Worcestershire County Council

Worcestershire County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Worcestershire in England. Its headquarters are at County Hall in Worcester, the county town. The council consists of 57 councillors and is currently controlled by the Conservative Party.

The county council was first created in 1889. In 1974 the council was abolished when Worcestershire and neighbouring Herefordshire were merged to form a new county called Hereford and Worcester. In 1998 Worcestershire and Herefordshire became separate counties again, and Worcestershire County Council was re-established.

History
Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions which had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. The boroughs of Worcester and Dudley were considered large enough to provide their own county-level services and so they were made county boroughs, independent from Worcestershire County Council. The county council was elected by and provided services to the rest of the county, which area was termed the administrative county. The 1888 Act also said that any urban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries were to be placed entirely in the county which had the majority of that district's population, which saw Worcestershire gain the part of Redditch which had been in Warwickshire.

The first elections to the county council were held in January 1889 and it formally came into being on 1 April 1889. On that day it held its first official meeting at Worcester Guildhall. The first chairman was George Hastings, who was the Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for East Worcestershire.

There were a number of changes to the boundaries of the administrative county over the years. It ceded territory in the north-east to Birmingham on several occasions, and the complicated boundaries in the south with Gloucestershire and Warwickshire were simplified in the 1930s. In 1966 Oldbury was transferred to the new County Borough of Warley, which was ceremonially associated with Worcestershire but outside the administrative county controlled by the county council.

The administrative county of Worcestershire was abolished in 1974. The boroughs of Halesowen and Stourbridge were transferred to the new West Midlands county, and the rest of administrative county merged with Herefordshire and the county borough of Worcester to form a new non-metropolitan county called Hereford and Worcester. Hereford and Worcester County Council therefore took over the old Worcestershire County Council's functions for most of its area.

Hereford and Worcester only existed as a county for 24 years. It was abolished in 1998 as part of the 1990s United Kingdom local government reforms and divided into separate counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, with Worcestershire County Council being re-established as the upper-tier local authority for Worcestershire.

Governance
Worcestershire County Council provides county-level services. District-level services are provided by the six district councils:
 * Bromsgrove District Council
 * Malvern Hills District Council
 * Redditch Borough Council
 * Worcester City Council
 * Wychavon District Council
 * Wyre Forest District Council

Much of the county is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.

Political control
The council has been under Conservative majority control since 2005.

The first elections to the re-established Worcesteshire County Council were held in 1997, initially operating as a shadow authority until the new arrangements came into effect on 1 April 1998. Political control of the council since 1998 has been as follows:

Leadership
The leaders of the council since 1998 have been:

Composition
Following the 2021 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to May 2024 the composition of the council was:

The next election is due in 2025.

Cabinet
Worcestershire County Council currently operates using a Leader and Cabinet system.

Worcestershire County Council's cabinet is composed of ten Conservative councillors and the Conservative Leader of the council. Cabinet members work closely with the directors and professional officers of the council to ensure the successful implementation of the decisions they make.

Elections
Since the last boundary changes in 2005 the council has comprised 57 councillors representing 52 electoral divisions, with each division electing one or two councillors. Elections are held every four years.

Premises
The county council has its headquarters at County Hall on Spetchley Road on the outskirts of Worcester. The building was purpose-built as the headquarters of Hereford and Worcester County Council and had been completed in 1978. The building transferred to the re-established Worcestershire County Council as part of the 1998 reforms.

Having held its first meeting in 1889 at Worcester Guildhall, the first Worcestershire County Council later established its usual meeting place at Shire Hall, Worcester, a courthouse which had been built in 1835. County Buildings was built alongside Shire Hall in 1930 to house the council's administrative offices. County Buildings and Shire Hall continued to be used by the successor Hereford and Worcester County Council until the new County Hall at Spetchley Road was completed in 1978.