1.
Birmingham City Council
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Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. The council headquarters are based at the Council House in the city centre, the council is responsible for running nearly all local services, with the exception of those run by joint boards. The provision of services has in recent years been devolved to several council constituencies. Sixteen Aldermen and 48 Councillors were elected and the Borough was divided into 13 wards, William Scholefield became the first Mayor and William Redfern was appointed as Town Clerk. It was not until 14 January 1889 that another Charter conferred the rank of City on Birmingham, on 9 November 1891, the districts of Balsall Heath, Harborne, Saltley and Little Bromwich were absorbed into the City. The dignity of a Lord Mayor was conferred in 1896 and Sir James Smith Kt was appointed as the Citys first Lord Mayor on 3 June 1896. Such was the expansion involved that the Council Chamber, originally designed to accommodate 80 members, had to be modified to seat the representatives of the new wards, further additions occurred on 1 April 1928 and 1 April 1931. By 1972, there were 39 Wards each represented by an Alderman and 3 Councillors, on 1 July 1986, the title was changed to Birmingham City Council. Part of Bromsgrove District known as Frankley and Kitwell Estates were added to the City on 1 April 1995, a review of the Ward boundaries on 10 June 2004 resulted in an increase from 39 Wards to 40 Wards. The first woman elected to the council, on 1 November 1911, was Ellen Pinsent and she represented the Edgbaston Ward as a Liberal Unionist. She had earlier been co-opted as a member of the councils Education Committee and she stood down from the council in October 1913 upon appointment as Commissioner for the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency. Pinsents time on the council overlapped with that of Margaret Frances Pugh, birminghams third woman councillor, Clara Martineau, was elected on 14 October 1913 in the Edgbaston ward, and served until 1932, when she died, aged 57. Her father was former Mayor Sir Thomas Martineau, Lord Mayor Ernest Martineau was her brother, mary E. Cottrell became the first female Labour councillor in February 1917, when she was elected unopposed to the Selly Oak ward. The first female Lord Mayor, Marjorie Brown, held the post from 1973 to 1974, Theresa Stewart became the first female leader in October 1993, until 1999, and Lin Homer the first chief executive, was in post from 2002 until 2005. The council was run by a Labour administration between 1984 and 2004, with Sir Dick Knowles as Council Leader from 1984 to 1993, followed in turn by Theresa Stewart, and Sir Albert Bore. They lost overall control in 2003 but continued to run the council as a minority administration for the following year, at the election of 10 June 2004, the 121 seats were divided between the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups then formed a governing coalition, in 2005, Richard Mawrey QC ruled invalid Birmingham City Council elections in two wards, Aston and Bordesley Green, held the year before, and required re-votes. He blamed most of the fraud on absentee ballot manipulation
2.
Havering London Borough Council
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Havering London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Havering in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London, Havering is divided into 18 wards, each electing three councillors. Since May 2014, Havering London Borough Council has been in no overall control and it comprises 22 Conservative Party members,19 Havering Residents Association members, six UK Independence Party members, five independent residents members and two Labour Party members. The council was created by the London Government Act 1963 and replaced two local authorities, Hornchurch Urban District Council and Romford Borough Council, there have previously been a number of local authorities responsible for the Havering area. The current local authority was first elected in 1964, a year before coming into its powers. Havering replaced Hornchurch Urban District Council and Romford Borough Council, Hornchurch Urban District Council was formed in 1926 and replaced Hornchurch Parish Council and Romford Rural District Council in the parish of Hornchurch. It was envisaged through the London Government Act 1963 that Havering as a London local authority would share power with the Greater London Council, as an outer London borough council it has been an education authority since 1965. This arrangement lasted until 1986 when Havering London Borough Council gained responsibility for services that had been provided by the Greater London Council. From 1986 to 2000, the London Planning Advisory Committee was run from within the council, the planning function for large developments was from 2005 to 2013 exercised by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation in the London Riverside designated area that is within the borough. � Wards were established for Havering when it came into existence on 1 April 1965, the first elections of ward councillors took place in 1964. These boundaries were used for the 1968,1971 and 1974 elections. For the 1978 elections the ward boundaries were revised and these boundaries were then also used at the 1982,1986 and 1990 elections. For the May 1994 elections there were minor adjustments to London borough boundaries and these boundaries were also used at the 1998 elections. The current ward boundaries came into effect at the May 2002 elections and they were also used at the 2006,2010 and 2014 elections. The leader is elected by fellow councillors once every four years following local elections, the current leader is Michael White who has held the position since 2004. The leadership of the council -once elected- can only subsequently be changed by a vote in favour of such change supported by two thirds of councillors, the current composition of Havering Councils Cabinet is demonstrated in the table below. The mayor for 2013/2014 municipal year is Eric Munday
3.
