Nottinghamshire County Council

Nottinghamshire County Council
Type
Type	County council
Leadership
Chairman	Cllr John Handley Since May 2017
Leader	Cllr Kay Cutts, Conservative Since May 2017
Chief Executive	Anthony May Since April 2015
Structure
Seats	66 councillors
Political groups	Administration      Conservative (31)      Mansfield Independent Forum (4) Other parties      Labour (23)      Ashfield Independents (5)      Liberal Democrat (1)      Selston Parish Independents (1)      Independents (1)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	4 May 2017
Next election	May 2021
Website
www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk

Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. It consists of 66 county councillors, elected from 56 electoral divisions every four years. The most recent election was held in 2017.

The county council does not have jurisdiction over Nottingham, which is a unitary authority governed by Nottingham City Council.

Responsibilities

The council is responsible for public services such as education, transport, planning, social care, libraries, trading standards and waste management.^[1]

History

The council was established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, covering the administrative county which excluded the county borough of Nottingham. The first elections to the county council were held on 15 January 1889, with 51 councillors being elected. The first meeting of the council took place on 1 April 1889 and 17 alderman were elected by the elected councillors to serve on the council.^[2]

The Local Government Act 1894 created urban and rural districts with elected councils in England and Wales, forming a section tier of local government below county councils. In Nottinghamshire, The act created ten rural districts, ten urban districts and reconstituted three municipal boroughs. This system of local government continued until 1974.

The county council was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan county by the Local Government Act 1972 and the first elections were held in 1973. All urban districts, rural districts and municipal boroughs within the county were abolished and replaced with non-metropolitan districts. Whilst previously the City of Nottingham was an independent county borough and therefore not included within the administrative county of Nottinghamshire or involved in the election of county councillors, the new non-metropolitan county included Nottingham for the first time as a non-metropolitan district.^[3]

The last major change to local government in Nottinghamshire took place in 1998, when Nottingham regained independent control over its affairs when it became a unitary authority. Since then the county council has had control over the county of Nottinghamshire, excluding the City of Nottingham.^[4]

Political makeup

The most recent elections to the council were held in 2017. The political makeup of the council following the election is shown in the table below.^[5]

Political control

Elections to the county council take place every four years, with the first election to the modern non-metropolitan county council taking place in 1973 (elections to the predecessor county council constituted by the Local Government Act 1888 were first held in 1889, and the final elections held in 1970 before it was abolished in 1974). Following each election, the county council has been controlled by the following parties:^[6]

District councils

The county council is the upper-tier of local government, below which are seven district councils with responsibility for local services such as housing, planning applications, licensing, council tax collection and rubbish collection. The districts of Nottinghamshire are;

• Ashfield
• Bassetlaw
• Broxtowe
• Gedling
• Mansfield
• Newark and Sherwood
• Rushcliffe

References