Rutland County Council
Rutland County Council District Council is a district council that is the unitary authority responsible for local government in the district and county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The current council was created in April 1997. The population of the council's area at the 2011 census was 37,369. As a unitary authority, the council is responsible for almost all local services in Rutland, with the exception of the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and Leicestershire Police, which are run by joint boards with Leicestershire County Council and Leicester City Council. History. First incarnation . Rutland County Council was first established in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888 and ended in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, when Rutland was reconstituted as a district of Leicestershire. Second incarnation. The new unitary authority is seen as a re-creation of the original Rutland County Council. The Local Government Commission for England in 1994 recommended that Rutland District (and Leicester City) should become unitaries and leave the two-tier Leicestershire. Rutland unitary authority came into existence on 1 April 1997. Formally it is a unitary district with the full legal title of "Rutland County Council  District Council", caused by a renaming of the District of Rutland using powers under section 74 of the Local Government Act 1972 at a special meeting of the council held on 1 April 1997. Although, as with other unitary councils, the council is technically a non-metropolitan district council, section 8 of the Leicestershire (City of Leicester and District of Rutland) (Structural Change) Order 1996 created a county covering the same area as the District of Rutland, and further provided that there would be no council for the County of Rutland. Composition. The council consists of 27 councillors, representing fifteen  electoral wards of the county. It has all-out elections on a four-year cycle and follows a district pattern, with elections held in May 2007, May 2011, 2015 and 2019. The ceremonial head of the council is the chairman, and the executive follows the leader-and-cabinet model. The current council is led by the Conservatives as a minority administration, with an opposition of independent, Liberal Democrat Labour and Green councillors. Cabinet. The Cabinet comprises the Leader of the Council plus up to four elected County Councillors, at October 2020 these consist of Oliver Hemsley - Leader and Portfolio Holder  for Resources and Property Gordon Brown - Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Planning Lucy Stephenson - Portfolio Holder for Culture, Highways and Environment Alan Walters - Portfolio Holder for Adults David Wilby - Portfolio Holder for Children The Cabinet prepares Council policies and budgets and is responsible for most day-to-day decision making. The Cabinet also provides leadership and accountability for the local community. Each of the Cabinet Members are responsible for a specified policy area. The Cabinet works to a Forward Plan that sets out matters which the Leader of the Council believes will be the subject of a  key decision to be taken by the Cabinet. Wards. The county is divided into electoral wards, returning one, two or three councillors. The previous wards were adopted for the 2003 local elections but amended before the 2019 elections. 2016 EU Referendum. On 23 June 2016 Rutland voted in only the third major UK-wide referendum on the issue of the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union in the 2016 EU Referendum under the provisions of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 where voters were asked to decide on the question “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of  the European Union or leave the European Union” by voting for either “Remain a member of the European Union” or “Leave the European Union”. The county produced one of the narrowest results in the country by voting to “Leave the European Union” by a majority of just 260 votes. The result went against the views of the local MP Alan Duncan who had campaigned for a "Remain" vote. The result was declared in Oakham early on 24 June 2016 by the Counting Officer, Helen Briggs. See also. Rutland County Council elections