Wyre Forest District


Wyre Forest is a local government district in Worcestershire, England, covering the towns of Kidderminster, Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley, and several civil parishes and their villages. Its council was previously based in Stourport-on-Severn, but moved to new purpose built offices on the outskirts of Kidderminster in 2012.
The district was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974, as a merger of Bewdley and Kidderminster municipal boroughs, Stourport-on-Severn Urban District Council and Kidderminster Rural District Council.
Since 2011, Wyre Forest has formed part of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership along with neighbouring authorities Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Redditch, Solihull and Tamworth.

Governance

The Wyre Forest parliamentary constituency, which covers most of the district, is represented by the Conservative MP Mark Garnier. He has held the seat since the 2010 general election, when he gained it from Richard Taylor of Health Concern, who had held the seat from 2001 to 2010.
Elections to Wyre Forest District Council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the seats on the council being elected at each election. Since the first election to the council in 1973 no party has held a majority on the council for most of the time, while the Conservatives, Labour and Health Concern have had periods in control. The Conservatives regained a majority at the last election in 2015.
In 2019, the Conservatives lost 7 seats, while there were gains for ICHC, Independent and the Greens. Labour also lost one seat. The council is now run by an Independent-Liberal Democrat-ICHC coalition with the support of the single Green Party councillor.

Parishes

There are five secondary schools within the district.