# Suffolk County Council

Suffolk County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 75 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions. It is a member of the East of England Local Government Association.
The council has been under Conservative majority control since 2017. It is based at Endeavour House in Ipswich.

## History

Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions that had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the court of quarter sessions. In most counties the quarter sessions were held at a single location, but in Suffolk the custom was long-established of holding the quarter sessions across several days, sitting in different towns. Prior to 1860 the court sat in the four towns of Beccles, Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Woodbridge. In 1860 the Beccles and Woodbridge divisions merged with the Ipswich one to form the eastern division, and the area administered from Bury St Edmunds became known as the western division.
Officially it remained one court of quarter sessions which adjourned after each day of hearings and travelled to a new venue, and the original draft bill in 1888 therefore envisaged that there would be a single Suffolk County Council. As the bill progressed through its parliamentary processes an amendment was proposed by Frederick Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol, who lived at Ickworth House near Bury St Edmunds, that the eastern and western divisions of the county should instead become separate administrative counties. The amendment was agreed by 59 votes to 20 in the House of Lords. It was also agreed that the borough of Ipswich was large enough to provide its own county-level functions and so it was made a county borough. Suffolk therefore had three county-level authorities after 1889: West Suffolk County Council, East Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Corporation.
This system continued until 1974, when the Local Government Act 1972 abolished the separate county councils for East Suffolk and West Suffolk and downgraded Ipswich to providing district-level services only. In their place, Suffolk County Council was created with responsibility for county-level services across the whole county. Initially based at East Suffolk County Hall in Ipswich, the council relocated to Endeavour House in 2004.
In September 2010, the council announced that it would seek to outsource a number of its services, in an attempt to cut its budget by 30%. Controversy surrounding the then chief executive Andrea Hill, some concerning £122,000 spent on management consultants, featured in the local and national press in 2011; this led to her facing a disciplinary hearing, and subsequently resigning.

## Governance

Suffolk County Council provides county-level services. District-level services are provided by the area's five district councils:
* Babergh District Council
* East Suffolk District Council
* Ipswich Borough Council
* Mid Suffolk District Council
* West Suffolk District Council
With the exception of Ipswich, the rest of the county is covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.

### Political control

The council has been under Conservative majority control since 2017.
The first election to the county council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new arrangements came into effect on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:
| Party in control | Years |
| Conservative | 1974–1993 |
| No overall control | 1993–2005 |
| Conservative | 2005–2016 |
| No overall control | 2016–2017 |
| Conservative | 2017–present |

### Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1984 have been:
| Councillor | Party | From | To |
| Christopher Penn | Conservative | 1984 | 18 May 1993 |
| Chris Mole | Labour | 18 May 1993 | 22 Nov 2001 |
| Jane Hore | Labour | 18 Dec 2001 | 22 May 2003 |
| Bryony Rudkin | Labour | 22 May 2003 | 26 May 2005 |
| Jeremy Pembroke | Conservative | 26 May 2005 | 1 Apr 2011 |
| Mark Bee | Conservative | 26 May 2011 | 21 May 2015 |
| Colin Noble | Conservative | 21 May 2015 | 24 May 2018 |
| Matthew Hicks | Conservative | 24 May 2018 | |

### Composition

Following the 2021 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to July 2024, the composition of the council was:
| Party | Party | Councillors |
| | Conservative | 52 |
| | Green | 9 |
| | Labour | 6 |
| | Liberal Democrats | 5 |
| | Independent | 2 |
| | West Suffolk Independents | 1 |
| Total | Total | 75 |
The Greens, Liberal Democrats, West Suffolk Independent and one of the independent councillors sit as a group. In February 2025, the government postponed the elections that were due to take place in May 2025 for a year, to allow for alternative local government structures for the area to be considered.

## Premises

The council is based at Endeavour House at 8 Russell Road in Ipswich. It also maintains area offices in Bury St Edmunds and Lowestoft. Endeavour House was built in 2003. It was originally commissioned as private offices but was bought by the county council whilst still under construction; the council moved into the building in 2004. Since 2017 the council has shared the building with Babergh District Council and Mid Suffolk District Council.
Previously the council was based at County Hall on St Helen's Street in Ipswich, the oldest parts of which had been built in 1837 as a jail and courthouse, which had been one of the meeting places of the quarter sessions. The building had become the meeting place of East Suffolk County Council after 1889, and that council had built substantial extensions to the building, notably in 1906 with an office block, new council chamber and clock tower at the corner of St Helen's Street and Bond Street.
Both County Hall and the Shire Hall in Bury St Edmunds had been inherited by Suffolk County Council from the two former county councils when local government was reorganised in 1974; Shire Hall served as an area office until 2009 when the council moved its Bury St Edmunds office to West Suffolk House, a new building shared with St Edmundsbury Borough Council (West Suffolk Council after 2019).

## Elections

Elections were held every four years from 1973 to 2021. The next election has been postponed from 2025 to 2026. Since the last boundary changes in 2005 the council has comprised 75 councillors representing 63 electoral divisions, with each division electing one or two councillors. New division boundaries reducing the number of councillors to 70 have been drawn up to come into effect for the 2026 election.

