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Welwyn Hatfield

District in Hertfordshire, England

Summary

District in Hertfordshire, England

Field	Value
<!-- Elements common to United Kingdom -->	timezone	GMT
utc_offset	0
timezone_DST	BST
utc_offset_DST	+1
<!-- Elements common to administrative division of this type (English two-tier district) -->	settlement_type	Non-metropolitan district, Borough
subdivision_type	Sovereign state
subdivision_type1	Constituent country
subdivision_type2	Region
subdivision_type3	Non-metropolitan county
subdivision_type5	Admin HQ
subdivision_name	United Kingdom
subdivision_name1	England
government_type	Non-metropolitan district council
leader_title	Leadership
leader_title1	MP
established_title1	Incorporated
population_density_km2	auto
blank1_name	ONS code
blank2_name	OS grid reference
<!-- Elements unique to this article -->	name	Welwyn Hatfield
image_skyline	Hatfield House in 2011 - geograph.org.uk - 5834346.jpg
imagesize	280px
image_caption	Hatfield House
image_blank_emblem	Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council.svg
blank_emblem_size	180px
image_map	Welwyn Hatfield UK locator map.svg
map_caption	Welwyn Hatfield shown within Hertfordshire
subdivision_name2	East of England
subdivision_name3	Hertfordshire
subdivision_name5	Welwyn Garden City
established_date1	1 April 1974
governing_body	Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
leader_name1	Andrew Lewin (L)
Oliver Dowden (C)
area_rank	(of )
area_total_km2	129.55
population_total
population_as_of
population_rank	(of )
<!-- demographics (section 1) -->	demographics_type1	Ethnicity (2021)
demographics1_footnotes
demographics1_title1	Ethnic groups
demographics1_info1	{{Collapsible list
<!-- demographics (section 2) -->	demographics_type2	Religion (2021)
demographics2_footnotes
demographics2_title1	Religion
demographics2_info1	{{Collapsible list
blank1_info	26UL (ONS)
E07000241 (GSS)
blank2_info
named_for	Welwyn (village) and Hatfield (town)

Oliver Dowden (C) | 78.7% White | 8.8% Asian | 6.1% Black | 4.1% Mixed | 2.3% other | 47.2% Christianity | 37% no religion | 12.5% other | 3.3% Islam E07000241 (GSS) Welwyn Hatfield is a local government district with borough status in the county of Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Welwyn Garden City. The borough borders Hertsmere, St Albans, North Hertfordshire, East Hertfordshire, Broxbourne, and the London Borough of Enfield.

The borough includes the two towns of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, along with numerous smaller settlements from Woolmer Green in the north to Cuffley in the south. The borough has six railway stations on the Great Northern Railway; five being on the main line and one on the Hertford loop line. The Digswell Viaduct is a local landmark. The A1 road passes through the borough.

Much of the borough lies within the Metropolitan Green Belt which surrounds London. Welwyn Garden City is notable as being one of only two Garden Cities in the country, and is uniquely both a Garden City and a designated New Town. The University of Hertfordshire has its main campus at Hatfield.

History

Welwyn Hatfield was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the area of three former districts, which were all abolished at the same time:

Hatfield Rural District
Welwyn Garden City Urban District
Welwyn Rural District

The new district was named Welwyn Hatfield. From 1974 to 2006 the council was called Welwyn Hatfield District Council. The council petitioned for borough status in 2005, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor. The petition was agreed to by the Privy Council and a charter conferring borough status was issued which took effect on 22 May 2006, when John Hawkins was appointed the first mayor and the council's name changed to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council.

Governance

Labour Labour ;Administration (17) : ;Other parties (31) : : : : :

Hertfordshire has a two-tier structure of local government, with the ten district councils (including Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council) providing district-level services, and Hertfordshire County Council providing county-level services.

Political control

The council has been under no overall control since the 2023 election. After that election, the Conservatives were the largest party, but a Liberal Democrat and Labour coalition formed to take control of the council. The Liberal Democrats were the larger party in the coalition from 2023 to 2024. Following the 2024 election, a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition continued to run the council, with Labour overtaking their coalition partners and also becoming the largest party on the council. On 29 January, leader of the council Max Holloway announced his resignation, which comes into effect on 6 February.

