Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is the local authority of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England. Since 1997 the council has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is independent from Staffordshire County Council.

The council has under Labour majority control since 2023. It meets at Stoke-upon-Trent Town Hall. Its main offices are divided between the Civic Centre adjoining the town hall and One Smithfield in Hanley.

History
A Stoke-upon-Trent Borough Council was established in 1874 when the town was made a municipal borough. On the federation of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, it merged with the five neighbouring towns of Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton and Tunstall and became a county borough. The borough was awarded city status on 5 June 1925, and the council has therefore been a city council since then. In 1928 the city council was granted the right to appoint a lord mayor.

The city lost its county borough status in 1974, becoming a lower-tier district council, with Staffordshire County Council providing county-level functions in the area.

The city council regained its independence from the county council in 1997 when it was made a unitary authority. The way this change was implemented was to create a new non-metropolitan county of Stoke-on-Trent covering the same area as the district, but with no separate county council; instead, the existing city council took on county council functions. This therefore had the effect of restoring the council to the powers it had held prior to 1974 when Stoke-on-Trent was a county borough. Stoke-on-Trent remains part of Staffordshire for the ceremonial purposes of lieutenancy and shrievalty.

In 2002 the council adopted a new form of executive arrangements, having a directly-elected mayor and a council manager, one of three possible options outlined in the Local Government Act 2000. Stoke was the only council in the country to adopt this option. A 2008 report by the Stoke-on-Trent Governance Commission to the Secretary of State for Local Government was highly critical of the political system then in use in the city. This led to changes to the electoral map in May 2011: From a council of 60 members representing 20 wards with three councillors each, the size of the council was reduced to 44 councillors representing 37 wards (31 single member wards, five two-member wards and one three-member ward).

Governance
As a unitary authority, Stoke-on-Trent City Council has the functions of a county council and district council combined. In its capacity as a district council it is a billing authority collecting Council Tax and business rates, it processes local planning applications, it is responsible for housing, waste collection and environmental health. In its capacity as a county council it is a local education authority, responsible for social services, libraries and waste disposal. There are no civil parishes in Stoke, which has been an unparished area since the reforms of 1974.

Political control
The council has been under Labour majority control since the 2023 election.

Political control of the council since 1910 has been held by the following parties:

County borough

Non-metropolitan district

Unitary authority

Leadership
The role of Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent is largely ceremonial. Prior to 2002, political leadership was provided by the leader of the council. From 2002 to 2009, the city council had a directly elected mayor who acted as political leader. Since the abolition of the directly elected mayor position in 2009, leadership has again been provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1974 have been:

Leaders

Directly-elected mayors

Leaders

Composition
Following the 2023 election the composition of the council was:

The next election is due in 2027.

Elections
Since the last boundary changes in 2023 the council has comprised 44 councillors representing 34 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.

Premises
The council meets and has its headquarters at the Civic Centre on Glebe Street, a complex of buildings which incorporates both the Stoke-upon-Trent Town Hall of 1834 (which contains the council chamber) and a large extension to the north-east built in 1992.

The council has additional offices in a modern building at One Smithfield in Hanley. When the new building was commissioned it was envisaged that it would replace the Civic Centre, but whilst the building was being built in 2013 it was decided to retain the Civic Centre after all.

In the media
In 2014, Shotton, then deputy council leader, was reported to have "frequently" used false names to contact BBC Radio Stoke to praise the council's and his own work. This resulted in his suspension by the Labour party and the "loss of senior council roles". In 2014, Private Eye magazine awarded Shotton the "Rotten Boroughs award" for media manipulation.