Wiltshire Council | |
|---|---|
 The coat of arms of the council | |
 Council logo | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 1 April 1889 |
| Leadership | |
Lucy Townsend since 24 July 2024 | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 98 councillors |
 | |
Political groups | Administration (44)
Opposition (54)
|
Length of term | 4 years |
| Elections | |
| First past the post | |
Last election | 1 May 2025 |
Next election | 3 May 2029 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| County Hall, Bythesea Road,Trowbridge, BA14 8JN | |
| Website | |
| www | |
Wiltshire Council, known between 1889 and 2009 asWiltshire County Council, is thelocal authority for thenon-metropolitan county ofWiltshire inSouth West England, and has its headquarters atCounty Hall inTrowbridge. Since 2009 it has been aunitary authority, being a county council which also performs the functions of adistrict council. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than theceremonial county, the latter additionally includingSwindon.
The council went underno overall control in May 2025, after being controlled by theConservative Party since 2000.
Elected county councils were established in 1889 under theLocal Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions previously carried out by unelectedmagistrates at thequarter sessions.[2] The first elections to the new county council were held on 23 January 1889; the council had sixty seats, but in twenty-eight the candidate ran unopposed.[3] The first provisional meeting of the council was held atDevizes Assize Court on 31 January 1889.[4] The council formally came into its powers on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first official meeting atSalisbury Guildhall. The first chairman wasJohn Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath.[5]
The council was granted acoat of arms in 1937.[6]
Until 1974 the lower tier of local government comprised numerousboroughs,urban districts andrural districts. In 1974 the lower tier was reorganised and Wiltshire was left with fivedistricts:Kennet,North Wiltshire,Salisbury,Thamesdown andWest Wiltshire.[7] In 1997, Thamesdown was renamed 'Swindon' and converted into aunitary authority, removing it from thenon-metropolitan county (the area controlled by Wiltshire County Council).[8] This reduced the population of the non-metropolitan county by almost a third. Swindon remains part of the wider ceremonial county of Wiltshire.[9]
As part of the2009 structural changes to local government, Wiltshire's four remaining districts were abolished and their functions were taken over by Wiltshire County Council as from 1 April 2009. The way the changes were implemented was to create a single non-metropolitan district of Wiltshire matching the non-metropolitan county, but with no separate district council. Instead, the existing county council also took on the functions that legislation assigns to district councils, making it a unitary authority.[10] The county council was given the option of omitting the word 'county' from its name as part of the reforms, which it took, becoming 'Wiltshire Council'.[11]
Since 2009, Wiltshire Council has provided bothcounty-level anddistrict-level services. The whole county is also covered bycivil parishes, which form a lower tier of local government.[12]
Most executive decisions are taken by the authority'scabinet, each member of which has a particular area of responsibility.Development control is undertaken by fiveplanning committees, the powers of which cannot be exercised by the cabinet. Members of the authority are appointed to a wide range of outside bodies, providing them with some element of democratic accountability, such as theKennet and Avon Canal Trust, theWiltshire Victoria County History, and theWiltshire Historic Buildings Trust.
The council has been underno overall control since the2025 election, after which a partnership of theLiberal Democrats andindependents formed to run the council, led by Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Thorn.[13]
The political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:[14]
Upper-tier authority
| Party in control | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| No overall control | 1974–1977 | |
| Conservative | 1977–1985 | |
| No overall control | 1985–1997 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 1997–1997 | |
| No overall control | 1997–2000 | |
| Conservative | 2000–2009 | |
Unitary authority
| Party in control | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 2009–2025 | |
| No overall control | 2025–present | |
Theleaders of the council since 1998 have been:
| Councillor | Party | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter Chalke[15] | Conservative | 1998 | 15 Jul 2003 | |
| Jane Scott[15][16] | Conservative | 15 Jul 2003 | 9 Jul 2019 | |
| Philip Whitehead[17][18] | Conservative | 9 Jul 2019 | May 2021 | |
| Richard Clewer[19][13] | Conservative | 18 May 2021 | May 2025 | |
| Ian Thorn[20] | Liberal Democrats | 20 May 2025 | ||
Following the2025 Wiltshire Council election the composition of the council was:
| Party | Councillors | |
|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | 43 | |
| Conservative | 37 | |
| Reform | 10 | |
| Independent | 7 | |
| Labour | 1 | |
| Total: | 98 | |
Six of the independent councillors sit together as a group; the seventh sits with the Labour councillor in a "Salisbury Independent and Labour" group.[21] One independent has joined the cabinet and the Lib Dem minority administration.[1] The next election is due in 2029.[22]
Since the last full review of boundaries in 2021 the county has been divided into 98electoral divisions, each electing onecouncillor. Elections are held every four years.[23]
The council is based atCounty Hall, Trowbridge, which was purpose-built for the council and was completed in 1940.[24] It also has offices inChippenham, Devizes and Salisbury.[25]
At the council's first official meeting in 1889 there was a debate about where the council should meet in future. The quarter sessions which preceded the county council had met in rotation at Devizes,Marlborough,Salisbury andWarminster, and some advocated that the council should similarly travel around. Others made the case that the rapidly growing town ofSwindon should be one of the meeting places. It was decided thatTrowbridge should be the meeting place; although not central to the county geographically, it had the best railway connections to other parts of the county, and there was also a large newTown Hall already under construction there which could serve as a meeting place.[5]
As it happened, the council did continue to hold meetings in other towns for the first few years, but gradually consolidated its offices and meeting place in Trowbridge.[26] In 1896, the council acquired Arlington House at 72 Fore Street in Trowbridge to act as its offices. The building was extended in 1900 to include a dedicated council chamber, and was extended again in 1913.[27][26]
In 1930, the council decided to build a new county hall inDevizes, which is nearer the geographical centre of Wiltshire, but construction was delayed and in 1933 the decision was reversed.[28] Instead a new County Hall was subsequently built on the formerTrowbridge Town Football Club site on Bythesea Road in Trowbridge. The new building opened in 1940.[24]
In 2012 County Hall was renovated and expanded at a cost of about £24 million.[29] Services provided to the public in the building include the Trowbridge library,[29] and the main office of the council'sRegistration Service.[30]
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