Salford City Council

Salford City Council is the local authority for the City of Salford, a metropolitan borough with city status in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government services in the city. The council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2011.

The council has been under Labour majority control since the metropolitan borough was created in 1974. Since 2012 the council has been led by the directly elected Mayor of Salford, which post has been held by Paul Dennett of the Labour Party since 2016. The council is based at Salford Civic Centre in Swinton.

History
The settlement of Salford had anciently been administered as a township within the parish of Manchester, which in turn formed part of the Salford Hundred. Around 1230 the settlement was given a charter by Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester, who was the lord of the manor at the time, making it a seigneurial borough with a limited degree of self-government. In 1791 a body of improvement commissioners was established to administer the town, largely superseding the old manorial authorities.

Salford was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1844, after which it was governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Salford', generally known as the corporation or town council. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Salford 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. Salford was granted city status in 1926, after which the corporation was also known as the city council.

The larger metropolitan district of Salford 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 five outgoing authorities, being the borough councils of Salford, Eccles and Swinton and Pendlebury and the urban district councils of Irlam and Worsley. 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. Salford's borough and city statuses both passed to the new district, allowing the council to take the name Salford City Council and appoint a mayor, continuing Salford's series of mayors dating back to 1844.

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 Salford City Council, with some services provided through joint committees.

Between 2005 and 2020 some services, including property, highways and infrastructure, planning and building control were provided by Urban Vision, a public-private partnership formed between the city council, Capita and Galliford Try. The contract with Urban Vision finished in 2020 and was not renewed, with services being brought back in-house to the council.

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 Manchester City Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions.

In 2012 the council changed to having a directly elected mayor as its political leader. The position is called the Mayor of Salford. Prior to 2012 the title Mayor of Salford had been used for the council's chairperson and ceremonial figurehead, performing non-political civic duties. The more ceremonial role continues, but now renamed the ceremonial mayor.

Governance
Salford City Council provides metropolitan borough services. Some strategic functions in the area are provided by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority; the Mayor of Salford sits on the combined authority as Salford's representative. There are no civil parishes in the city.

Political control
The council has been under Labour majority control since the 1974 reforms.

Leadership
Prior to 2012, political leadership was provided by the leader of the council. The leaders from 1974 to 2012 were:

In 2012 the council changed to having a directly elected mayor as its political leader. The mayors since 2012 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 took effect in 2021, 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.

Premises
The council is based at Salford Civic Centre on Chorley Road in Swinton. The building had been completed in 1938 as Swinton and Pendlebury Town Hall, originally serving as the headquarters of Swinton and Pendlebury Borough Council. For postal purposes, Swinton comes under the Manchester post town, although the council itself quotes the Civic Centre's address as "Swinton, Salford" (administratively accurate but not postally) rather than the postally correct "Swinton, Manchester". The council has additional offices at Turnpike House at 631 Eccles New Road.