The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new system came into force on 1 April 1974. Political control since 1974 has been as follows:

Party in control	Years
	1974–1976
	1976–1979
	1979–1992
	1992–1994
	1994–1999
	1999–2000
	2000–2002
	2002–2019
	2019–2021
	2021–2023
	2023–present

Leadership

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Welwyn Hatfield, and is usually held by a different councillor each year. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 2005 have been:

Councillor	From	To
John Dean	May 2005	May 2018
Mandy Perkins	21 May 2018	29 Sep 2018
Tony Kingsbury	19 Nov 2018	May 2023
Paul Zukowskyj	22 May 2023	May 2024
Max Holloway	20 May 2024	6 Feb 2026

Composition

Following the 2024 local elections and subsequent changes up to January 2026, the composition of the council was:

Party	Councillors	Total	48
	17
	16
	11
	2
	1
	1

The next elections were due to be held in May 2026, where a third of the council's seats would have been up for election. However, in January 2026, the elections were cancelled in preparation for structural changes to local government in the area.

Premises

The council is based at the Council Offices on The Campus in the centre of Welwyn Garden City, which it inherited from the old Welwyn Garden City Urban District Council. The building was completed in 1937.

Towns and Parishes

Welwyn Hatfield contains eight civil parishes. The town of Welwyn Garden City is an unparished area. The parishes are:

Ayot St Lawrence
Ayot St Peter
Essendon
Hatfield
North Mymms
Northaw and Cuffley
Welwyn
Woolmer Green

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2016 the council has comprised 48 councillors representing 16 wards, each of which elects three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, electing one councillor from each ward each time. Elections to Hertfordshire County Council are held in the fourth year of the cycle when there are no borough council elections.

Wards

The wards of the borough are:

Brookmans Park & Little Heath
Haldens
Handside
Hatfield Central
Hatfield East
Hatfield South West
Hatfield Villages
Hollybush
Howlands
Northaw and Cuffley
Panshanger
Peartree
Sherrards
Welham Green and Hatfield South
Welwyn East
Welwyn West

Wider politics

Most of Welwyn Hatfield borough is within Welwyn Hatfield parliamentary constituency, whose current MP for Welwyn Hatfield is Andrew Lewin of the Labour Party. The constituency's boundaries differ from the borough only by the single ward of Northaw and Cuffley being within the borough, but in the parliamentary constituency of Hertsmere, whose current MP is Oliver Dowden of the Conservative Party.

Arms

References

"Welwyn Hatfield Local Authority".
{{cite legislation UK. (1972)
{{cite legislation UK. (1973)
"Orders in Council: Meeting 15 November 2005".
(20 May 2025). "New mayor of Welwyn Hatfield Lynn Chesterman OBE appointed". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
"New Cabinet Line-up and Joint Administration Announced".
(16 May 2024). "New Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council leader announced".
"Council minutes, 14 July 2021".
{{cite legislation UK. (1972)
(19 May 2023). "Joint Administration and Cabinet line-up announced".
(20 January 2026). "Welwyn Hatfield Lib Dems trigger process to end coalition". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
(29 January 2026). "Council leader resigns after election postponement". [[BBC News]].
"Compositions Calculator". University of Exeter.
(19 April 2008). "Welwyn Hatfield". [[BBC News Online]].
(16 January 2018). "Welwyn Hatfield Times". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
"Council minutes, 21 May 2018".
(1 October 2018). "Welwyn Hatfield Council leader Mandy Perkins 'enormously missed'". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
"Council minutes, 19 November 2018".
(5 May 2023). "Live: Updates from Welwyn Hatfield election results 2023". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
"Council minutes, 22 May 2023".
(3 May 2024). "Paul Zukowskyj on Welwyn Hatfield local elections 2024". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
"Council minutes, 20 May 2024".
(16 May 2024). "New Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council leader announced". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
"Welwyn Hatfield election result". BBC News.
"Make up of the council".
(26 August 2025). "Welwyn Hatfield councillor resigns over Gaza genocide". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
(12 January 2026). "Welwyn Hatfield: Haldens councillor defects to Greens". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
(26 January 2026). "Statement on the passing of Councillor Roger Trigg". [[Welwyn Hatfield.
"Welwyn Hatfield". Thorncliffe.
(22 January 2026). "Welwyn Hatfield council election among 29 postponed". Welwyn Hatfield Times.
(8 January 1937). "New Council Offices". Hertfordshire Mercury.
{{cite legislation UK. (2016)
"WELWYN HATFIELD DISTRICT COUNCIL (HERTS)". Robert Young.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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