Northumberland County Council

Northumberland County Council is a unitary authority in North East England. The population of the non-metropolitan unitary authority at the 2011 census was 316,028.[1]

Northumberland County Council
Type
Type	Unitary authority
History
Founded	1 April 2009[lower-alpha 1]
Preceded by	District councils Berwick-upon-Tweed Borough Council Blyth Valley Borough Council Castle Morpeth Borough Council Alnwick District Council Tynedale District Council Wansbeck District Council
Leadership
Civic Head	Cllr James Ian Hutchinson, Conservative since 26 May 2021
Chairman of the Council	Cllr Barry Malcolm Flux, Conservative since 26 May 2021
Leader of the Council	Cllr. Hugh Glen Howard Sanderson, Conservative since 26 May 2021
Structure
Seats	67 councillors
Political groups	Administration   Conservative (34) Other parties   Labour (21)   Non Aligned (7)   Liberal Democrats (3)   Green (2)
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	6 May 2021
Next election	TBC
Meeting place
County Hall, Morpeth
Website
northumberland.gov.uk

History

It was formed in 1889 as the council for the administrative county of Northumberland and reformed, downsized in 1974 to cover the newly formed non-metropolitan county of Northumberland, which for the first time excluded the City of Newcastle upon Tyne conurbation. As part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England it became a unitary authority with the same boundaries, this disregarded the referendum held in 2005 in which the population voted against the forming of a unitary authority.[2]

Its elections have been in May 2008, 2013, 2017 and 2021 at four-yearly intervals, the expected length of office of each councillor.

Naming of the new unitary authority

Throughout 2008, the people of Northumberland were consulted about the new name of the unitary authority. The choice was between having the name of the incumbent county council as the name for the new unitary authority – Northumberland County Council or whether a brand new name should be given – Northumberland Council. Online polls were held and the votes of staff within the former district councils were collated and overall, the name of the incumbent county council was preferred on a ratio of nearly 2:1.[3]

On 17 December 2008 it was decided that the new name would be Northumberland County Council. The chairman of the council stated that:

Having considered the findings of this consultation, it has been decided to call the new authority Northumberland County Council. It is important to reiterate that whilst the single unitary will adopt the name of an existing council, this is emphatically not a County Council takeover. As of 1 April 2009, all existing Northumberland councils will be abolished to make way for a brand new organisation, with new vision, values, and behaviours.

Legally, however, the council remains the same body as at present, simply assuming the functions of the districts.[4]

Council leadership

Civic leadership and offices of honour

Presiding Officers

Leader of the council and cabinet

Following the election of May 2017, Northumberland County Council has no overall control, however the Conservative Party are the largest group on the Council being one seat short of an overall majority so form the council's current administration.

Leader of the official opposition and shadow cabinet

Composition

Following the election of 2021, Northumberland County Council the Conservative Party gained majority control of the Council [5] [6]

Other uses

Eurostat statistical area

For Eurostat purposes the area under the jurisdiction of Northumberland County Council is a NUTS 3 region (code UKC21) and is one of six boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region.

Notes

References