Buckinghamshire County Council


Buckinghamshire County Council was the upper-tier local authority for the administrative county and later the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire, in England, the United Kingdom established in 1889 following the Local Government Act 1888. The county council's offices were in Aylesbury.
The county council borders changed several times, most notably in 1974 when the council lost the territory of Colnbrook, Datchet, Eton, Horton, Slough and Wraysbury. In 1997 it lost Milton Keynes.
The council consisted of 49 councillors. It had been controlled by the Conservatives since the reorganisation of local government in 1974. For the 2013 elections, the number of seats was reduced from 57 to 49 following the 2012 changes in division boundaries.
In March 2018 Sajid Javid, the Communities Secretary at the time, backed proposals to replace the county council and the four district councils with a single unitary authority, named Buckinghamshire Council. As of January 2019, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe district councils had launched legal action against the "undemocratic" plans for how the unitary authority was to be set-up. Nevertheless, the Buckinghamshire Structural Changes Order 2019 was enacted, which as of 1 April 2020 abolished the County Council and the four district councils and created a single district council as a unitary authority, called 'Buckinghamshire Council'.

Composition

Elections were held every four years, interspersed by three years of elections to the four district councils in the county.
Conservative councillors represented most of the county, both in terms of number of seats and geographic area. Four seats in Aylesbury were held by the Liberal Democrats, and the sole Labour member was elected in Booker, Cressex & Castlefield, in the suburbs of High Wycombe. Independents held the divisions of Ryemead & Micklefield, Totteridge & Bowerdean, and West Wycombe, also in the High Wycombe area.

History

The last meeting of the County Council was 12 March 2020 when the meeting celebrated 131 years.
County architect Fred Pooley designed the Council's 12-storey tower block at Aylesbury built in 1966 which became known as "Fred's Fort" and less flatteringly as "Pooley's Folly".

Notable members