Wigan Council
   HOME



picture info

Wigan Council
Wigan Council, or Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government services in the borough. The council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2011. The council has been under Labour majority control since the metropolitan borough was created in 1974. It meets at Wigan Town Hall and has its main offices at the adjoining Wigan Life Centre. History The town of Wigan was an ancient borough, having been granted a charter in 1246. From around 1350 the borough was led by a mayor. The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. It was then governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Wigan', generally known as the corporation, town counc ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mayor Of Wigan
The Mayor of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is the first citizen, chairperson of the Wigan Council and elected representative of the Wigan Borough and the Council. Duties of the mayor and its origins The mayoralty of Wigan goes back to its first creation in 1246 AD, when Henry III granted the town its first royal charter; however, since 1974 the office of the mayor has been created by legislative statute of the Constitution of Wigan Council (Article 5, Section 1). The mayor of Wigan as the 'First Citizen' has highest precedence unless a member of the royal family is present. As the elected representative of the borough, the mayor acts as focal point for the community as well as promoting the borough and forging national and international links, which includes continuing links with the Mayor of Angers in Western France as the twinned city. The official position of the mayor and the council includes presiding over the meetings of the council, of which, if the mayor is una ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Metropolitan Borough Council
A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan counties. All of the metropolitan districts have been granted or regranted royal charters giving them borough status (and in some cases, they also have city status). Metropolitan boroughs have been effectively unitary authority areas since the abolition of metropolitan county councils by the Local Government Act 1985.Local Government Act 1985 c.51 Metropolitan boroughs pool much of their authority in joint boards and other arrangements that cover whole metropolitan counties, such as local enterprise partnerships and combined authorities and combined county authorities, with most of the latter having a directly elected metropolitan mayor. History London metropolitan boroughs (1900–1965) The term "metropolitan borough" was first ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

1973 Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council Election
The 1973 Wigan Council elections for the First Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council were held on 10 May 1973, with the entirety of the 72 seat council - three seats for each of the 24 wards - up for vote. It was the first council election as the newly formed metropolitan borough under a new constitution. The Local Government Act 1972 stipulated that the elected members were to shadow and eventually take over from the predecessor corporation on 1 April 1974. The order in which the councillors were elected dictated their term serving, with third-place candidates serving two years and up for re-election in 1975, second-placed three years expiring in 1976 and 1st-placed five years until 1978. Labour won an overwhelming majority of sixty six seats to the Conservative's five and one Independent. Nine seats - for wards 13, 17 and 21 collectively - went unopposed and overall turnout was 34.5%. Election result This result had the following consequences for the total number of sea ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Metropolitan County
Metropolitan counties are a Subdivisions of England, subdivision of England which were originally used for Local government in England, local government. There are six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands (county), West Midlands and West Yorkshire. The metropolitan counties were created in 1974 as part of a Local Government Act 1972, reform of local government in England and Wales. They were the top tier of a two-tier system of counties and Metropolitan borough, metropolitan boroughs, and were created to govern large urban areas. In 1986 their county councils were abolished, and since then the metropolitan counties have had no local government role. The local government functions were largely taken over by the metropolitan boroughs, with joint boards created to co-ordinate some county-wide services. The metropolitan counties are all Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties which share their borders. All ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Government of 1970–74. The act took the total number of councils in England from 1,245 to 412 (excluding parish councils), and in Wales to 45. Its pattern of two-tier metropolitan and non-metropolitan county and district councils remains in use today in large parts of England, although the metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1986, and both county and district councils have been replaced with unitary authorities in many areas since the 1990s. In Wales, too, the Act established a similar pattern of counties and districts, but these have since been entirely replaced with a system of unitary authorities. Elections were held to the new authorities in 1973, and they acted as "shadow authorities" until the handover date. Elect ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Ceremonial Counties Of England
Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's representative in an area. Shrieval counties have the same boundaries and serve a similar purpose, being the areas to which High sheriff#England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, high sheriffs are appointed. High sheriffs are the monarch's judicial representative in an area. The ceremonial counties are defined in the Lieutenancies Act 1997, and the shrieval counties in the Sheriffs Act 1887. Both are defined as groups of Local government in England, counties used for local government. History The historic counties of England were originally used as areas for administering justice and organising the militia, overseen by a High sheriff, sheriff. From Tudor period, Tudor times onwards a lord-lieutenant was appointed to oversee the militia, taki ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Lancashire County Council
Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashire is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool. The council is based in County Hall, Preston, and consists of 84 councillors. Since the 2025 election, the council has been under the majority control of Reform UK, the first time in history that the council has not been held by the Conservative Party or Labour Party. Before the 2017 election, the county had been under Conservative control. The leader of the council, a position currently vacant following Reform's win, chairs a cabinet of eight councillors. The Chief Executive and Director of Resources is Mark Wynn, who was appointed on a temporary basis in 2024 and was given the role permanently in 2025. The council is the successor to the county council of the administrative county of Lancashire, which was creat ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Old Wigan Town Hall
The Old Town Hall was a former municipal facility at the corner of King Street and Rodney Street in Wigan, England. The building, which was demolished in September 2013, had been designated a Grade II listed building in 1990. History The first town hall in Wigan, located at the western side of the Market Place, was commissioned by the James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore and Sir Robert Bradshaigh, the town's representatives in parliament. It was designed in the neoclassical style with arcading on the ground floor to allow markets to be held and completed in 1720. The older building remained in use until its demolition in 1882. The building now referred to as the "old town hall" was the second of three seats of local government in Wigan; it was built on a plot at the corner of King Street and Rodney Street in Wigan, between 1866 and 1867. Designed by local architects Nuttall & Cook, the two-storey Italianate style structure was built largely of brick in Flemish bond, except for it ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Municipal Corporations Act 1835
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 ( 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 76), sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales. The legislation was part of the reform programme of the Whigs and followed the Reform Act 1832, which had abolished most of the rotten boroughs for parliamentary purposes. Royal commission The government of Lord Grey, having carried out reform of parliamentary constituencies, turned its attention to local government. In February 1833 a select committee was appointed "to inquire into the state of the Municipal Corporations in England, Wales, and Ireland; and to report if any, and what abuses existed in them, and what measures, in their opinion, it would be most expedient to adopt, with a view to the correction of those abuses". The committee made their report in June 1833, having inquired into a handful of boroughs. The committee found that ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Municipal Borough
A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ... district which existed in England and Wales between 1836 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in Scotland from 1833 to 1975 with the reform of royal burghs and creation of police burghs. England and Wales Municipal Corporations Act 1835 Ancient borough, Boroughs had existed in England and Wales since Middle Ages, medieval times. By the late Middle Ages they had come under royal control, with municipal corporation, corporations established by royal charter. These corporations were not popularly elected: characteristically they were self-selecting Oligarchy, oligarchies, were nominated b ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mayors In England
In England, the offices of mayor and lord mayor have long been ceremonial posts, with few or no duties attached to them. In recent years they have doubled as more influential political roles while retaining the ceremonial functions. A mayor's term of office denotes the municipal year. Traditionally mayors and provosts have been elected by town, borough and city councils. Since 2000, several districts now have directly elected mayors with extensive powers. The role of the chair of a district council is exactly the same as the mayor of a borough council; they have the same status as first citizen, after the Sovereign, in their district, but they are not addressed as mayor. There are also devolved regional metro Mayors responsible for combined authorities over larger regional-based geographic areas, which are completely different and more powerful. Election In England, where a borough or a city is a local government district or a civil parish, the mayor is elected annually by the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]