Bolton Council

Bolton Council, or Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government services in the borough. The council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2011.

The council has been under no overall control since 2019, and has been led by a Labour minority administration since 2023. It is based at Bolton Town Hall.

History
The town of Bolton had been incorporated as a municipal borough in 1838, governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Bolton', generally known as the corporation, town council or borough council. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Bolton was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it became a county borough, independent from the new Lancashire County Council, whilst remaining part of the geographical county of Lancashire.

The larger Metropolitan Borough of Bolton and its council were created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 as one of ten metropolitan districts within the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. The first election was held in 1973. For its first year the council acted as a shadow authority alongside the area's eight outgoing authorities, being the borough councils of Bolton and Farnworth, and the urban district councils of Blackrod, Horwich, Kearsley, Little Lever, Westhoughton and Turton (the latter in respect of its more built up southern part only, the more rural northern part became the parish of North Turton in Blackburn district). The new metropolitan district and its council formally came into being on 1 April 1974, at which point the old districts and their councils were abolished.

The metropolitan district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Bolton's series of mayors dating back to 1838. The council styles itself Bolton Council rather than its full formal name of Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council.

From 1974 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the Greater Manchester County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to Greater Manchester's ten borough councils, including Bolton, with some services provided through joint committees.

Since 2011 the council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which has been led by the directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. The combined authority provides strategic leadership and co-ordination for certain functions across Greater Manchester, notably regarding transport and town planning, but Bolton Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions.

Governance
Bolton Council provides metropolitan borough services. Some strategic functions in the area are provided by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority; the leader of Bolton Council sits on the combined authority as Bolton's representative. Blackrod, Horwich and Westhoughton are civil parishes, each with a town council forming an additional tier of local government, the rest of the borough is unparished.

Political control
Since the 2019 election, Bolton has been under no overall control. Following the 2023 election a Labour minority administration formed to run the council. The minority administration is continuing following the 2024 election.

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms took effect has been as follows:

Leadership
The role of Mayor of Bolton is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The first leader of the metropolitan borough council, John Hanscomb, had been the last leader of the old Bolton County Borough Council. The leaders since 1974 have been:

Composition
Following the 2024 election, the composition of the council was:

The next election is due in May 2026.

Elections
Since the last boundary changes in 2023, the council has comprised 60 councillors representing 20 wards, with each ward electing three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with a third of the council (one councillor for each ward) elected each time for a four-year term of office.

Wards and councillors
There are 20 wards, each represented by three councillors.

Premises
The council is based at Bolton Town Hall on Victoria Square in the centre of Bolton. The building was completed in 1873 for the old Bolton Borough Council.