Nottinghamshire County Council

Nottinghamshire County Council
Type
Type	County council
Leadership
Chair	Richard Butler, Conservative since 16 May 2024[1]
Leader	Ben Bradley, Conservative since 27 May 2021
Chief Executive	Adrian Smith since September 2022
Structure
Seats	66 councillors
Political groups	Administration (35)   Conservatives (35) Other parties (31)   Labour (15)   Ashfield Ind. (10)   Independent (6)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	6 May 2021
Next election	1 May 2025
Meeting place
County Hall, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 7QP
Website
www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk

Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. It consists of 66 county councillors, elected from 56 electoral divisions every four years. The most recent election was held in 2021.

The county council is based at County Hall in West Bridgford. The council does not have jurisdiction over Nottingham, which is a unitary authority governed by Nottingham City Council. The council is a constituent member of the East Midlands Combined County Authority.

Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions that had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. The borough of Nottingham had been a county corporate since 1449 with its own quarter sessions, and Nottingham's independence from the surrounding county was maintained by making it a county borough. The county council was elected by and provided services to the remainder of the county outside the borough of Nottingham, which area was termed the administrative county.^[2]

The first elections to the county council were held on 15 January 1889, with 51 councillors being elected. There were also 17 aldermen chosen by the councillors to serve on the council as well.^[3] The council formally came into its powers on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first official meeting at the Shire Hall in Nottingham. Henry Strutt, Lord Belper, a Liberal Unionist peer, was the first chairman of the council.^[4]

The county council was reconstituted in 1974 as a non-metropolitan county by the Local Government Act 1972; the first elections to the reformed council were held in 1973. All urban districts, rural districts and municipal boroughs within the county were abolished and replaced with non-metropolitan districts. Whilst previously the City of Nottingham was an independent county borough and therefore not included within the administrative county of Nottinghamshire or involved in the election of county councillors, the new non-metropolitan county included Nottingham for the first time as a non-metropolitan district.^[5]

In 1998, Nottingham regained independent control over its affairs when it became a unitary authority. Since then the county council has had control over the county of Nottinghamshire, excluding the City of Nottingham.^[6]

In 2024 a combined county authority was established covering Nottinghamshire, Nottingham, Derby and Derbyshire, called the East Midlands Combined County Authority. The combined authority is chaired by the directly elected Mayor of the East Midlands and oversees the delivery of certain strategic functions across the area.^[7]

Nottinghamshire County Council provides county-level services such as education, transport, social care, libraries, trading standards and waste management.^[8] District-level services are provided by the area's seven district councils:^[9]

• Ashfield
• Bassetlaw
• Broxtowe
• Gedling
• Mansfield
• Newark and Sherwood
• Rushcliffe

Much of the county is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.^[10]

The council has been under Conservative majority control since 2021.

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:^[11][12]

The leaders of the council since 1974 have been:^[13]

Following the 2021 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to December 2023, the composition of the council was:^[20]

The next election is due in 2025.

The county council is based at County Hall on the south bank of the River Trent in West Bridgford. A replacement headquarters is under construction on the A611 Annesley Road in the parish of Linby, on the northern outskirts of Hucknall, due to open in 2025.^[21][22]

When the county council was first created it met at the Shire Hall on High Pavement in Nottingham, a courthouse built in 1770 which had been the meeting place of the quarter sessions which preceded the county council.^[23] The council moved to County Hall in 1954; construction had begun in 1939 but had been paused due to the Second World War. When construction began the site was within the boundaries of Nottingham.^[24] Boundary changes in April 1952 adjusted the boundary between Nottingham and West Bridgford in this area to follow the centre of the River Trent, transferring the County Hall site and other areas on the south bank of the Trent from Nottingham to West Bridgford.^[25]

Since the last boundary changes in 2017 the council has comprised 66 councillors representing 56 electoral divisions, with each division electing one or two councillors. Elections are held every four years.^[26]

Nottinghamshire is divided into 56 divisions for electoral purposes. Current boundaries have been in place since 2017 following a review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. Each Councillor is allocated a locality budget, described as their "Councillors' Divisional Fund".^[27]