Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council is the local authority of the

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is named after both the towns of Maidenhead and Windsor, the borough also covers the nearby towns of Ascot and Eton. It is home to Windsor ...

in Berkshire, England. It 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 ...

, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. Windsor and Maidenhead is divided into 19 wards, electing 41 councillors. The council was created by the Local Government Act 1972 and replaced six local authorities: Cookham Rural District Council, Eton Urban District Council, Eton Rural District Council, Maidenhead Borough Council, New Windsor Borough Council and Windsor Rural District Council. Since 1 April 1998 it has been a unitary authority, assuming the powers and functions of Berkshire County Council.

History

The authority was formed as the Windsor and Maidenhead District Council. It replaced Cookham Rural District Council, Eton Urban District Council,

Eton Rural District Council Eton Rural District was a rural district in the administrative county of Buckinghamshire, England, covering an area in the south-east of the county. It was named after but did not contain Eton, which was an urban district. History The distr ...

, Maidenhead Borough Council, New Windsor Borough Council and

Windsor Rural District Council Windsor was a rural district in Berkshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 as a successor to the Windsor rural sanitary district. It consisted of the parishes of Clewer Without, Old Windsor, Sun ...

. The current local authority was first elected in 1973, a year before formally coming into its powers and prior to the creation of the

on 1 April 1974. The council gained borough status, entitling it to be known as Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council. It was envisaged through the Local Government Act 1972 that Windsor and Maidenhead 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 deliver district-level services, with the Berkshire County Council providing county-level services. This arrangement lasted until 1998 when Berkshire County Council was abolished and Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council gained responsibility for services that had been provided by the county council.

Political control

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

Premises

The council is based at Maidenhead Town Hall, on St Ives Road in Maidenhead, which had been built in 1962 for the former Maidenhead Borough Council.

References

{{Local authorities in Berkshire Leader and cabinet executives Unitary authority councils of England Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Local education authorities in England Local authorities in Berkshire Billing authorities in England