Congleton (borough)


Congleton was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district with borough status in Cheshire, England. It included the towns of Congleton, Alsager, Middlewich and Sandbach. The headquarters of the borough council were located in Sandbach.

Creation

The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 by the merger of the former borough of Congleton, the urban districts of Alsager, Middlewich and Sandbach, and the Congleton Rural District.

Civil parishes

Congleton was divided into 23 civil parishes and included no unparished areas. Of the 23 civil parishes, four were administered at this level of local government by town councils: Alsager, Middlewich, Sandbach, and Congleton; with the remainder having parish councils. There are two pairs of civil parishes that are grouped together so that they share a parish council. These are Hulme Walfield and Somerford Booths, whose single parish council is called "Hulme Walfield and Somerford Booths Parish Council", and Newbold Astbury and Moreton cum Alcumlow, whose single parish council is called "Newbold Astbury-cum-Moreton Parish Council".
The following civil parishes were included in the borough:
The resident population of the borough, as measured in the 2001 Census, was 90,655, of which 49 per cent were male and 51 per cent were female.

Religion

The percentage of people of each religion in the borough :
Stated religionPercentage
Christian81.46%
Buddhist0.12%
Hindu0.11%
Jewish0.06%
Muslim0.17%
Sikh0.04%
Other religions0.16%
No religion11.46%
Religion not stated6.43%

Elections and political control

Congleton was divided into 20 borough wards which elected a total of 48 councillors to the borough council. The following tables provide the names of these wards and show the composition of the council by political party at 31 March 2009.
WardNumber of
Councillors		WardNumber of
Councillors
Alsager Central2Alsager East2
Alsager West2Astbury1
Brereton1Buglawton2
Congleton Central2Congleton North2
Congleton North West2Congleton South3
Congleton West3Dane Valley2
Holmes Chapel3Lawton2
Middlewich Cledford3Middlewich Kinderton3
Odd Rode3Sandbach East3
Sandbach North3Sandbach West3

The office of mayor was filled by one of the councillors after a ballot amongst all the councillors, and the last holder of the position was a member of the Liberal Democrat party.

Education in the Borough of Congleton

Abolition

In 2006 the Department for Communities and Local Government considered reorganising Cheshire's administrative structure as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. The decision to merge the boroughs of Congleton, Macclesfield, and Crewe and Nantwich to create a single unitary authority was announced on 25 July 2007, following a consultation period in which a proposal to create a single Cheshire unitary authority was rejected.
The Borough of Congleton was abolished on 1 April 2009, when the new Cheshire East unitary authority was formed.

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Congleton.

Individuals

Glyn Chambers Chief Executive Congleton Borough Council : 2009

Military Units