Dorset County Council
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Dorset County Council is the county council of Dorset in England. It provides the upper tier of government, below which are district councils. The county council has 45 elected councillors and is based at County Hall in Dorchester, when councillors are elected they represent one of Englands major political parties or are independent. The Conservative Party currently have the highest number of councillors in the chamber, as such, the leader of the cabinet also represents the Conservative Party and can choose the cabinet members from the Conservative Party as well. The Liberal Democrats have the second highest number of councillors and the councillor is an independent. Following the 2013 Local Elections, the Conservatives hold 27 seats, Liberal Democrats 12, Labour 4, Dorset County Councils responsibilities include schools, social care for the elderly and vulnerable, road maintenance, libraries and trading standards. The county councils area is administered by six smaller authorities that have their own district or borough councils. The responsibilities of these councils include planning, council housing, refuse collection, sports and leisure facilities. The district areas are divided into civil parishes, which have parish councils or town councils. Typical activities undertaken by a parish council include maintaining allotments, footpaths, playing fields, on some matters, the county council share responsibilities with the district and parish councils. These include economic development and regeneration, emergency planning, tourism promotion, list of articles about local government in the United Kingdom United Kingdom local elections,2009 Dorset County Council
4.
Barnet London Borough Council
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Barnet London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Barnet in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 within London, Barnet is divided into 21 wards, each electing three councillors. The next election to the authority will be in 2018, there have previously been a number of local authorities responsible for the Barnet area. The current local authority was first elected in 1964, a year before coming into its powers. Barnet replaced Barnet Urban District Council, East Barnet Urban District Council, Friern Barnet Urban District Council, Finchley Borough Council and it was envisaged through the London Government Act 1963 that Barnet as a London local authority would share power with the Greater London Council. As an outer London borough council it has been an education authority since 1965 and this arrangement lasted until 1986 when Barnet London Borough Council gained responsibility for some services that had been provided by the Greater London Council, such as waste disposal. The local authority derives its powers and functions from the London Government Act 1963, Barnet has the powers and functions of a London borough council. It is an authority collecting Council Tax and business rates, it processes local planning applications, it is responsible for housing, waste collection. It is an education authority, responsible for social services, libraries. The council shares responsibility with the Greater London Authority for strategic policies including housing, planning, in 2012 Barnet outsourced many functions to Capita under the controversial One Barnet programme. Electrical items larger than 51 cm x 52 cm can be recycled at the Civic Amenity and Recycling Centre, Summers Lane, North Finchley and they collect over 40 different household materials for recycling at the centre and recycle around 68 per cent of it
5.
