Middlesbrough Council

Middlesbrough Council, formerly known as Middlesbrough Borough Council, is the unitary authority for the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. The authority has combined some duties with nearby councils to form the Tees Valley Combined Authority. Middlesbrough Council's area had a resident population in 2001 of 134,855. The borough has two parishes, which are entitled to an additional lower-tier council, Nunthorpe and Stainton and Thornton.

History
Middlesbrough Borough Council was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, from part of the former County Borough of Teesside, along with the parish of Nunthorpe from the Stokesley Rural District.  It was a district, and the county town of the new county of Cleveland from 1 April 1974, until 1996. As a district, it was one of the four constituent districts of Cleveland: Cleveland being the upper tier in the two-tier system. 

When Cleveland was abolished following the Banham Review in 1996, Middlesbrough became a unitary authority and as such took on all local government powers and responsibilities. It was once again part of North Yorkshire, but only ceremonially, and not locally administered and governed by the North Yorkshire Council.

Recent elections
Below are the election results of the election which took place in May 2023. All 46 councillors and the mayor were elected. The council has 20 wards, each of which returns between one and three councilors. 

As a borough council Middlesbrough is entitled to a mayor. Middlesbrough's council is led by a directly elected mayor, currently Chris Cooke who was elected with a majority of 760 over the previous incumbent Andy Preston

Mayor

Councillors 
Following the results, the council moved from no overall control to a Labour majority.

The Executive 
Middlesbrough Council's senior decision making body is a committee known as the Executive. Similar to a cabinet, the Executive consists of the Mayor of Middlesbrough and up to nine councillors appointed by the Mayor. 

The current executive is composed of

 Mayor Chris Cooke, Directly-Elected Mayor, Executive Member for Adult Social Care & Public Health, and Chair of the Executive
 Councillor Philippa Storey, Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Education and Culture
 Councillor Nicky Walker, Executive Member for Finance & Governance
 Councillor Peter Gavigan, Executive Member for Environment
 Councillor Theo Furness, Executive Member for Regeneration
 Councillor Janet Thompson, Executive Member for Community Safety
 Councillor Zafar Uddin, Executive Member for Children's Services

Historic election results

Mayor (2002-)

Council control 
Since the first election to the council in 1973 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:

Non-metropolitan district

Unitary authority

Coat of arms

The motto  ("We shall be" in Latin) was adopted, it reflects  ("We have been") of the Bruce clan which were Cleveland's mediaeval lords.

The original arms was granted to the Middlesbrough Rural District in 1911 by William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe. The town's coat of arms were three ships representing shipbuilding and maritime trade and an azure (blue) lion, the latter also from the Bruce clan. It was regranted in 1996 with slight modifications after the dissolution of Cleveland  county: a star replaced the middle ship, this is from Captain James Cook's coat of arms.

References

External links
Middlesbrough Council Website

Politics of Middlesbrough
Unitary authority councils of England
Mayor and cabinet executives
Local education authorities in England
Billing authorities in England
Leader and cabinet executives
Local authorities in North Yorkshire