress” as its motto in 1974. [6]

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References

  1. ↑ "Council minutes, 18 May 2023". Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  2. ↑ Poole, Danielle (1 May 2019). "New chief executive appointed at Dudley Council". Dudley News. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  3. ↑ A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 3. London: Victoria County History. 1913. pp. 90–105. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  4. ↑ Dudley Town Act 1791
  5. ↑ Public Health Supplemental Act 1853 (No. 1). 1853. p. 217. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 Dudley's Little Book of History (Heritage open days booklet published by Dudley MBC)Dudley's little book of history
  7. ↑ "Dudley: Local Board of Health". Birmingham Daily Post. 8 June 1865. p. 8. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  8. ↑ Local Government Act 1888
  9. ↑ Local Government Act 1958
  10. ↑ "The Metropolitan Districts (Names) Order 1973", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, SI 1973/137, retrieved 14 February 2024
  11. ↑ "District Councils and Boroughs". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . 28 March 1974. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  12. ↑ "Dudley fails to get Queen's Diamond Jubilee city status". BBC News. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  13. ↑ "Dudley – A City In The Making". www.dudley.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  14. ↑ Vukmirovic, James. "Disappointment as Dudley misses out on city status". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  15. ↑ "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  16. ↑ "Compositions calculator". The Elections Centre. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  17. ↑ "Local elections 2019: What happens when councils change hands?". BBC News. 30 April 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  18. ↑ "Council minutes". Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  19. ↑ "Local elections 2023: live council results for England". The Guardian.
  20. ↑ Historic England. "Council House (1393758)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  21. ↑ "Contact us". Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  22. ↑ "The Borough of Dudley (Electoral Changes) Order 2003", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, SI 2003/2767, retrieved 14 February 2024
  23. ↑ "Dudley". Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  24. ↑ "Local Government Boundary Review". www.dudley.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  25. ↑ "Community Forums". www.dudley.gov.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  26. ↑ "Dudley MBC, Mayor of Dudley". Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.
  27. ↑ "Charities | Dudley | Mayor Of Dudley". mayorofdudley. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
  28. ↑ "Mayor's Ball and Civic Awards | Dudley | Mayor Of Dudley". mayorofdudley. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
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