Staffordshire ^ Worcestershire Canal in Stourport-on-Severn town centre - geograph

Wyre Forest is a local government district in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, covering the towns of

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

, Stourport-on-Severn and

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the Riv ...

, and several civil parishes and their villages. Its council was previously based in Stourport-on-Severn, but moved to new purpose built offices on the outskirts of Kidderminster in 2012. Bewdley Town Centre - geograph

The district was formed 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 ...

, on 1 April 1974, as a merger of Bewdley and Kidderminster

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

s, Stourport-on-Severn

Urban District Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (his ...

Council and

Kidderminster Rural District Kidderminster Rural District was a Rural District in Worcestershire, England until 1974 when it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, becoming part of the new Wyre Forest District, together with the boroughs of Kidderminster and Be ...

Council. Since 2011, Wyre Forest has formed part of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership along with neighbouring authorities

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in th ...

Cannock Chase Cannock Chase (), often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed by Forestry E ...

East Staffordshire East Staffordshire is a local government district with borough status in Staffordshire in England. It has two main towns: Burton upon Trent and Uttoxeter. Villages in the area include Abbots Bromley, Stretton, Tutbury, Barton-under-Needwood ...

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...

and Tamworth. In Wyre Forest, the population size has increased by 3.7%, from around 98,000 in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

to 101,600 in 2021.

Governance

The Wyre Forest parliamentary constituency, which covers most of the district, is represented by the Conservative MP

Mark Garnier Mark Robert Timothy Garnier (born 26 February 1963) is a British Conservative Party politician and former banker. He was first elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wyre Forest at the 2010 general election. Garnier was re-elected at the 2 ...

. He has held the seat since the 2010 general election, when he gained it from Richard Taylor of

Health Concern Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern, (often known as Independent Community And Health Concern and abbreviated as ICHC) is a political party based in Kidderminster, United Kingdom. The party was founded in 2000, having grown ...

, who had held the seat from 2001 to 2010. Elections to Wyre Forest District Council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the seats on the council being elected at each election. Since the first election to the council in 1973 no party has held a majority on the council for most of the time, while the Conservatives, Labour and Health Concern have had periods in control. The Conservatives regained a majority at the last election in 2015. In 2019, the Conservatives lost 7 seats, while there were gains for ICHC, Independent and the Greens. Labour also lost one seat. The council is now run by an Independent-Liberal Democrat-ICHC coalition with the support of the single Green Party councillor.

Staff

Many of the council's staff are based at Wyre Forest House. The chief executive is Ian Miller.

Wards

The council is composed of 33 councillors, in 12 electoral wards of Wyre Forest. * Aggborough & Spennells * Areley Kings & Riverside * Bewdley & Rock * Blakebrook & Habberley South *

Broadwaters Broadwaters is an electoral ward in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The ward elects three councillors to both Wyre Forest District Council and Kidderminster Town Council. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 7,933, and its ar ...

* Foley Park & Hoobrook * Franche & Habberley North * Lickhill * Mitton * Offmore & Comberton * Wribbenhall & Arley * Wyre Forest Rural

Political make-up

Since 2019,

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

are for the full council, with councillor having 4 year terms. The Progressive Alliance, a political grouping which includes

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 ...

and 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 ...

has minority control of the council after Liberal Democrats resigned from the group in 2021. Until then, the Progressive Alliance had a majority control. The council is controlled by the Progressive Alliance and led by independent councillor Helen Dyke.

Parishes

* Areley Kings *

* Broome *

Chaddesley Corbett Chaddesley Corbett is a village and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. The Anglican and secular versions of the parish include other named neighbourhoods, once farmsteads or milling places: Bluntington, Brock ...

Churchill and Blakedown Blakedown is a village in the Wyre Forest District lying along the A456 in the north of the county of Worcestershire, England. Following enclosures and the arrival of the railway, it developed both agriculturally and industrially during the 19th c ...

Kidderminster Foreign Habberley was one of the hamlets of the ancient parish of Kidderminster in the county of Worcestershire, England. It is now divided so that part of it is an area of the town of Kidderminster (to the northwest of the town centre) and part of it (i ...

Ribbesford Ribbesford is a village and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. At the 2001 census it had a population of 237. History Ribbesford was in the lower division of Doddingtree Hundred.''Worcestershire Family Histo ...

* Rock * Rushock *

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

* Stourport-on-Severn *

Upper Arley Upper Arley () is a village and civil parish near Kidderminster in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, the village had a population of 741 at the 2011 census. Amenities The Arley railw ...

* Wilden *

Wolverley and Cookley Wolverley is a village; with nearby Cookley (1 mi northeast), it forms a civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. It is 2 miles north of Kidderminster and lies on the River Stour and the Staffordshire ...

Schools

There are five secondary schools within the district. *

Baxter College Baxter College is a mixed secondary school with academy status located in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. Prior to September 2002 the school was known as Harry Cheshire High School. The school provides education for pupils aged 11 to ...

* The Bewdley School *

Wolverley C E Secondary School Wolverley CofE Secondary School is located in the village of Wolverley, near Kidderminster in Worcestershire, England. The mixed gender school has approximately 670 students on roll (2014) and opened in 2007 following the closure of its predeces ...

* The Stourport High School & VIth Form Centre * King Charles I School

Media

* The Shuttle

References

External links

Official District Council web site.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyre Forest (District) Non-metropolitan districts of Worcestershire