Middlesbrough Council, formerly known as Middlesbrough Borough Council, is a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

based in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...

, England. The authority has combined some duties with its nearby councils to form the

Tees Valley Combined Authority The Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) is the combined authority for the Tees Valley urban area in England consisting of the following five unitary authorities: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-T ...

. The

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle ...

is often considered to be larger than current borough boundaries, with a total built-up population of 174,700. It is in the statistical region of

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authori ...

. The council's borough had a resident population in 2001 of 134,855. A 2006 mid-year estimate suggests the Borough to have a population of 138,400. The borough council unsuccessfully bid to achieve city status in 2012, to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

History

Middlesbrough Borough Council was formed on 1 April 1974, under the

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 Gov ...

, from part of the former

County Borough of Teesside Teesside was, from 1968 to 1974, a local government district in northern England. It comprised a conurbation that spanned both sides of the River Tees from which it took its name. Teesside had the status of a county borough and was independent ...

, along with the parish of

Nunthorpe Nunthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England. It is part of the historic county of Yorkshire, North Riding. It is near to the village of Great Ayton and formerly part of the Ayton an ...

from the

Stokesley Rural District Stokesley was a rural district in the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1894 to 1974. It was named after the town of Stokesley, which it contained. The parish was enlarged in 1932 when it took in part of the Middlesbrough Rural District. It lost p ...

. It was a district, and the county town of the new county of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

from 1 April 1974, until 1996. As a district, it was one of the four constituent districts of Cleveland: Cleveland being the upper tier in the two-tier system. When Cleveland was abolished under the Banham Review, Middlesbrough became a unitary authority and as such took on the rights and duties of a county, and only ceremonially part of North Yorkshire, but not run by it. The borough borders Stockton-on-Tees unitary authority to the west,

Redcar and Cleveland Redcar and Cleveland is a borough with unitary authority status in North Yorkshire, England. Its main settlements are Redcar, South Bank, Eston, Brotton, Guisborough, the Greater Eston part of Middlesbrough, Loftus, Saltburn and Skelton. T ...

unitary authority to the east and the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire to the south.

Mayor

As a borough council Middlesbrough is entitled to a mayor. Middlesbrough's council is led by a directly elected mayor, currently Andy Preston.

2011 election

Political composition

Below is the political composition of the council in 2008 and 2011. The borough has 23 council wards. Middlesbrough is mostly unparished, with

and Stainton and Thornton being the only parishes.

Coat of arms

The original coat of arms of the Borough was devised in the nineteenth century by William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe, and regranted in 1996 with slight modifications after the dissolution of Cleveland County. The images, from the collection of the Heraldry Society, will be found on Robert Young's Civic Heraldry website.

References

External links

Middlesbrough Council Website
{{coord, 54.5755, -1.234, display=title, region:GB_scale:100000 Politics of Middlesbrough Unitary authority councils of England Mayor and cabinet executives Local education authorities in England Billing authorities in England Leader and cabinet executives Local authorities in North Yorkshire