# Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Wigan Council, or Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government services in the borough. The council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2011.
The council has been under Labour majority control since the metropolitan borough was created in 1974. It meets at Wigan Town Hall and has its main offices at the adjoining Wigan Life Centre.

## History

The town of Wigan was an ancient borough, having been granted a charter in 1246. From around 1350 the borough was led by a mayor. The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. It was then governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Wigan', generally known as the corporation, town council or borough council.
When elected county councils were established in 1889, Wigan was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it became a county borough, independent from the new Lancashire County Council, whilst remaining part of the geographical county of Lancashire.
The larger Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and its council were created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 as one of ten metropolitan districts within the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. The first election was held in 1973. For its first year the council acted as a shadow authority alongside the area's fourteen outgoing authorities, being the borough councils of Wigan and Leigh, the urban district councils of Abram, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Aspull, Atherton, Billinge and Winstanley, Golborne, Hindley, Ince-in-Makerfield, Orrell, Standish-with-Langtree, and Tyldesley, and the Wigan Rural District Council. The new metropolitan district and its council formally came into being on 1 April 1974, at which point the old districts and their councils were abolished.
The metropolitan district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Wigan's series of mayors dating back to the 14th century. The council styles itself Wigan Council rather than its full formal name of Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council.
From 1974 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the Greater Manchester County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to Greater Manchester's ten borough councils, including Wigan, with some services provided through joint committees.
Since 2011 the council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which has been led by the directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. The combined authority provides strategic leadership and co-ordination for certain functions across Greater Manchester, notably regarding transport and town planning, but Wigan Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions.

## Governance

Wigan Council provides metropolitan borough services. Some strategic functions in the area are provided by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority; the leader of Wigan Council sits on the combined authority as Wigan's representative. There are three civil parishes in the borough at Haigh, Shevington and Worthington which form an additional tier of local government for their areas; the rest of the borough is unparished.

### Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since the 1974 reforms.
| Party | Party | Period |
| | Labour | 1974–present |

### Leadership

The role of Mayor of Wigan is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1991 have been:
| Councillor | Party | Party | From | To |
| Peter Smith | | Labour | 1991 | 23 May 2018 |
| David Molyneux | | Labour | 23 May 2018 | |

### Composition

Following the 2024 election, the composition of the council was:
| Party | Party | Councillors |
| | Labour | 64 |
| | Independent | 10 |
| | Conservative | 1 |
| Total | Total | 75 |
Four of the independent councillors are supported by the Independent Network and sit together as a group, another four form the 'Independent Together' group and the remaining two do not form part of a group. The next routine election is due in May 2026.

## Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2023, the council has comprised 75 councillors representing 25 wards, with each ward electing three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with a third of the council (one councillor for each ward) elected each time for a four-year term of office.

