# Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is the local authority for Redcar and Cleveland, a local government district with borough status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. Since 1996 the council has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. The council was created in 1974 as Langbaurgh Borough Council and was a lower-tier authority until 1996 when it was renamed and became a unitary authority, taking over county-level functions from the abolished Cleveland County Council.
Since 2016 the council has been a member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority, which has been led by the directly elected Tees Valley Mayor since 2017. The council has been under no overall control since 2013, being led by a minority Labour administration since 2023. It is based at the Civic Centre in Redcar.

## History

The district and its council were created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, as one of four districts within the new county of Cleveland. The new district covered the whole area of four former districts and part of a fifth, all of which were abolished at the same time:
* Guisborough Urban District
* Loftus Urban District
* Saltburn and Marske-by-the-Sea Urban District
* Skelton and Brotton Urban District
* Teesside County Borough (Coatham, Eston Grange, Kirkleatham, Ormesby, Redcar and South Bank wards only)
The district was named Langbaurgh after the ancient Langbaurgh Wapentake. The county borough of Teesside had only been created six years earlier in 1968; the wards from Teesside which became part of Langbaurgh broadly corresponded to the pre-1968 municipal borough of Redcar, urban district of Eston and parish of Ormesby.
The first election was held in in 1973. For its first year the council acted as a shadow authority alongside the area's outgoing authorities. The new district and its council formally came into being on 1 April 1974, at which point the old districts and their councils were abolished. The district was granted borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor. The council changed the district's name from Langbaurgh to Langbaurgh-on-Tees with effect from 1 January 1988.
From 1974 until 1996 the council provided only district-level services, with county-level services provided by Cleveland County Council. The county and its council were abolished in 1996 and the area's four boroughs became unitary authorities. The way this change was implemented was to rename the existing borough Redcar and Cleveland, and create a new non-metropolitan county of Redcar and Cleveland covering the same area as the borough, but with no separate county council; instead the existing borough council took on county-level functions. At the same time the borough was transferred for ceremonial purposes to North Yorkshire, but as a unitary authority it has always been independent from North Yorkshire Council.

## Governance

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council provides both county-level and district-level services. Parts of the borough are included in civil parishes, which form a second tier of local government for their areas. The north-west of the borough, corresponding to the parts that were in the County Borough of Teesside between 1968 and 1974, is an unparished area.
Since 2016 the council has been a member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

### Political control

The council has been under no overall control since 2013. Following the 2023 election a minority Labour administration took control of the council.
Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:
Langbaurgh (lower-tier district)
| Party in control | Years |
| No overall control | 1974–1976 |
| Conservative | 1976–1979 |
| Labour | 1979–1987 |
| No overall control | 1987–1991 |
| Labour | 1991–1996 |
Redcar and Cleveland (unitary authority)
| Party in control | Years |
| Labour | 1996–2003 |
| No overall control | 2003–2011 |
| Labour | 2011–2013 |
| No overall control | 2013–present |

### Leadership

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Redcar and Cleveland. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 2007 have been:
| Councillor | Party | From | To |
| George Dunning | Labour | 17 May 2007 | 12 Feb 2015 |
| Mary Lanigan | Independent | 12 Feb 2015 | 28 May 2015 |
| Sue Jeffrey | Labour | 28 May 2015 | 23 May 2019 |
| Mary Lanigan | Independent | 23 May 2019 | 7 May 2023 |
| Alec Brown | Labour | 25 May 2023 | |

### Composition

Following the 2023 election and subsequent changes of allegiance, the composition of the council was:
| Party | Party | Councillors |
| | Labour | 22 |
| | Conservative | 13 |
| | Independent | 14 |
| | Liberal Democrats | 10 |
| Total | Total | 59 |
Of the 13 independent councillors, 11 sit together as the "Independent Group". The next election is due in 2027.

## Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2019 the council has comprised 59 councillors representing 24 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.

## Premises

The council meets at the Civic Centre on Ridley Street in Redcar. It has its main offices in the adjoining Redcar and Cleveland House at the corner of Ridley Street and Kirkleatham Street, which was built in 1996 to accommodate the extra staff the council took on when it became a unitary authority. The Civic Centre opened in 2014 as part of a £31 million development called the "Leisure and Community Heart", which incorporates a council chamber, mayor's parlour, register services, meeting rooms, 44 business units, as well as sport and leisure facilities.
When first created in 1974 the council used Eston Town Hall on Fabian Road in Teesville as its headquarters, which had been built in 1961 for the old Eston Urban District Council. In 1981 the council also bought the former headquarters of the Cargo Fleet Iron Company in South Bank, which had been built in 1916. The Cargo Fleet building closed in 2002 and Eston Town Hall was demolished in 2012.

## Cabinet

As of June 2024, the makeup of the council's cabinet was as follows:
| Councillor | Portfolio |
| Alec Brown | Leader |
| Carrie Richardson | Climate, Environment and Culture, and deputy leader |
| Lynn Pallister | Growth and Enterprise |
| Christopher Massey | Resources |
| Lisa Robson | Adults |
| Bill Suthers | Children |
| Ursula Earl | Health, Welfare and Housing |
| Carl Quartermain | Highways and Transport |
| Adam Brook | Neighbourhoods |