Staffordshire County Council

History

Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions that had previously been performed by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. The four boroughs of Hanley, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton were considered large enough to provide their own county-level services and so they were made county boroughs, independent from the new county council. Conversely the city of Lichfield, which had been a self-governing county corporate since 1553 with its own sheriffs and quarter sessions, was not considered large enough to be a county borough and so it was included in the county council's area. The county council was elected by and provided services to the part of the county outside the county boroughs, which area was termed the administrative county.

The 1888 Act also said that urban sanitary districts which straddled county boundaries were to be placed entirely in the county which had the majority of their population, and so Staffordshire gained the parts of Burton upon Trent which had been in Derbyshire and the parts of Tamworth which had been in Warwickshire, but lost the parts of Dudley which had been in Staffordshire to Worcestershire.

The first elections to the county council were held in January 1889. The council formally came into being on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first official meeting at the Shire Hall in Stafford, the courthouse which had served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council. The first chairman of the council was Dudley Ryder, 3rd Earl of Harrowby, a Conservative peer and former member of parliament.

Additional county boroughs were later created at Burton upon Trent in 1901 and Smethwick in 1907, removing them from the administrative county. In 1910 the administrative county ceded Burslem, Fenton, Longton, Stoke-upon-Trent and Tunstall to the new County Borough of Stoke on Trent, which also took in the previous county borough of Hanley. Territory was also transferred on a number of occasions from Staffordshire to the neighbouring county borough of Birmingham, which gained Harborne in 1891, Handsworth in 1911, and Perry Barr in 1928. In 1966 the administrative county ceded eleven urban districts and one municipal borough in the Black Country area at the southern end of the county to become parts of county boroughs.

Staffordshire was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan county in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The county council regained authority over Burton and Stoke, but lost the Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District to the new West Midlands county (which also covered the county boroughs in the area that were already outside the administrative county). The lower tier of local government was reorganised as part of the same reforms. Previously it had comprised numerous boroughs, urban districts and rural districts; they were reorganised into nine non-metropolitan districts.

Stoke-on-Trent regained its independence from the county council in 1997, when its city council became a unitary authority, leaving eight districts in the county council's area.

Governance

Staffordshire County Council provides county-level services. District-level services are provided by the area's eight district councils:

• Cannock Chase District Council
• East Staffordshire Borough Council
• Lichfield District Council
• Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council
• South Staffordshire District Council
• Stafford Borough Council
• Staffordshire Moorlands District Council
• Tamworth Borough 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 Reform UK majority control since the 2025 election.

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

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1974 have been:

Ian Cooper had his membership of Reform UK revoked on 5 December 2025 and stood down as council leader on 9 December 2025. The deputy leader, Martin Murray, is now serving as acting leader pending the formal appointment of a new leader early in 2026.

Composition

Following the 2025 election and subsequent changes, the composition of the council is:

The next full council election is due in May 2029.

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2013 the council has comprised 62 councillors representing 60 electoral divisions, with each division electing one or two councillors. Elections are held every four years.

Premises

The council has its main offices at Staffordshire Place, a modern office development off Tipping Street in Stafford. Staffordshire Place was purpose-built for the council in 2011.

When the county council was first created in 1889 it met at the Shire Hall in the Market Place in Stafford, which had been completed in 1798. Shortly after the council's creation it built itself a new meeting place and offices at County Buildings on Martin Street, adjoining the side of Shire Hall, with the new building opening in 1895. The council later outgrew County Buildings, and by the early 21st century its offices were spread across seventeen different buildings.

References

References

1. "Pat Flaherty".
2. {{cite legislation UK. (1888)
3. (1991). "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume 2". Royal Historical Society.
4. (1 April 1889). "Staffordshire County Council: First meeting today". Evening Express and Star.
5. "Smethwick Urban District / Municipal Borough / County Borough". GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth.
6. "Harborne Ancient Parish / Civil Parish". GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth.
7. "Handsworth Urban District". GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth.
8. (1991). "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume 2". Royal Historical Society.
9. [[Local Government Act 1958#West Midlands. West Midlands Order 1965]]
10. {{cite legislation UK. (1972)
11. {{cite legislation UK. (1972)
12. {{cite legislation UK. (1995)
13. {{cite legislation UK. (1972)
14. "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey.
15. "Compositions Calculator". University of Exeter.
16. (21 April 1973). "Labour group: leaders named". Rugeley Times.
17. (14 May 1977). "'Sort-out' time at county level". Rugeley Times.
18. (21 May 1977). "Council chief vows value for money". Burton Daily Mail.
19. (9 May 1981). "Lib / Lab Landslide". Rugeley Times.
20. (15 May 1981). "Now it's down to business". Staffordshire Newsletter.
21. (17 May 1996). "Terry Dix takes reins of power at county". Tamworth Herald.
22. (18 April 2007). "Leader of council to step down". Express and Star.
23. "Council minutes, 17 May 2007".
24. (6 June 2009). "Election is a bluewash". Express and Star.
25. "Council minutes, 18 June 2009".
26. "Staffordshire County Council leader to stand down".
27. "Council minutes, 23 July 2020".
28. (2 May 2025). "Reform wins control of Staffordshire County Council". BBC News.
29. "Council minutes, 22 May 2025".
30. (22 May 2025). "New leader formally appointed at Staffordshire County Council". Lichfield Live.
31. (9 December 2025). "Staffordshire Council leader Ian Cooper resigns over alleged racist social media comments". ITVX.
32. "New Acting Leader of Staffordshire County Council announced".
33. (2025-05-15). "New Reform UK councillor quits two weeks after election".
34. Aitken, Jen. (2025-05-22). "Staffordshire County Council Reform leader defends by-election cost".
35. (2025-06-27). "Your County Councillors".
36. "Staffordshire". Thorncliffe.
37. {{cite legislation UK. (2012)
38. "Contact us".
39. (21 December 2011). "Wraps off £38m Staffordshire County Council HQ". Express and Star.
40. (12 May 2013). "Men at work again after duchess officially opens beleaguered council HQ". Express and Star.
41. {{NHLE
42. {{NHLE
43. (14 December 2023). "Council minutes, 14 December 2023".