## Wards and councillors

The councillors as at February 2025 were:
| Ward | Party | Councillor | Offices |
| Abram | Labour Co-op | Nazia Rehman | Portfolio Holder for Finance, Resources & Transformation |
| Abram | Labour | Eunice Smethurst | Chairman - Confident Council Scrutiny Committee |
| Abram | Labour Co-op | Martyn Smethurst | Lead Member - Armed Forces & Veterans |
| Ashton-in-Makerfield South | Labour | Andrew Bullen | |
| Ashton-in-Makerfield South | Labour | Jenny Bullen | Portfolio Holder for Children and Families / Deputy Mayor |
| Ashton-in-Makerfield South | Labour | Danny Fletcher | Lead Member - Leisure & Public Health |
| Aspull, New Springs and Whelley | Labour | Ronald Josef Conway | Chair of the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee |
| Aspull, New Springs and Whelley | Labour | Laura Flynn | Lead Member - Youth Opportunities |
| Aspull, New Springs and Whelley | Labour | Christopher Ready | Portfolio Holder - Communities & Neighbourhoods |
| Astley | Labour | Christine Lillian Roberts | |
| Astley | Labour | Barry John Taylor | Vice-Chair of the Confident Places Scrutiny Committee |
| Astley | Labour | Paula Wakefield | Lead Member for Equalities and Domestic Abuse |
| Atherton North | Independent Network | Stuart Andrew Gerrard | |
| Atherton North | Independent Network | Jamie Hodgkinson | |
| Atherton North | Independent Network | James Paul Watson | Leader of the opposition |
| Atherton South and Lilford | Labour | John Harding | Vice Chair of Planning Committee |
| Atherton South and Lilford | Labour | Lee McStein | |
| Atherton South and Lilford | Labour | Debra Susan Ann Wailes | |
| Bryn with Ashton-in-Makerfield North | Independent | Steve Jones | |
| Bryn with Ashton-in-Makerfield North | Independent | Scarlett Myler | |
| Bryn with Ashton-in-Makerfield North | Independent | Sylvia Wilkinson | |
| Douglas | Labour | Mary Callaghan | Vice-Chair of the Confident Council Scrutiny Committee |
| Douglas | Labour | Matt Dawber | |
| Douglas | Independent | Pat Draper | |
| Golborne and Lowton West | Labour | Susan Gambles | Portfolio Holder for Housing and Welfare |
| Golborne and Lowton West | Labour | Yvonne Klieve | Lead Member - District Centres and Night Time Economy |
| Golborne and Lowton West | Labour | Gena Merrett | Vice-Chair of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee |
| Hindley | Labour | Paul John Blay | Vice-Chair of the Licensing and Regulation Committee |
| Hindley | Labour | Jim Churton | |
| Hindley | Labour | James Talbot | |
| Hindley Green | Independent | Bob Brierley | |
| Hindley Green | Labour | James Palmer | |
| Hindley Green | Labour | John Melville Vickers | |
| Ince | Labour | David Trevor Molyneux | Executive Leader and Portfolio Holder for Economic Development |
| Ince | Independent | Maureen O'Bern | |
| Ince | Independent | Tony Whyte | |
| Leigh Central and Higher Folds | Labour | Keith Cunliffe | Deputy Leader Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care |
| Leigh Central and Higher Folds | Labour | Shelley Guest | |
| Leigh Central and Higher Folds | Labour | Fredrick Bown Walker | |
| Leigh South | Labour Co-op | Kevin Anderson | Chair of Licensing and Regulation Committees |
| Leigh South | Labour Co-op | Charles Rigby | Chair of Audit, Governance and Standards Committee |
| Leigh South | Labour | Barbara Caren | |
| Leigh West | Labour | Dane Anderton | Portfolio Holder for Police, Crime and Civil Contingencies |
| Leigh West | Labour | Samantha Brown | |
| Leigh West | Labour | Susan June Greensmith | |
| Lowton East | Labour | Jenny Gregory | |
| Lowton East | Labour | Garry Lloyd | |
| Lowton East | Labour | Mike Smith | |
| Orrell | Labour | Anne Collins | |
| Orrell | Labour | Jim Nicholson | |
| Orrell | Labour | Mark Tebbutt | |
| Pemberton | Labour | Jeanette Prescott | |
| Pemberton | Labour | Paul Prescott | Portfolio Holder for Planning, Environmental Services and Transport |
| Pemberton | Labour | Eileen Winifred Rigby | |
| Shevington with Lower Ground and Moor | Labour | Paul Anthony Collins | |
| Shevington with Lower Ground and Moor | Labour | Michael John Crosby | |
| Shevington with Lower Ground and Moor | Labour | Vicky Galligan | |
| Standish with Langtree | Labour | Terry Mugan | |
| Standish with Langtree | Labour | Debbie Parkinson | Mayor |
| Standish with Langtree | Conservative | Raymond Whittingham | Leader of the Conservatives in wigan council |
| Tyldesley and Mosley Common | Labour | Jess Eastoe | Vice-Chair of Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee |
| Tyldesley and Mosley Common | Independent Network | James Fish | |
| Tyldesley and Mosley Common | Labour | Joanne Marshall | Lead Member for Greener Wigan |
| Wigan Central | Labour | George Davies | |
| Wigan Central | Labour | Lawrence Hunt | Lead Member for Heritage and Building Conservation |
| Wigan Central | Labour | Michael McLoughlin | |
| Wigan West | Labour | Phyllis Cullen | |
| Wigan West | Labour | Sheila Ramsdale | |
| Wigan West | Labour Co-op | David Wood | |
| Winstanley | Labour Co-op | Paul Terence Kenny | Chair of the Planning Committee |
| Winstanley | Labour | Clive William Morgan | Chair of Confident Places and Environment Scrutiny Committee |
| Winstanley | Labour | Marie Morgan | |
| Worsley Mesnes | Labour | David Hurst | |
| Worsley Mesnes | Labour | Paul Molyneux | Vice-Chair of Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee |
| Worsley Mesnes | Labour | Helen O’Neill | |

## Premises

The council meets at Wigan Town Hall on Library Street, which had been built in 1903 as the Wigan Mining and Technical College. After the college moved to new premises, the building was converted into a town hall in 1990 to replace the Old Town Hall on King Street.
The council's main offices are at the Wigan Life Centre on The Wiend, a modern building completed in 2012 behind the retained façade of the former Municipal Buildings facing Hewlett Street and Library Street. The building also incorporates the town's library.
The old Wigan Borough Council had held its meetings at the Old Town Hall on King Street, which had been built as a courthouse in 1867 and had become the council's headquarters in 1882. By the 1950s the council had moved its main offices to the Municipal Buildings, being a converted row of shops and offices at the corner of Hewlett Street and Library Street, which had been built in 1900. Meetings continued to be held at the Old Town Hall until the new Town Hall opened in 1990. The offices were supplemented by the construction of the Civic Centre on Millgate in 1970. After the council consolidated its offices at the Wigan Life Centre and Town Hall, the Civic Centre closed in 2018.