Bristol City Council is the local authority of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England. The 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 governmen ...

, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Bristol. Bristol has 34 wards, electing a total of 70 councillors.

History

The council was formed by the Local Government Act 1972. It was first elected in 1973, a year before formally coming into its powers and prior to the creation of the non-metropolitan district of

on 1 April 1974. Under the Local Government Act 1972 Bristol as a

non-metropolitan district council Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shire counties'') in a two-tier arrangement. Non- ...

would share power with the

Avon County Council Avon County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Avon in south west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1974 and was abolished on 1 April 1996 at the same time as the county. The county council was based at Av ...

. This arrangement lasted until 1996 when Avon County Council was abolished and Bristol City Council gained responsibility for services that had been provided by the county council.

Political composition

Mayor

The

mayor of Bristol The Mayor of Bristol is the head of government of Bristol and the chief executive of the Bristol City Council. The mayor is a directly elected politician who, along with the 70 members of Bristol City Council, is responsible for the strategic ...

following the 2021 mayoral election is

Marvin Rees Marvin Rees (born April 1972) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Mayor of Bristol since 2016. Early life and education Marvin Rees was brought up in Bristol, partly in Lawrence Weston and Easton, by his British mother ...

for the Labour Party. Originally intended to serve for four years from 2016, his first term was extended by a year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. He was re-elected for a shortened three-year term in 2021. Rees had previously ran in the first Bristol mayoral election, coming second place to the independent George Ferguson. On 7 December 2021, the majority of opposition councillors backed a legally binding motion to hold a referendum on the future of the role of the Elected Mayor of Bristol. The referendum on in May 2022 offered Bristolians the choice of keeping an elected mayor or reverting to a committee system of governance. The result was to abolish the role of mayor from May 2024.

Councillors

Since the

2021 Bristol City Council election The 2021 Bristol City Council election took place on 6 May 2021 to elect members of Bristol City Council in England. It coincided with 2021 United Kingdom local elections, nationwide local elections. Voters in the city also voted for the Mayor o ...

, the council has been under no overall control, with both the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

and Labour holding the same number of seats. The council had previously been controlled by the Labour Party since 2016. The Liberal Democrats gained eight seats in the election. However, on 13 December 2021, former Lord Mayor Chris Davies and former Lib Dem Bristol group leader Gary Hopkins defected from the party to form the Knowle Community Party. On 24 December 2021, the Labour councillor for Southmead, Helen Godwin, announced she would be resigning, triggering a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

for 17 February 2022, at which Kye Dudd (former councillor for Central until May 2021) of the Labour Party was elected to replace her.

Cabinet

The cabinet is led by Mayor

and currently consists of nine members (including Rees). All cabinet members are currently part of the Labour Party.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Unitary authority councils of England Local education authorities in England Local authorities in Bristol Billing authorities in England Local government in Bristol Mayor and cabinet executives 1974 establishments in England Government agencies established in 1974