Buckinghamshire Council
Buckinghamshire Council | |
|---|---|
 Council logo | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 1 April 2020[a] |
| Preceded by | Buckinghamshire County Council |
| Leadership | |
Rachael Shimmin since July 2019[1] | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 147 |
 | |
Political groups |
|
| 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 Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire in England. It is a unitary authority, performing both county and district-level functions. It was created on 1 April 2020, replacing the previous Buckinghamshire County Council and the councils of the four abolished districts of Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks, and Wycombe.[2][3] The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Milton Keynes.
The county council had been established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888. The county was reformed in 1974, when it ceded Slough, Eton and nearby villages to Berkshire.[4] In 1997 the borough of Milton Keynes was removed from the non-metropolitan county to become its own unitary authority, whilst remaining part of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire for the purposes of lieutenancy.[5]
The modern council has been under Conservative majority control since its creation, as had been the predecessor county council between the reforms of 1974 and its abolition in 2020.
History
Buckinghamshire County Council consisted of 49 councillors. It had been controlled by the Conservatives since the reorganisation of local government in 1974. For the 2013 elections, the number of seats was reduced from 57 to 49 following the 2012 changes in division boundaries.[6]
On 12 March 2020, the last meeting of the County Council took place, during which the council celebrated 131 years of service.[7]
County architect Fred Pooley designed the council's headquarters building, New County Hall, a 12-storey tower block at Aylesbury built in 1966[8] which became known as "Fred's Fort"[9] and less flatteringly as "Pooley's Folly".
In March 2018 Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary at the time, backed proposals[10] to replace the county council and the four district councils (Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks, and Wycombe) with a single unitary authority, named Buckinghamshire Council.[11] As of January 2019, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe district councils had launched legal action against the "undemocratic" plans for how the unitary authority was to be set-up.[12] Nevertheless, the Buckinghamshire Structural Changes Order 2019 was enacted,[13] which as of 1 April 2020 abolished the County Council and the four district councils and created a single district council as a unitary authority, called 'Buckinghamshire 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.[14]
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.[15]
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.[16][17]
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.[18] They would stay in post until the inaugural election took place in May 2021.[19][20]
The new authority came into being on 1 April 2020.[21]
Political control
Since its creation in 2020, the Conservatives have held a majority of the seats on the council:[22]
| Party in control | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 2020–present | |
Leadership
The leader of the council from its creation in 2020 is:[23]
| 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:[24]
| 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.[25]
Logo
The logo of the new Buckinghamshire Council consists of a blue circle with a white swan flying above hills, with a row of three trees. The words 'Buckinghamshire Council' and 'est.2020' are written above and below respectively. The old logo of Buckinghamshire Council council consists of a swan in a black circle.
Notable members
- Frederick Verney (1846–1913), member from 1889 to 1907
- Tonman Mosley, 1st Baron Anslow (1850–1933), Chairman from 1904 to 1921
- Sir William Carlile, 1st Baronet (1862–1950)
- William Joseph Ashby (1885–1953)
- Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, 6th Baronet (1887–1969)
- Sir Aubrey Ernest Ward (1899–1987), Chairman from 1963 to 1974
- Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe (1908–1984), Vice-Chairman 1974 to 1978
- John Darling Young (1910–1988)
- Sir Ralph Verney, 5th Baronet (1915–2001)
- Guthrie Moir (1917–1993), member from 1949 to 1975
- Brian White (1957–2016), later member of parliament for Milton Keynes
See also
References
- ^ It was formed in 1889 as "Buckinghamshire County Council" then reformed with different boundaries as "Buckinghamshire County Council" then reformed with the same boundaries as "Buckinghamshire Council" in 2020.
- ^ Richardson, Hannah (7 April 2021). "Buckinghamshire chief executive is fifth highest paid in the country". The Bucks Herald. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
- ^ "The English Non-Metropolitan Districts (Names) Order 1973". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ "Bucks County Council takes final curtain call after 131 years". Bucks Herald. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ "Local Government Act 1972". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ "The Buckinghamshire (Borough of Milton Keynes) (Structural Change) Order 1995". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
- ^ "The Buckinghamshire (Electoral Changes) Order 2012". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
- ^ "Bucks County Council takes final curtain call after 131 years". Bucks Herald. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
- ^ Aylesbury Town Council history
- ^ The Guardian dated 24 March 1998, p. 14
- ^ "Unitary plan for Buckinghamshire backed". 12 March 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
- ^ "Cabinet gives green light to Government blueprint for new unitary Council for Buckinghamshire | Buckinghamshire County Council". www.buckscc.gov.uk. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
- ^ Rapson, Jasmine (25 January 2019). "District council joins plans to take legal action over 'undemocratic' unitary authority". Bucks Free Press. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
- ^ "The Buckinghamshire (Structural Changes) Order 2019".
- ^ Rapson, Jasmine (25 January 2019). "District council joins plans to take legal action over 'undemocratic' unitary authority". Bucks Free Press. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
- ^ Statutory Instrument 2019 No. 957 The Buckinghamshire (Structural Changes) Order 2019 (Coming into force 23 May 2019)
- ^ "About the Shadow Authority - Buckinghamshire Council Shadow Authority". shadow.buckinghamshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
- ^ "Shadow Executive - Buckinghamshire Council Shadow Authority". shadow.buckinghamshire.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Statutory Instrument 2020 No. 426 The Local Government (Coronavirus) (Structural Changes) (Consequential Amendments) (England) Regulations 2020
- ^ "Buckinghamshire Council replaces 5 other councils TODAY - everything you need to know". Bucks Free Press. 1 April 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ "Your Councillors by Party". Buckinghamshire Council - Democracy. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ "Council minutes". Buckinghamshire Council. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ "Your councillors by party". Buckinghamshire Council. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
- ^ "Aylesbury Vale District Council offices to be central point for the new Buckinghamshire Council". Bucks Herald. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
