Middlesbrough Council


Middlesbrough Council, formerly known as Middlesbrough Borough Council is the local council of Middlesbrough. It is a unitary authority and borough council in the Tees Valley sub-region of the North East of England. It is based on the town of Middlesbrough, which is often considered to spread outside the borough boundaries into neighbouring Redcar and Cleveland with a total built-up population of 174,700; the borough extends southwards to a semi-rural area. Whilst part of North Yorkshire for ceremonial purposes, it is in the region of North East England. It had a resident council population in 2001 of 134,855. A 2006 mid-year estimate suggests the Borough to have a population of 138,400. The borough council unsuccessfully bid to achieve city status in 2012, to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

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 under the Banham Review, Middlesbrough became a unitary authority and as such took on the rights and duties of a county, and only ceremonially part of North Yorkshire, but not run by it.
The borough borders Stockton-on-Tees unitary authority to the west, Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority to the east and the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire to the south.

Mayor

As a borough council Middlesbrough is entitled to a mayor. Middlesbrough's council is led by a directly elected mayor, currently Andy Preston.

2011 election

Political composition

Below is the political composition of the council in 2008 and 2011.
YearLabourConservativesLiberal DemocratsIndependents/Greens
2008266511
2011304113
201533409
2019203023

The borough has 23 council wards. Middlesbrough is mostly unparished, with Nunthorpe and Stainton and Thornton being the only parishes.

Coat of arms

The original coat of arms of the Borough was devised in the nineteenth century by William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe, and regranted in 1996 with slight modifications after the dissolution of Cleveland County. The images, from the collection of the Heraldry Society,
will be found on Robert Young's Civic Heraldry website.