### Electoral divisions

As of 2021, there were 63 divisions of which 51 each returned a single member, a further 12 divisions each being represented by two members. Each councillor is responsible for their own Locality budget which amounted to £8,000 for the 2021/2022 financial year.
| District | No. | Division | Councillor |
| Babergh District | 1 | Belstead Brook | Christopher Hudson |
| Babergh District | 2 | Cosford | Robert Lindsay |
| Babergh District | 3 | Great Cornard | Peter Beer |
| Babergh District | 4 | Hadleigh | Mick Fraser |
| Babergh District | 5 | Melford | Richard Kemp |
| Babergh District | 6 | Peninsula | Simon Harley |
| Babergh District | 7 | Samford | Georgia Hall |
| Babergh District | 8 | Stour Valley | James Finch |
| Babergh District | 9 | Sudbury | Jessie Carter |
| Babergh District | 10 | Sudbury East and Waldingfield | Philip Faircloth-Mutton |
| Mid Suffolk District | 26 | Bosmere | Kay Oakes |
| Mid Suffolk District | 27 | Gipping Valley | Chris Chambers |
| Mid Suffolk District | 28 | Hartismere | Jessica Fleming |
| Mid Suffolk District | 29 | Hoxne & Eye | Peter Gould |
| Mid Suffolk District | 30 | Stowmarket North & Stowupland | Keith Welham |
| Mid Suffolk District | 31 | Stowmarket South | Keith Scarff |
| Mid Suffolk District | 32 | Thedwastre North | Andy Mellen |
| Mid Suffolk District | 33 | Thedwastre South | Penny Otton |
| Mid Suffolk District | 34 | Thredling | Matthew Hicks |
| Mid Suffolk District | 35 | Upper Gipping | Andrew Stringer |
| Borough of Ipswich | 16 | Bixley | Paul West |
| Borough of Ipswich | 17 | Bridge | Rob Bridgeman |
| Borough of Ipswich | 18 | Chantry | Nathan Wilson |
| Borough of Ipswich | 18 | Chantry | Nadia Cenci |
| Borough of Ipswich | 19 | Gainsborough | Liz Harsant |
| Borough of Ipswich | 20 | Priory Heath | Bill Quinton |
| Borough of Ipswich | 21 | Rushmere | Sandy Martin |
| Borough of Ipswich | 22 | St Helen's | Elizabeth Johnson |
| Borough of Ipswich | 23 | St John's | Sarah Adams |
| Borough of Ipswich | 24 | St Margaret's and Westgate | Debbie Richards |
| Borough of Ipswich | 24 | St Margaret's and Westgate | Inga Lockington |
| Borough of Ipswich | 25 | Whitehouse and Whitton | Sam Murray |
| Borough of Ipswich | 25 | Whitehouse and Whitton | David Goldsmith |
| East Suffolk District | 45 | Aldeburgh and Leiston | T-J Haworth-Culf |
| East Suffolk District | 46 | Blything | Richard Smith |
| East Suffolk District | 47 | Carlford | Elaine Bryce |
| East Suffolk District | 48 | Felixstowe Coastal | Steve Wiles |
| East Suffolk District | 48 | Felixstowe Coastal | Graham Newman |
| East Suffolk District | 49 | Felixstowe North and Trimley | Stuart Bird |
| East Suffolk District | 50 | Framlingham | Stephen Burroughes |
| East Suffolk District | 51 | Kesgrave and Rushmere St Andrew | Stuart Lawson |
| East Suffolk District | 51 | Kesgrave and Rushmere St Andrew | Debbie McCallum |
| East Suffolk District | 52 | Martlesham | Patti Mulcahy |
| East Suffolk District | 53 | Wickham | Alexander Nicoll |
| East Suffolk District | 54 | Wilford | Andrew Reid |
| East Suffolk District | 55 | Woodbridge | Caroline Page |
| East Suffolk District | 56 | Beccles | Caroline Topping |
| East Suffolk District | 56 | Beccles | Peggy McGregor |
| East Suffolk District | 57 | Bungay | Judy Cloke |
| East Suffolk District | 58 | Gunton | James Reeder |
| East Suffolk District | 58 | Gunton | Ryan Harvey |
| East Suffolk District | 59 | Halesworth | Annette Dunning |
| East Suffolk District | 60 | Kessingland and Southwold | Michael Ladd |
| East Suffolk District | 61 | Lowestoft South | Jenny Ceresa |
| East Suffolk District | 61 | Lowestoft South | Jamie Starling |
| East Suffolk District | 62 | Oulton | Edward Back |
| East Suffolk District | 62 | Oulton | Keith Robinson |
| East Suffolk District | 63 | Pakefield | Craig Rivett |
| East Suffolk District | 63 | Pakefield | Melanie Vigo di Gallidoro |
| West Suffolk District | 11 | Brandon | Victor Lukaniuk |
| West Suffolk District | 12 | Exning and Newmarket | Rachel Hood |
| West Suffolk District | 13 | Mildenhall | Lance Stanbury |
| West Suffolk District | 14 | Newmarket and Red Lodge | Andy Drummond |
| West Suffolk District | 15 | Row Heath | Colin Noble |
| West Suffolk District | 36 | Blackbourn | Joanna Spicer |
| West Suffolk District | 37 | Clare | Roberta Bennett |
| West Suffolk District | 38 | Eastgate and Moreton Hall | Peter Thompson |
| West Suffolk District | 39 | Hardwick | Richard Rout |
| West Suffolk District | 40 | Haverhill Cangle | Joe Mason |
| West Suffolk District | 40 | Haverhill Cangle | Heike Sowa |
| West Suffolk District | 41 | Haverhill East and Kedington | David Roach |
| West Suffolk District | 42 | Thingoe North | Beccy Hopfensperger |
| West Suffolk District | 43 | Thingoe South | Karen Soons |
| West Suffolk District | 44 | Tower | Robert Everitt |
| West Suffolk District | 44 | Tower | David Nettleton |