From the county's creation in 1889 (from the historic subdivision of Yorkshire) areas under Middlesbrough's governance remained part of North Riding of Yorkshire county for varing amounts of self-governance. The final iteration of this governance was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan district in the county of Cleveland (the county itself governed from Middlesbrough) in 1974. Since 1996, for ceremonial purposes, the district is part of North Yorkshire as a unitary authority. Fire and Police, however, remain as well as the borough's placement in North East England instead of Yorkshire and the Humber, which large parts of North Yorkshire is in. It is included within the combined authority area of Tees Valley for strategic purposes.
The borough is made up of 19 council wards (formerly 21 as Gresham ward merged with Newport ward between the 2011 and 2021 censuses) within the borough of Middlesbrough. Each ward has a non-statutory community committee.[3] There are also two statutory parish councils for "Nunthorpe" and "Stainton and Thornton".[4] East, north and west Middlesbrough as well as parts of Park End-and-Beckfield, Berwick-Hils-and-Pallister and Ladgate are covered by the Middlesbrough parliamentary constituency. South Middlesbrough as well as the other parts of the wards are covered by the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland parliamentary constituency.
The council operates a with directly elected Mayor of Middlesbrough. The political composition of the council, as of the May 2019 local election, is Independent 23, Labour 20; and Conservative 3.
Political party make-up of Middlesbrough Borough Council
Teesside International Airport (formerly known as Durham Tees Valley Airport), is joint owned by the borough and the other four Tees Valley councils The council also owns multiple buildings in the borough.
The first mayor of Middlesbrough was the German-born Henry Bolckow in 1853.[9][10] In the 20th century, encompassing introduction of universal suffrage in 1918 and changes in local government in the United Kingdom, the role of mayor changed and became largely ceremonial.
In 2001, as part of a wider programme of devolution, voters in Middlesbrough were offered a referendum to decide between a directly elected mayor or the cabinet system then in operation, with the traditional civic and ceremonial functions of the Mayors being transferred to the Chair of Middlesbrough Council, which they did so by a large margin.[11]
In 2002, Ray Mallon (Independent), formerly a senior officer in Cleveland Police, became Middlesbrough's first directly elected mayor. He was re-elected in 2007[12] and then in 2011.[13] Mallon chose not to stand for a fourth term in 2015 and his deputy mayor, Dave Budd (Labour) was elected to succeed him.[14][15] Budd decided not to stand for a second term and in the May 2019 mayoral election, local businessman Andy Preston (independent) won with 59% of the vote.[16]
Demography
Borough
The borough of Middlesbrough's total resident population was 143,926, by the 2021 The population of Middlesbrough as a county borough peaked at almost 165,000 in the late 1960s, however this has declined since the early 1980s before starting to recover in the 2010s.[17]
Women in the former Middlehaven ward (absorbed into the central ward) had the second lowest life expectancy at birth, 74 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016.[18]
Population 2011
Borough
White British
86.0%
Asian
7.8%
Black
1.3%
In the borough of Middlesbrough, 14.0% of the population were non-white British. This makes the town about as ethnically diverse as Exeter. Additionally, it has a lower indigenous population than Gateshead and South Shields which are further north on the other side of County Durham but now in Tyne and Wear although historically within County Durham. It is also the second most ethnically diverse settlement in the North East (after Newcastle).
Economy
Middlesbrough Town Hall, Albert Street
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Middlesbrough at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
^"Bolckow, Henry". Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events. Vol. 18. 1886. p. 650. William Ferdinand, a British manufacturer, born in Germany in 1806, died 18 June 1878. ... He was the first Mayor of Middlesbrough, a place which owes much of its prosperity to his energy and enterprise
^Up The Boro!. 2011. p. 9. This was followed in 1868 by Middlesbrough's first Parliamentary Elections, in which Henry Bolckow (1806–1878) of the firm Bolckow & Vaughan wanted to stand for election, however this was initially blocked by the fact that he was a foreigner ...
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