Warwickshire County Council
Coat of arms or logo
Logo
Type
Type
Leadership
Christopher Kettle,
Conservative
since 16 May 2023[1]
Izzi Seccombe,
Conservative
since 22 May 2013
Monica Fogarty
since October 2018[2]
Structure
Seats57 councillors
Political groups
Administration
  Conservative (42)
Other parties
  Labour (6)
  Liberal Democrats (5)
  Green (3)
  Whitnash RA (1)
Length of term
4 years
Elections
First past the post
Last election
6 May 2021
Next election
1 May 2025
Meeting place
Shire Hall, Market Place, Warwick, CV34 4RL
Website
www.warwickshire.gov.uk

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.

History

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.[a] 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]

Governance

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.[10]

Political control

The county council has been under Conservative majority control since 2017.

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:[11][12]

Party in control Years
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

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1993 have been:[13]

Councillor Party From To
John Vereker[14] Conservative 20 May 1993
Ian Bottrill[15][16] Labour 20 May 1993 8 May 2005
Alan Farnell Conservative 17 May 2005 5 May 2013
Izzi Seccombe[17] Conservative 21 May 2013

Composition

Following the 2021 election the composition of the council was:[18]

Party Councillors
Conservative 42
Labour 6
Liberal Democrats 5
Green 3
Whitnash Residents Association 1
Total 57

The next election is due in 2025.

Elections

See also: Warwickshire County Council elections

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.[19]

Premises

Shire Hall, Warwick: The older part of the building facing Northgate Street, being the original Shire Hall courthouse of 1754 to the left and the former county jail of 1783 to the right.

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 1754 facing Northgate Street.[20] 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 created a new frontage and main entrance for the building facing Market Place.[21]

References

  1. ^ Coventry had previously been a similar county corporate, having its own quarter sessions from 1451 until 1842, when it had been brought back under the jurisdiction of the Warwickshire quarter sessions.
  1. ^ "Council minutes, 16 May 2023". Warwickshire County Council. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  2. ^ "New Fire and Rescue chief for Warwickshire". Leamington Courier. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  3. ^ "Local Government Act 1888", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1888 c. 41, retrieved 27 August 2023
  4. ^ "Warwickshire County Council". Kenilworth Advertiser. 6 April 1889. p. 5. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Local Government Board's Provisional Order (1910) Confirmation (No. 13) Act 1911". legislation.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Solihull Urban District / Municipal Borough / County Borough". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  7. ^ Local Government Act 1972
  8. ^ "The places you'd never believe were once in Warwickshire". Coventry Telegraph. 1 July 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  9. ^ "The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1972/2039, retrieved 22 October 2023
  10. ^ "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Compositions calculator". The Elections Centre. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  12. ^ "Warwickshire". BBC News Online. BBC. 5 June 2009. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  13. ^ "Council minutes". Warwickshire County Council. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  14. ^ "Tories help Labour take helm". Birmingham Post. 21 May 1993. p. 4. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  15. ^ "Tories tumble". Heartland Evening News. Nuneaton. 7 May 1993. p. 1. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  16. ^ "Ian to leave top county council role". Coventry Live. 27 November 2004. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  17. ^ "Warwickshire County Council's ruling Tories select first female leader". Coventry Telegraph. 10 May 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  18. ^ "Warwickshire". Local Councils. Thorncliffe.
  19. ^ "The Warwickshire (Electoral Changes) Order 2015", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 2015/1874, retrieved 20 January 2024
  20. ^ Historic England. "The Old Shire Hall and Law Courts, Northgate Street (Grade I) (1184979)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  21. ^ Historic England. "Warwickshire County Council Offices and former gaol (Grade I) (1364827)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
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