page_title: Bournemouth
section_title: Governance
hierarchical_section_title: Bournemouth / Governance
context_page_description: Bournemouth is a coastal resort town on the south coast of England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest in the administrative county of Dorset. With Poole to the west and Christchurch in the east, Bournemouth is part of the South East Dorset conurbation, which has a population of 465,000.
  Before it was founded in 1810 by Lewis Tregonwell, the area was a deserted heathland occasionally visited by fishermen and smugglers. Initially marketed as a health resort, the town received a boost when it appeared in Augustus Granville's 1841 book, The Spas of England. Bournemouth's growth accelerated with the arrival of the railway, and it became a town in 1870. Part of the historic county of Hampshire, Bournemouth joined Dorset for administrative purposes following the reorganisation of local government in 1974. Through local government changes in 1997, the town began to be administered by a unitary authority independent of Dorset County Council, although it remains part of that ceremonial county.
context_section_description: Historically Bournemouth was part of Hampshire, with neighbouring Poole, just to the west of the border, in Dorset. At the time of the 1974 local government re-organisation, it was considered desirable that the whole of the Poole/Bournemouth urban area should be part of the same county. Bournemouth, therefore, became part of the non-metropolitan county of Dorset on 1 April 1974. On 1 April 1997, Bournemouth became a unitary authority, independent from Dorset County Council. For local elections the district was divided into 18 wards, with the Bournemouth Borough Council elected every four years. In the 2011 local elections the Conservatives held overall control, winning 45 of the available 51 seats. The Council elects a mayor and deputy mayor annually. The Mayor of Bournemouth for 2019-20 is Councillor Susan Phillips.
  As from April 2019, the nine councils of Dorset were merged into two and Bournemouth became part of a unitary authority with Christchurch and Poole (known as BCP). For the purposes of the Lieutenancy it remains part of the ceremonial county of Dorset. BCP held its first elections in 2019, which resulted in the Conservatives as the largest party, but with No Overall Control; A Unity Alliance Administration of other groups subsequently formed. The next elections are due to occur in 2024. 
  Bournemouth is represented by two parliamentary constituencies in the House of Commons; Bournemouth East and Bournemouth West. In the 2017 general election, the former was held for the Conservatives by Tobias Ellwood with 51.9% of the vote, while the latter was also held for the Conservatives by Conor Burns with 53.5%. However, the seats saw some of the largest increases in Labour vote share in the country, with increases of over 18% in each. Tobias Elwood and Connor Burns were both re-elected in 2019 with slightly reduced majorities.
caption: Bournemouth Town Hall was built in the Victorian period, originally serving as a hotel for visitors to the town.
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