Newcastle City Council is the local authority for Newcastle upon Tyne, a metropolitan borough with city status in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in North East England. The council consists of 78 councillors, three for each of the 26 wards in the city. It has been under Labour majority control since 2011. The council is a member of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

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Newcastle City Council
Type
Type	Metropolitan borough
Leadership
Lord Mayor	Veronica Dunn, Labour since 25 May 2023
Leader	Nick Kemp, Labour since 25 May 2022
Chief Executive	Pam Smith since January 2022[1]
Structure
Seats	78 (40 needed for a majority)
Political groups	Administration (47)   Labour (47) Other parties (31)   Liberal Democrat (23)   Newcastle Independents (4)   Independent (4)
Joint committees	North of Tyne Combined Authority
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	4 May 2023
Next election	2 May 2024
Meeting place
Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QH
Website
www.newcastle.gov.uk

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Newcastle was an ancient borough; it is said to have been made a borough by William II (reigned 1087–1100). In 1400, a new charter from Henry IV gave the borough the right to hold its own courts and appoint its own sheriffs, making it a county corporate, independent from the Sheriff of Northumberland.^[2]

Newcastle was reformed to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. It was then governed by a body formally called the "mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Newcastle upon Tyne", generally known as the corporation or town council.^[3] Newcastle was awarded city status in 1882, after which the corporation was also known as the city council. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Newcastle was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it was made a county borough.^[4] In 1906 the city was given the right to appoint a Lord Mayor.^[5]

In 1974 the county borough was replaced by a larger metropolitan borough within the new county of Tyne and Wear.^[6][7] Newcastle's city status was transferred to the enlarged borough at the same time.^[8]

From 1974 until 1986 the city council was a lower-tier district authority, with Tyne and Wear County Council providing county-level services. The county council was abolished in 1986, since when the city council has again provided both district-level and county-level services, as it had done when it was a county borough prior to 1974. Some functions are provided across Tyne and Wear by joint committees with the other districts.^[9]

Since 1986 the council has provided both district-level and county-level functions, with some services being provided through joint arrangements with the other Tyne and Wear councils. Since 2018 the council has been a member of the North of Tyne Combined Authority, which is due to be replaced by the larger North East Mayoral Combined Authority in May 2024.^[10]

The council is based at the Civic Centre on Barras Bridge.^[17] It was purpose-built for the council in phases between 1956 and 1967.^[18] The finished complex was formally opened on 14 November 1968 by King Olav V of Norway.^[19]

The Civic Centre replaced Newcastle Town Hall, which had been built in 1863 in St Nicholas Square, and was subsequently demolished in 1973. The Town Hall in turn had replaced the Guildhall on Sandhill, which had been built in 1655 on a site which had been used for the town's guildhall since at least the thirteenth century.^[20][21]

Since the last boundary changes in 2018 the council has comprised 78 councillors representing 26 wards, with each ward electing three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with a third of the council (one councillor for each ward) elected each time for a four year term of office.^[22]

• Newcastle Upon Tyne Youth Council
• List of Lord Mayors of Newcastle-upon-Tyne