Cornwall Council
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Cornwall Council is the unitary authority for the county of Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition of large groups of independent councillors, since the 2013 elections, it is run by an Independent-Liberal Democrat coalition. Cornwall Council provides a range of services to more than half a million Cornish residents. In 2014 it had an budget of more than £1 billion and was the biggest employer in Cornwall with a staff of 12,429 salaried workers. It is responsible for including, schools, social services, rubbish collection, roads, planning. Before April 2009, Cornwall was administered as a county by the Cornwall County Council with six districts, Caradon, Carrick, Kerrier, North Cornwall, Penwith. The Council of the Isles of Scilly was and still remains a unitary authority. On 5 December 2007, the Government confirmed that Cornwall was one of five councils that would move to unitary status and this was enacted by statutory instrument as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England, The changes took effect on 1 April 2009. On that date the six districts and Cornwall County Council were abolished and were replaced by Cornwall Council. The original proposals for a new logo and motto for Cornwalls new unitary authority were met with criticism from the general public with demands that the old logo. In March 2009, the leader of Cornwall County Council David Whalley announced he would be standing down as a councillor, the current logo features a Cornish chough and the 15 Cornish golden bezants on a black field as used in the arms of the Duchy of Cornwall. On the creation of the new unitary authority it was decided that the name of the new council would be Cornwall Council, the campaign for Cornish devolution began in 2000 with the founding of the Cornish Constitutional Convention, a cross-party, cross-sector association that campaigns for devolution to Cornwall. In 2011, the then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he would meet a party group, including the six Cornish MPs. The subsequent Localism Act 2011 was expected to achieve this but it proved incapable, among the services provided by the council is a public library service which consists of a main library in Truro and smaller libraries in towns and some villages throughout Cornwall. Cornwall Council is promoting ten cultural projects as part of a culture strategy. Cornwall Council has based its idea on the successful National Theatres of Scotland, another of the projects is the proposed creation of a National Library of Cornwall to resolve inadequacies with the current storage of archives. It is hoped that this will bring some important documents concerning Cornish history back to Cornwall as well as providing public access to those records already held. Cornwall Council is also involved in the project to build a Stadium for Cornwall, Cornwall Council backs the campaign for the Cornish to be recognised as a National Minority in the UK
6.
Coventry City Council
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Coventry City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Coventry in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. The city is divided up into 18 Wards each with three councillors, Coventry has usually been controlled by the Labour Party over the past few decades, and at times they appeared to be in safe control. However, the Conservatives held control for a time in the 1970s. For a time they held control on the vote of the Lord Mayor. However, in 2010 the Conservatives lost control of Coventry City Council when Labour gained enough seats to have overall control, the leader of the Conservative group is John Blundell, who has held the post since May 2013 after Kevin Foster stood down. The leader of the controlling Labour group is George Duggins and he has held the post of Leader of the Council since May 2016 after winning a leadership election against the incumbent Ann Lucas. The Chief Executive is Martin Reeves, in 2017 the Council will move the majority of its staff to the Friargate development. It will be the first tenant in the new business district, Coventry City Council elections Official website Coventry City Council on Twitter
7.
Lancashire County Council
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Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan ceremonial county of Lancashire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, and is no overall control as of the Lancashire County Council election,2013. The council has 39 Labour Party councillors,35 Conservative Party councillors,6 Liberal Democrats, the eight cabinet members each have responsibility for particular functions of the council. The Chief Executive is Jo Turton who was appointed in February 2014 and heads the Councils 40, the council was established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, covering the administrative county. It was reconstituted under the Local Government Act 1972 to cover a different territory, in the 1990s, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool left the area covered by the council. Elections are held four years. Lancashire adopted the Public Libraries Act,1919, in 1924, library services were slow to develop as the average ratable value of the area outside the county boroughs and the other local authorities which had already adopted the act was relatively low. In 1938/39 the average expenditure on urban libraries per head was 1s, but that on county libraries was only 8 1/4d. Another disadvantage was that government of libraries was by a libraries sub-committee of the committee of the council. The central administration of the county library is at Preston where there are services, special collections
8.
