Bath and North East Somerset Council

Bath and North East Somerset Council
Whole council elected every four years
Bath & North East Somerset Council logo
Type
Type
History
Founded1 April 1996
Leadership
Karen Walker,
Independent
since 16 May 2024[2]
Kevin Guy,
Liberal Democrats
since 4 May 2021
Will Godfrey[1]
since October 2019
Structure
Seats59 Councillors[3]
Bath and North East Somerset Council composition
Political groups
Administration (41)
  Liberal Democrat (41)
Other parties (18)
  Labour (7)
  Independent (6)
  Green (3)
  Conservative (2)
Joint committees
West of England Combined Authority
Length of term
4 years
Elections
First past the post
Last election
4 May 2023
Next election
6 May 2027
Meeting place
Guildhall, High Street, Bath, BA1 5AW
Website
beta.bathnes.gov.uk

Bath and North East Somerset Council is the local authority for Bath and North East Somerset, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. Since 2017 the council has been a member of the West of England Combined Authority.

The council has been under Liberal Democrat majority control since 2019. It meets at the Guildhall in Bath, and has offices in Bath, Keynsham and Midsomer Norton.

History

The district of Bath and North East Somerset and its council were created in 1996. The new district covered the area of two former districts, both of which were abolished at the same time: Wansdyke and Bath. Both had been lower-tier districts within the county of Avon prior to the 1996 reforms, with Avon County Council providing county-level services to the area.[4]

Guildhall, Bath: council's meeting place

Wansdyke and Avon had both been created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 and so were only in existence for 22 years. The city of Bath was an ancient borough, with its earliest known charter dating from 1189.[5] Bath had been reformed to become a municipal borough in 1836 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Bath was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it became a county borough, independent from the new Somerset County Council, whilst remaining part of the geographical county of Somerset.[6][7]

The area that would become Bath and North East Somerset was transferred from Somerset to the new non-metropolitan county of Avon in 1974. Avon was abolished in 1996 and four unitary authorities established to govern the former county. The way the 1996 change was implemented was to create both a non-metropolitan district and non-metropolitan county called Bath and North East Somerset, covering the combined area of the city of Bath and Wansdyke district, but with no separate county council. Instead, the district council also performs the functions that legislation assigns to county councils, making it a unitary authority.[4] At the same time, the new district was transferred for ceremonial purposes back to Somerset, but as a unitary authority the council has always been independent from Somerset Council (known as Somerset County Council prior to 2023).[8][9]

In 1999 the council housing in the area was transferred to the charitable Somer Community Housing Trust, which was later to become Curo.[10]

Following a petition, a referendum was held in 2016 proposing a directly elected mayor for the Bath and North East Somerset district.[11] The proposal was rejected by 78.1% of voters.

Governance

Bath and North East Somerset Council provides both district-level and county-level functions. Some strategic functions in the area are provided by the West of England Combined Authority; the leader of the council sits on the combined authority as Bath and North East Somerset's representative.[12] Much of the district is covered by civil parishes, which form an additional tier of local government for their areas.[13] The exception is Bath, which is unparished. Instead of having a parish council, the Bath and North East Somerset councillors who represent wards in Bath act as charter trustees to preserve Bath's city status and mayoralty.[14]

Political control

The council has been under Liberal Democrat majority control since 2019.

The first election to the council was held in 1995, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the area's outgoing authorities until 1 April 1996 when the new district and its council formally came into being. Political control of the council since 1996 has been as follows:[15]

Party in control Years
No overall control 1996–2015
Conservative 2015–2019
Liberal Democrats 2019–present

Leadership

For its first six years, the council did not appoint a leader of the council. The role was introduced in 2002, since when the leaders have been:[16]

Councillor Party From To
Paul Crossley Liberal Democrats 9 May 2002 17 May 2007
Francine Haeberling Conservative 17 May 2007 19 May 2011
Paul Crossley Liberal Democrats 19 May 2011 21 May 2015
Tim Warren Conservative 21 May 2015 5 May 2019
Dine Romero[17] Liberal Democrats 21 May 2019 1 Apr 2021
Kevin Guy Liberal Democrats 4 May 2021

Composition

Following the 2023 election and a subsequent change of allegiance in May 2024, the composition of the council was:[18][19]

Party Councillors
Liberal Democrats 41
Labour 7
Independent 6
Green 3
Conservative 2
Total 59

The next election is due in May 2027.

Elections

See also: Bath and North East Somerset Council elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2019, the council has comprised 59 councillors representing 33 wards, with each ward electing one or two councillors. Elections are held every four years.[20][21]

Premises

Keynsham Civic Centre, one of the council's offices

Council meetings are generally held at the Guildhall on High Street in the centre of Bath. The building was first completed in 1778, and was subsequently extended in the 1890s to include municipal offices for Bath City Council.[22]

The modern council's administrative offices are split between several sites, notably including:[23][24]

  • Lewis House at 3-4 Manvers Street in Bath.
  • Keynsham Civic Centre, purpose-built for the council in 2014 to replace the 1960s Keynsham Town Hall.
  • The Hollies in Midsomer Norton, which was the former offices of Norton Radstock Urban District Council and had been substantially extended whilst owned by Wansdyke District Council.

See also

References

  1. ^ "B&NES Council confirms appointment of new Chief Executive Will Godfrey". Bath Echo. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Council meeting, 16 May 2024". Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  3. ^ "Your Councillors". Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  4. ^ a b "The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1995/493, retrieved 18 June 2024
  5. ^ Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Municipal Corporations in England and Wales: Appendix 2. 1835. p. 1111. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  6. ^ "Bath Municipal Borough / County Borough". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  7. ^ Keane, Patrick (1973). "An English County and Education: Somerset, 1889–1902". The English Historical Review. 88 (347): 286–311. doi:10.1093/ehr/LXXXVIII.CCCXLVII.286.
  8. ^ "The Local Government Changes for England (Miscellaneous Provision) Regulations 1995", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1995/1748, retrieved 6 March 2024
  9. ^ "Lieutenancies Act 1997". legislation.gov.uk. The National Archives. 1997 c. 23. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  10. ^ HCA Regulatory Judgement on Curo Group (Albion) Limited - LH4336 (PDF) (Report). Homes and Communities Agency. 1 May 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  11. ^ Bristol Post Archived 2 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine Referendum to go ahead in Banes to decide on elected mayor (7 September 2015)
  12. ^ "Committee papers, 14 June 2024" (PDF). West of England Combined Authority. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  13. ^ "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
  14. ^ "The Mayor of Bath". Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  15. ^ "Compositions calculator". The Elections Centre. 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  16. ^ "Council minutes". Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  17. ^ Sumner, Stephen (1 April 2021). "B&NES Council leader Dine Romero steps down with immediate effect". Somerset Live. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  18. ^ "Bath & North East Somerset election result". BBC News. May 2023.
  19. ^ "Bath and North East Somerset". Local Councils. Thorncliffe. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  20. ^ "The Bath and North East Somerset (Electoral Changes) Order 2018", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 2018/1270, retrieved 18 June 2024
  21. ^ "Bath & North East Somerset". Local Government Boundary Commission for England. 2018. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  22. ^ Historic England. "Guildhall, High Street (Grade I) (1396021)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  23. ^ "Find our offices". Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  24. ^ "Our buildings". Bath and North East Somerset Council. Retrieved 18 June 2024.

External links