Buckinghamshire Council
Council logo
Type
Type
History
Founded1 April 2020
Preceded byBuckinghamshire County Council, South Bucks, Chiltern, Wycombe, Aylesbury Vale
Leadership
Patricia Birchley,
Conservative
since 17 May 2023
Martin Tett,
Conservative
since 1 April 2020
Rachael Shimmin
since July 2019[1]
Structure
Seats147
Buckinghamshire Council political makeup
Political groups
Administration (109)
  Conservative (109)
Alliance Grouping (20)
  Liberal Democrat (17)
  Wycombe Independent (3)
Impact Alliance (15)
  Labour (6)
  Independent (5)
  Independent Network (2)
  Green (1)
  Climate Party (1)
Other (3)
  Independent (1)
  Vacant (2)
Elections
First past the post
Last election
6 May 2021
Next election
2025
Meeting place
The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP19 8FF
Website
www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk Edit this at Wikidata

Buckinghamshire Council is a unitary local authority in England, the area of which constitutes most of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire.[2] It was created in April 2020 from the areas that were previously administered by Buckinghamshire County Council including the districts of South Bucks, Chiltern, Wycombe and Aylesbury Vale; since 1997 Milton Keynes has been a separate unitary authority.

History

See also: Buckinghamshire County Council

The plan for a single unitary authority was proposed by Martin Tett, leader of the county council, and was backed in January 2019 by Communities Secretary James Brokenshire. District councils had also proposed a different plan in which Aylesbury Vale became a unitary authority and the other three districts became another unitary authority. The district councils opposed the (single) unitary Buckinghamshire plan.[3]

Statutory instruments for a single unitary authority were made on 22 May 2019 and a shadow authority comprising all 202 councillors from the old county council and four district councils was subsequently formed.[4]

At the first meeting of the shadow authority, Richard Scott was elected chair of the authority and Martin Tett as chair of the seventeen member shadow executive committee.[5][6]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the first election to the council which had been due to take place in 2020 was postponed until the 2021 local elections. It was therefore announced on 18 March 2020 that all the current shadow authority members would automatically become councillors and the shadow executive members would form the cabinet.[7] They would stay in post until the inaugural election took place in May 2021.[8][9]

The new authority came into being on 1 April 2020.[10]

Political control

See also: Buckinghamshire Council elections

Since its creation in 2020, the Conservatives have held a majority of the seats on the council:[11]

Party in control Years
Conservative 2020–present

Leadership

The leader of the council from its creation in 2020 is:[12]

Councillor Party From To
Martin Tett Conservative 1 Apr 2020

Martin Tett had previously been leader of Buckinghamshire County Council since 2011.

Composition

As at November 2023, the composition of the council was:[13]

Party Councillors
Conservative 111
Liberal Democrats 16
Independent 7
Labour 6
Wycombe Ind. 4
Ind. Network 2
Green 1
Total 147

The Liberal Democrats and Wycombe Independents sit together as the "Alliance Grouping". Labour, the Green Party, Independent Network and six of the seven independent councillors form the "Impact Alliance". The other independent councillor does not belong to a group. The next election is due in 2025.

Premises

The council has its headquarters and meeting place at The Gateway on Gatehouse Road in Aylesbury, being the former Aylesbury Vale District Council building, prior to which it was the offices of Rexel. The building had been built in the 1990s as offices and was bought and substantially extended in 2008–2009 by Aylesbury Vale District Council, with the extensions including a council chamber.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ Richardson, Hannah (7 April 2021). "Buckinghamshire chief executive is fifth highest paid in the country". The Bucks Herald. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Bucks County Council takes final curtain call after 131 years". Bucks Herald. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
  3. ^ Rapson, Jasmine (25 January 2019). "District council joins plans to take legal action over 'undemocratic' unitary authority". Bucks Free Press. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  4. ^ Statutory Instrument 2019 No. 957 The Buckinghamshire (Structural Changes) Order 2019 (Coming into force 23 May 2019)
  5. ^ "About the Shadow Authority - Buckinghamshire Council Shadow Authority". shadow.buckinghamshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  6. ^ "Shadow Executive - Buckinghamshire Council Shadow Authority". shadow.buckinghamshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  7. ^ "Coronavirus cancels local elections until 2021 – This is what is going to happen with the new unitary council". Bucks Free Press. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  8. ^ "New council outlines political arrangements following postponement of elections". Buckinghamshire Council Shadow Authority. 18 March 2020. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  9. ^ Statutory Instrument 2020 No. 426 The Local Government (Coronavirus) (Structural Changes) (Consequential Amendments) (England) Regulations 2020
  10. ^ "Buckinghamshire Council replaces 5 other councils TODAY - everything you need to know". Bucks Free Press. 1 April 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  11. ^ "Your Councillors by Party". Buckinghamshire Council - Democracy. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  12. ^ "Council minutes". Buckinghamshire Council. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  13. ^ "Your councillors by party". Buckinghamshire Council. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  14. ^ "Aylesbury Vale District Council offices to be central point for the new Buckinghamshire Council". Bucks Herald. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2020.

External links

Ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire
Unitary authorities of England
Categories