Leeds City Council
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Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England. Since 1 April 2014 it has been a constituent council of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, the leader was an alderman, the first holder being Sir John Savile. In 1893 Leeds became a city and in 1897 the leader became Lord Mayor, the modern city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973. The new Leeds district was one of five districts in West Yorkshire. It was granted a borough and city status to become the City of Leeds, until 1986 the city council was a second-tier authority, with West Yorkshire County Council providing many key services. Leeds City Council is responsible for providing all local authority services in Leeds. This includes education, housing, planning, transport and highways, social services, libraries, leisure and recreation, waste collection, waste disposal, environmental health, the council is one of the largest employers in West Yorkshire, with around 33,000 employees. By the Summer of 2016, Leeds City Council have plans to create the biggest skateboarding park in Europe, the location will be in hyde Park. Education Leeds was set up in 2001 as a non-profit making company wholly owned by Leeds City Council to provide support services for the council. For its first five years it operated as a partnership between the Council and Capita. The senior councillors of the councils Executive Board voted in March 2010 to stop using Education Leeds to provide services from 31 March 2011, until 1 October 2013, Leeds City Councils housing stock was managed and operated by three Arms Length Management Organisations since 2007. They were wholly owned by the Council but operated as autonomous, at this point, the ALMOs ceased to exist. Management of more than 2000 homes in Belle Isle is carried out by Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation, in September 2012 the Council announced its intention to introduce a bring your own device policy as part of cost saving measures. In 2012 the Council was fined £95,000 by the Information Commissioners Office after it sent confidential, commenting on Leeds and other authorities who had made similar data protection breaches, the ICO said It would be far too easy to consider these breaches as simple human error. The reality is that they are caused by councils treating sensitive personal data in the same way they would deal with more general correspondence. Far too often in cases, the councils do not appear to have acknowledged that the data they are handling is about real people. The council operates a Leader and Cabinet executive as defined under section 11 of the Local Government Act 2000, the Executive Board of the Council currently consists of eight executive members with portfolio responsibilities from the ruling Labour group, and the leaders the two biggest opposition groups
9.
Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council
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Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London, Barking and Dagenham is divided into 17 wards, each electing three councillors. At the May 2014 election, the Labour Party won all 51 seats, the council was created by the London Government Act 1963 as the Barking London Borough Council and replaced two local authorities, Barking Borough Council and Dagenham Borough Council. The council was renamed on 1 January 1980, the next election to the authority will be in 2018. There have previously been a number of authorities responsible for the Barking. The current local authority was first elected in 1964, a year before coming into its powers. Barking replaced Barking Borough Council and Dagenham Borough Council, as Barking had urbanised first, it was governed by a local board of health from 1882, which became an urban district council in 1894. The parish of Dagenham was under administration until 1926, governed by Dagenham Parish Council. It was envisaged through the London Government Act 1963 that Barking as a London local authority would share power with the Greater London Council, as an outer London borough council it has been an education authority since 1965. The local authority derives its powers and functions from the London Government Act 1963, Barking and Dagenham has the powers and functions of a London borough council. It is an authority collecting Council Tax and business rates, it processes local planning applications, it is responsible for housing, waste collection. It is an education authority, responsible for social services, libraries. The council shares responsibility with the Greater London Authority for strategic policies including housing, planning, the planning function for large developments is exercised by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation in the London Riverside designated area that is within the borough. The council has been controlled by the Labour Party since it was first elected in 1964
10.
Croydon London Borough Council
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Croydon London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London, Croydon is divided into 24 wards, electing 70 councillors. There have previously been a number of authorities responsible for the Croydon area. The current local authority was first elected in 1964, a year before coming into its powers. Croydon replaced Croydon Borough Council and Coulsdon and Purley Urban District Council, Croydon was a county borough from 1889, which meant that its council had the functions of both a county and a borough. It was envisaged through the London Government Act 1963 that Croydon as a London local authority would share power with the Greater London Council, as an outer London borough council it has been an education authority since 1965. This arrangement lasted until 1986 when Croydon London Borough Council gained responsibility for services that had been provided by the Greater London Council. Croydon local elections London Borough of Croydon website
