Wiltshire County Council

History

County Councils were first introduced in England and Wales with full powers from 22 September 1889 as a result of the Local Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions until then carried out by the unelected Quarter Sessions. The areas they covered were termed administrative counties and were not in all cases identical to the traditional shire counties, but in Wiltshire the whole 'ceremonial county' came under the authority of the new council.

The first elections to the new county council were held on 23 January 1889, with sixty seats available, but only thirty-two of them were contested. Among those elected unopposed were the 4th Marquess of Bath, the 13th Earl of Pembroke, the 18th Earl of Suffolk, Sir Thomas Grove, 1st Baronet, M. P., Sir Charles Hobhouse, 4th Baronet, and Sir R. H. Pollen, Bart.

The first provisional meeting of the council was held at Devizes on 31 January 1889, with all of the members present, when Lord Bath was elected as chairman. Several aldermen were elected, all from outside the members of the council.

The new system of local democracy was a significant development and reflected the increasing range of functions carried out by local government in late Victorian Britain.

Schools (both primary and secondary) were added to the County Council's responsibilities in 1902, and until the 1990s it was also responsible for operating Colleges of Further Education.

In 1930, the members of the county council decided by 45 votes to 27 to build a new county hall in Devizes, which is near the geographical centre of Wiltshire, and not at Trowbridge, very near its western edge. However, construction was delayed, and in 1933 the decision was reversed in favour of Trowbridge, on the grounds that it was better served by rail services. A site of several acres was bought in Bythesea Road, Trowbridge, not far from the railway station, for £1,650, and a new building designed by Philip Dalton Hepworth, perhaps inspired by a building in Amsterdam, was begun in 1938 and finished in 1940 at a cost of £150,000. Between 1940 and 1943, the new county hall, built in a pale stone, was seen as a potential landmark for German aircraft, so was disguised by covering it with camouflage nets. In 1937, Wiltshire County Council was granted a coat of arms.

Throughout its existence, Wiltshire County Council was responsible for the more strategic local services of Wiltshire, with a changing pattern of lower-tier authorities existing alongside it within its area and responsible for other more local services, such as waste collection. Until 1974, Wiltshire had a large number of urban district and rural district councils. In 1974, local government was reorganised in England and Wales generally, and in Wiltshire dozens of former urban and rural districts were amalgamated into five district councils: Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, West Wiltshire and Thamesdown.

The council was controlled by the Conservatives from 2000 until 2009 and from 2005 was led by Jane Scott. She became the first leader of the new Wiltshire Council.

Position of Swindon

The Borough of Swindon, previously known as Thamesdown, remains part of the ceremonial county of Wiltshire. It was part of the county council's area from 1889 until 1997, when it was reorganised into a new single-tier unitary authority. This had the effect of taking almost one third of Wiltshire's population out of the administrative county. After 1997, Swindon was still treated as being part of Wiltshire for ceremonial purposes (for instance, it still shares a Lord Lieutenant), but the County Council no longer provided any local services in Swindon, so members were no longer elected to it from there.

Functions

By the time it was merged into the new Wiltshire Council unitary authority, Wiltshire County Council provided a wide range of services, including education, libraries, youth services, social services, highway maintenance, waste disposal, emergency planning, consumer protection and town and country planning for matters to do with minerals, waste, highways and education. This made it one of the largest employers in Wiltshire, with an annual budget in 2007 of some £300 million.

The working capital still employed by the Wiltshire Historic Buildings Trust originated in a single grant made by the County Council at the time of the Trust's foundation in 1967, funding which has been described by the Trust's President Lord Lansdowne as "a revolving capital sum".

Elections

Since 1889, members were elected for a term of office, with elections held all together (initially every three years, later every four years) on the "first past the post" system. Until the 1970s, the elected members chose aldermen, whose term of office was for six years, and who once appointed were also voting members of the council. This form of membership was ended by the Local Government Act 1972, so that after 1974 only honorary (that is, non-voting) aldermen could be appointed.

Until 2005, all of the county's electoral divisions elected a single member, but following a boundary review in 2004 three divisions (Salisbury South, Salisbury East, and Trowbridge East) elected two members each. The final size of the council was forty-nine members. The successor authority, Wiltshire Council, was established in 2009 with a total of ninety-eight members.

Political control

At its end in 2009, the council consisted of thirty Conservatives, fourteen Liberal Democrats, three Labour Party members and two Independents. The Conservatives held most of the more rural areas while the Liberal Democrats held several towns, including Trowbridge, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon. The divisions of Westbury Ham & Dilton Marsh and Holt & Paxcroft (both mixed urban and rural areas) elected the two Independents, while the three Labour members held their seats in the city of Salisbury and the towns of Melksham and Devizes.

History of political control

2009 changes

Wiltshire's previous "two tier" system of local government was typical of English shire counties, with the area it covered being sub-divided (since the separation of Swindon) into four local government districts. However, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced on 25 July 2007 that with effect from 1 April 2009 Wiltshire would be served by a new unitary authority, replacing the county council and the four district councils.

As Wiltshire County Council was designated as a "continuing authority", its 48 outgoing county councillors remained in office until the 4 June 2009 elections, whereas district councillors ceased to hold office on 31 March 2009.

List of notable members