Rutland County Council is the local authority for the

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 ...

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

in the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

of England. The current council was created in April 1997. The population of the council's area at the 2011 census was 37,369. As a

, the council is responsible for almost all local services in Rutland, with the exception of the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and

Leicestershire Police Leicestershire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Leicestershire and Rutland in England. Its headquarters are at Enderby, Leicestershire. History Leicestershire Police was formed in 1839. In 1951 it amalgamated ...

, which are run by joint boards with

Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council is the county council for the English non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. The county is divided into 52 electoral divisions, which return a to ...

and

Leicester City Council Leicester City Council is a unitary authority responsible for local government in the city of Leicester, England. It consists of 54 councillors, representing 22 wards in the city, overseen by a directly elected mayor. It is currently control ...

History

First incarnation

Rutland County Council was first established in 1889 by the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

and ended in 1974 by 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 ...

, when Rutland was reconstituted as a district of Leicestershire.

Second incarnation

The new unitary authority is seen as a re-creation of the original Rutland County Council. The Local Government Commission for England in 1994 recommended that Rutland District (and Leicester City) should become unitaries and leave the two-tier Leicestershire. Rutland unitary authority came into existence on 1 April 1997.The Leicestershire (City of Leicester and District of Rutland) (Structural Change) Order 1996
SI 1996/507 Formally it is a unitary district with the full legal title of ''Rutland County Council District Council'', caused by a renaming of the District of Rutland using powers under section 74 of the Local Government Act 1972 at a special meeting of the council held on 1 April 1997. Although, as with other unitary councils, the council is technically a non-metropolitan district council, section 8 of the Leicestershire (City of Leicester and District of Rutland) (Structural Change) Order 1996 created a county covering the same area as the District of Rutland, and further provided that there would be no council for the County of Rutland.

Composition

The council consists of 27 councillors, representing fifteen electoral wards of the county. It has all-out elections on a four-year cycle and follows a district pattern, with elections held in May 2007, May 2011, 2015 and 2019. The ceremonial head of the council is the

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

, and the executive follows the leader-and-cabinet model. The current council is led by a cabinet of

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

s and independents following the collapse of the previous Conservative minority administration in May 2022. The other parties represented on the council are the Liberal Democrats,

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and the Greens.

Cabinet

The Cabinet prepares Council policies and budgets and is responsible for most day-to-day decision making. The Cabinet also provides leadership and accountability for the local community. Each of the Cabinet Members are responsible for a specified policy area. The Cabinet works to a Forward Plan that sets out matters which the Leader of the Council believes will be the subject of a key decision to be taken by the Cabinet. The Cabinet comprises the Leader of the Council plus up to five elected Councillors, as of May 2022 these consist of: *Lucy Stephenson - Leader and Portfolio Holder for Resources and Property *Rosemary Powell - Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Planning, Highways and Transport *Marc Oxley - Portfolio Holder for Communities, Environment and Climate Change *Samantha Harvey – Portfolio Holder for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Care *Karen Payne - Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation *David Wilby - Portfolio Holder for Education and Children’s Services

Members by party

Wards

The county is divided into electoral wards, returning one, two or three councillors. The previous wards were adopted for the 2003 local elections but amended before the 2019 elections.

2016 EU Referendum

On 23 June 2016 Rutland voted in only the third major UK-wide referendum on the issue of the United Kingdom's membership of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

in the

2016 EU Referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

under the provisions of the

European Union Referendum Act 2015 The European Union Referendum Act 2015c. 36 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made legal provision for a consultative referendum to be held in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar, on whether it should remain a member state ...

where voters were asked to decide on the question “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union” by voting for either “Remain a member of the European Union” or “Leave the European Union”. The county produced one of the narrowest results in the country by voting to “Leave the European Union” by a majority of just 260 votes. The result went against the views of the local MP

Alan Duncan Sir Alan James Carter Duncan (born 31 March 1957) is a British former Conservative Party politician who served as Minister of State for International Development from 2010 to 2014 and as Minister of State for Europe and the Americas from 201 ...

who had campaigned for a "Remain" vote. The result was declared in

Oakham Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...

early on 24 June 2016 by the Counting Officer, Helen Briggs.

Arms

Notes

References

External links

Rutland County Council
{{Authority control Unitary authority councils of England Leader and cabinet executives Local education authorities in England Local authorities in Rutland Billing authorities in England Uppingham Ketton Oakham