North Hertfordshire is a local government district in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Its council is based in Letchworth. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the amalgamation of the

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (his ...

s of Baldock,

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people, a tribe holding ...

, Letchworth, and

Royston Royston may refer to: Places Australia *Royston, Queensland, a rural locality Canada * Royston, British Columbia, a small hamlet England *Royston, Hertfordshire, a town and civil parish, formerly partly in Cambridgeshire * Royston, South Yorks ...

and the

Hitchin Rural District Hitchin Rural District was a rural district in Hertfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974, covering an area in the north of the county. Evolution The district had its origins in the Hitchin Rural Sanitary District. This had been created under ...

. From eastward clockwise, it borders the districts of East Hertfordshire,

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Steven ...

, Welwyn Hatfield,

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ...

in Hertfordshire,

Central Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It was created in 2009. Formation Central Bedfordshire was created on 1 April 2009 as part of a structural reform of local government in Bedfor ...

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

, Central Bedfordshire again, and South Cambridgeshire.

Towns

* Baldock *

* Letchworth *

* Most of the

Great Ashby Great Ashby is a civil parish in Stevenage in the North Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The name Great Ashby was coined in the 1990s to apply to an area of new housing development on the north-eastern edge of t ...

development north east of

falls within North Hertfordshire.

Parishes and unparished areas

North Hertfordshire contains following civil parishes and unparished areas. Changes since 1974 resulting in creation or abolition of parishes are noted, but not boundary changes between parishes:

Composition

The council consists of 49 elected members, representing twenty-four electoral wards. Nine of the wards elect two councillors each. Seven elect one, whilst eight elect three. The council has been under no overall control since 2019, being run by a Labour and Liberal Democrats joint administration. In the 2021 council elections Labour lost the Letchworth Grange seat to the Conservative party. A total of 17 seats out of the 49 of the council were contested, including 2 bye-elections. The 16 other seats were held by the incumbent party. In the 2022 council elections, the Conservatives lost 2 seats to the Liberal Democrats, Letchworth South West and Hitchin Priory, as well as losing a further 2 seats to Labour, being Royston Palace and Baldock Town.

Wards

North Hertfordshire consists of twenty four wards, electing 1, 2 or 3 members.

Premises

When the council was created in 1974, it inherited five sets of offices from the five former authorities, spread across the four towns of

, Letchworth, Baldock and

. Initially the new council used the former Hitchin Rural District Council's offices (later called Centenary House) on Grammar School Walk in Hitchin as its headquarters, with the other offices providing additional accommodation. In 1975, the year after the new council's creation, it consolidated most of its functions into a six-storey building on Gernon Road in Letchworth, which had been built as part of the Central Area (later Garden Square) Shopping Centre. The building was named Council Offices and has served as the council's headquarters since then. The council rented the building until 2013, when it purchased it for £3.6 million.

Arms

Logo

In 2021 the council adopted a new logo of four hearts (shown in the infobox above) and the style "North Herts Council" instead of its full formal name of "North Hertfordshire District Council". Prior to this, the council had used a logo of the initials "NHDC" in a green and purple square for approximately thirty years.

References

External links

North Hertfordshire District Council official website
{{commons category, North Hertfordshire District, North Hertfordshire Districts of Hertfordshire