Bath and North East Somerset Council

Bath and North East Somerset Council is the local council for the district of Bath and North East Somerset in Somerset, England.

Bath and North East Somerset Council
Type
Type
History
Founded1 April 1996
Preceded byAvon County Council
Leadership
Chair of the Council
Cllr Andrew Furse, Liberal Democrats
since 26 May 2020
Leader of the Council
Cllr Dine Romero, Liberal Democrats
since 21 May 2019
Chief Executive
Will Godfrey[1]
since October 2019
Structure
Seats59 Councillors[2]
Political groups
Administration
  Liberal Democrat (37)
Other parties
  Conservative (11)
  Labour (5)
  Independent (6)
Length of term
4 years
Elections
First past the post
Last election
2 May 2019
Next election
4 May 2023
Meeting place
Guildhall, Bath
Website
www.bathnes.gov.uk

It is a unitary authority, with the powers and functions of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. The council consists of 59 councillors: 28 from Bath, 8 from Midsomer Norton & Radstock, 6 from Keynsham, and 17 from other areas.

History

Historically part of the county of Somerset, Bath was made a county borough in 1889 and thus was independent of the newly created administrative Somerset county council.[3] The area that would become Bath and North East Somerset became part of Avon when that non-metropolitan county was created in 1974. When Avon was abolished in 1996, its non-metropolitan districts of Wansdyke and Bath were combined into a new unitary authority named Bath and North East Somerset, with its principal offices at Bath.[4]

Before the Reform Act of 1832, Bath elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons.[5] Bath now has a single parliamentary constituency, with a Liberal Democrat, Wera Hobhouse, as Member of Parliament since 2017. The rest of the Council's area falls within the North East Somerset constituency.[6] Previously, most of the area was in the Wansdyke constituency.

In 1999 the council housing in the area was transferred to the charitable Somer Community Housing Trust, which was later to become Curo.[7]

Following a successful petition, a referendum was held in 2016 proposing a directly elected mayor for the Bath and North East Somerset district.[8] The proposal was rejected by 78.1% of voters.

Political control

From the creation of the authority in 1995, no political party had overall control of the council until 2015. The Liberal Democrats quickly became the dominant party until the 2007 elections when the Conservative Party won 31 seats to become the largest party, though they did not have a majority. In the 2015 elections, the Conservatives won 37 seats to gain overall control of the council, then in 2019 the Liberal Democrats took control after winning 37 seats.

A boundary change in 2018 meant that the number of councillors elected in 2019 was reduced from 65 to 59, and the number of electoral wards from 37 to 33. Most wards had their boundaries adjusted so that the number of electors per councillor is roughly similar.[9][10][11]

The number of councillors by party was:

Date Liberal Democrat +/– Conservative +/– Labour +/– Greens +/– Independent +/– Other +/– Control
1995 27 16 22 – – – NOC
1999 30 +3 16 = 17 –5 – – 2 +2 NOC
2003[12] 29 –1 26 +10 6 –11 – 4 +4 0 –2 NOC
2007[13] 26 –3 31 +5 5 –1 – 3 –1 – NOC
2011[14] 29 +3 29 –2 5 = – 2 –1 – NOC
2015[15] 15 –14 37 +8 6 +1 2 +2 3 +1 2 +2 Conservative
2019[16] 37[lower-alpha 1] +22 11 –26 5 –1 0 –2 6 +3 0 –2 Liberal Democrat

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. The Liberal Democrat vote count includes one candidate who stood under the description of "Liberal Democrat Focus Team".

References

  1. "B&NES Council confirms appointment of new Chief Executive Will Godfrey". Bath Echo. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  2. "Your Councillors". Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  3. Keane, Patrick. "An English County and Education: Somerset, 1889–1902". The English Historical Review. 88 (347): 286–311. doi:10.1093/ehr/LXXXVIII.CCCXLVII.286.
  4. "The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995". legislation.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  5. "Parliamentary Constituencies in the unreformed House". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 5 November 2007. Retrieved 9 December 2007.
  6. "Somerset North East: New Boundaries Calculation". Electoral Calculus: General Election Prediction. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
  7. HCA Regulatory Judgement on Curo Group (Albion) Limited - LH4336 (PDF) (Report). Homes and Communities Agency. 1 May 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  8. Bristol Post Archived 2 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine Referendum to go ahead in Banes to decide on elected mayor (7 September 2015)
  9. "Boundary Review 2018". Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  10. "Bath & North East Somerset". Local Government Boundary Commission for England. 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  11. "Current Wards & New Wards list" (PDF). Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  12. "Local Election – Thursday, 1st May, 2003". Bath & North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
  13. "Local Election – Thursday, 3rd May, 2007". Bath & North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
  14. "Local Election – Thursday, 5th May, 2011". Bath & North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  15. "Bath and North East Somerset Council (All Wards) - Thursday, 7th May, 2015". Bath and North East Somerset. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  16. "Election results by party, 2 May 2019". democracy.bathnes.gov.uk. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
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