Gloucestershire County Council is a

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

which administers the most strategic

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

services in the

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.8 million. The term ''shire county'' is, however, an unof ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Glo ...

, in the South West of England. The council's principal functions are county roads and rights of way, social services, education and libraries, but it also provides many other local government services in the area it covers. This does not include

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming part ...

, which 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 ...

with all the functions of a county and a non-metropolitan district. Gloucestershire County Council's land area is 2,653.03 km².

Political control

Since the foundation of the council in 1973 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:

Cabinet

Council Leader Mark Hawthorne appointed the following Cabinet as of May 2019.

Notable members

* Thomas Davies, later member of parliament for Cirencester and Tewkesbury * David Drew (born 1952), later member of parliament for

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the me ...

* Sir Henry Elwes (born 1935), later

Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire. Since 1694, all the Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Gloucestershire. * Edmund Brydges, 2nd Baron Chandos 1559–? *Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chando ...

* Julie Girling (born 1956), later a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

for South West England * Margaret Hills (born 1882) first female councillor on

Urban District Council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...

and a

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

. * Nigel Jones (born 1948), later member of parliament for Cheltenham and a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages A ...

Elections and changes

2013 Gloucestershire County Council elections

The Conservative Party lost 13 notional seats, although the numerical loss was larger due to the reduction in the total number of councillors. The Liberal Democrats remained the second largest party by total seats and percentage vote, while the Labour Party had the largest net gain of five seats.

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

won representation on the county council for the first time, winning three seats. The number of

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

councillors rose to two, while 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 People Against Bureaucracy saw their only councillors re-elected.

By-elections and defections: 2013 to 2017

In July 2016, UKIP group leader Alan Preest defected to the Conservatives, claiming that the party lacked a purpose following the EU Referendum. He was followed shortly thereafter by UKIP councillor Colin Guyton, who left UKIP to serve as an independent. He later resigned from the County Council entirely, but a by-election was not held in his division due to the short length of time between then and the 2017 local elections. Two by-elections were held to Gloucestershire County Council in the 2013–2017 term of office:

2017 Gloucestershire County Council elections

The Conservative Party gained 8 seats and retained control of the council. The Liberal Democrats held their 14 seats while Labour lost 4 seats and UKIP lost all 3 of their seats. The Green Party gained one seat. Minor parties lost both of their seats and People Against Bureaucracy held their seat.

By-elections and defections: 2017 to 2021

One by-election was held in this period. Another by-election was due to be held for the ward of Winchcombe and Woodmancote but was suspended due to the uncertainty around the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confirm ...

2021 Gloucestershire County Council elections

On 6 May 2021 the Conservatives retained control, though with a reduced majority.

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control County councils of England 1889 establishments in England Local education authorities in England Local authorities in Gloucestershire Major precepting authorities in England Leader and cabinet executives