Warwickshire County Council | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| Leadership | |
Monica Fogarty since October 2018[3] | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 57 councillors |
 | |
Political groups |
|
Length of term | 4 years |
| Elections | |
| First past the post | |
Last election | 1 May 2025 |
Next election | 3 May 2029 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Shire Hall, Market Place,Warwick, CV34 4RL | |
| Website | |
| www | |
Warwickshire County Council is thecounty council that governs thenon-metropolitan county ofWarwickshire in England. Its headquarters are atShire Hall in the centre ofWarwick, thecounty town. The council's principal functions are county roads andrights of way,social services, education andlibraries, but it also provides numerous other local government services in its area. The council has been underno overall control since the2025 election, being run by aReform UK minority administration.
Elected county councils were created in 1889 under theLocal Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions which had previously been performed by unelectedmagistrates at thequarter sessions. The cities ofBirmingham andCoventry were considered large enough for their existing councils to provide county-level services, and so they were madecounty boroughs, independent from Warwickshire County Council.[a] The 1888 Act also said that anyurban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries were to be placed entirely in the county which had the majority of that district's population, which saw Warwickshire cede its part ofHinckley toLeicestershire, its part ofRedditch toWorcestershire, and its part ofTamworth toStaffordshire. Warwickshire County Council was elected by and provided services to the parts of the county (as thus adjusted) outside the county boroughs of Birmingham and Coventry. The county council's area was termed theadministrative county.[4]
The first elections to the county council were held in January 1889 and it formally came into being on 1 April 1889. On that day it held its first official meeting at the Shire Hall in Warwick, the courthouse (built 1758) which had served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council.John Dugdale, theConservativeMP forNuneaton, was appointed the first chairman of the council.[5]
The administrative county cededAston Manor andErdington to Birmingham in 1911.[6]Solihull was made acounty borough in 1964.[7]
The administrative county was reformed in 1974 to become anon-metropolitan county, at which point it also cededSutton Coldfield,Hockley Heath and much of theMeriden Rural District to the newWest Midlandsmetropolitan county, which also covered the already independent county boroughs of Birmingham, Coventry and Solihull, alongside other territory from Staffordshire and Worcestershire.[8][9] The lower tier of local government was reorganised as part of the same reforms. Previously it had comprised numerousboroughs,urban districts andrural districts; they were reorganised into fivenon-metropolitan districts.[10]
The council became the centre of a national controversy following comments made by three Conservative councillors during a committee meeting in January 2024 discussing spending onSpecial Educational Needs (SEND).[11][12] Following media attention, the council published a statement and apologies from the three councillors.[13] A subsequent investigation cleared all three councillors of having breached the council's code of conduct, but found that some of the language used by two of the councillors had not been respectful. The investigation recommended further training for councillors on how to "engage fully in debate at scrutiny and other committee meetings whilst ensuring that the language used is respectful, courteous, and sensitive to the matter concerned."[14]
Warwickshire County Council providescounty-level services.District-level services are provided by the five district councils:
Much of the county is also covered bycivil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.[15]
The council has been underno overall control since the2025 election.[16] Reform UK was the largest party following that election, and they subsequently formed a minority administration to run the council.[17]
Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:[18][19]
| Party in control | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| No overall control | 1974–1977 | |
| Conservative | 1977–1981 | |
| No overall control | 1981–1989 | |
| Conservative | 1989–1993 | |
| No overall control | 1993–2009 | |
| Conservative | 2009–2013 | |
| No overall control | 2013–2017 | |
| Conservative | 2017–2025 | |
| No overall control[16] | 2025–present | |
Theleaders of the council since 1967 have been:
| Councillor | Party | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| William Dugdale[20][21] | Conservative | 1967 | 24 Feb 1976 | |
| Michael Hammon[22][23] | Conservative | Apr 1976 | May 1981 | |
| Pat Martin[24][25][26] | Conservative | 1 Jun 1981 | Feb 1983 | |
| John Brindley[27][28] | Conservative | May 1983 | May 1984 | |
| John Vereker[29][30] | Conservative | May 1984 | 20 May 1993 | |
| Ian Bottrill[31][32] | Labour | 20 May 1993 | May 2005 | |
| Alan Farnell[33][34] | Conservative | 17 May 2005 | May 2013 | |
| Izzi Seccombe[35][36][37] | Conservative | 21 May 2013 | May 2025 | |
| Rob Howard[1][2] | Reform | 16 May 2025 | 25 Jun 2025 | |
| George Finch[2][38] | Reform | 25 Jun 2025 | present | |
Following the2025 election (taking into account one councillor who found after the ballot papers had been printed but before the election that his employment rules prevented him from standing under a party banner, and so sits as an independent) the composition of the council was:[39][16][40]
| Party | Councillors | |
|---|---|---|
| Reform | 22 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 14 | |
| Conservative | 9 | |
| Green | 7 | |
| Labour | 3 | |
| Whitnash Residents | 1 | |
| Independent | 1 | |
| Total | 54 | |
The next election is due in 2029.[41]
Since the last boundary changes in 2017 the council has been divided into 57electoral divisions, each electing onecouncillor. Elections are held every four years.[42]
The county council is based at theShire Hall inMarket Place, Warwick, a complex of buildings built over many years. The oldest part was a courthouse built in 1758 facing Northgate Street.[43] As the county council's functions grew it built new offices in 1929–32 on the adjoining site of the former county jail, retaining the jail's 1783 façade to Northgate Street. A large extension completed in 1958 included a new council chamber, and a further extension in 1966 created a new frontage and main entrance for the building facing Market Place.[44]
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| National | |
| Other | |
