Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

History

The town of Wigan was an ancient borough, having been granted a charter in 1246. From around 1350 the borough was led by a mayor. The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. It was then governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Wigan', generally known as the corporation, town council or borough council.

When elected county councils were established in 1889, Wigan was considered large enough for its existing council to provide county-level services, and so it was made a county borough, independent from the new Lancashire County Council, whilst remaining part of the geographical county of Lancashire.

The larger Metropolitan Borough of Wigan 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 fourteen outgoing authorities, being the borough councils of Wigan and Leigh, the urban district councils of Abram, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Aspull, Atherton, Billinge and Winstanley, Golborne, Hindley, Ince-in-Makerfield, Orrell, Standish-with-Langtree, and Tyldesley, and the Wigan Rural District Council. 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.

The metropolitan district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Wigan's series of mayors dating back to the 14th century. The council styles itself Wigan Council rather than its full formal name of Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council.

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 Wigan, with some services provided through joint committees.

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 Wigan Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions.

Governance

Wigan Council provides metropolitan borough services. Some strategic functions in the area are provided by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority; the leader of Wigan Council sits on the combined authority as Wigan's representative. There are three civil parishes in the borough at Haigh, Shevington and Worthington which form an additional tier of local government for their areas; the rest of the borough is unparished.

Political control

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

Leadership

The role of Mayor of Wigan is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1974 have been:

Composition

Following the 2024 election, and subsequent changes of allegiance and the passing of a councillor the composition of the council was:

Six of the independent councillors (four of whom are supported by the Independent Network) sit together as the "Community Independent Alliance" group, another four form the "Independent Together" group, and the other does not form part of a group. The next election is due in May 2026.

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2023, the council has comprised 75 councillors representing 25 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.

Cabinet

The current composition of Wigan Council's Cabinet is as follows.

Wards and councillors

The councillors as at August 2025 were:

Premises

The council meets at Wigan Town Hall on Library Street, which had been built in 1903 as the Wigan Mining and Technical College. After the college moved to new premises, the building was converted into a town hall in 1990 to replace the Old Town Hall on King Street.

The council's main offices are at the Wigan Life Centre on The Wiend, a modern building completed in 2012 behind the retained façade of the former Municipal Buildings facing Hewlett Street and Library Street. The building also incorporates the town's library.

The old Wigan Borough Council had held its meetings at the Old Town Hall on King Street, which had been built as a courthouse in 1867 and had become the council's headquarters in 1882. By the 1950s the council had moved its main offices to the Municipal Buildings, being a converted row of shops and offices at the corner of Hewlett Street and Library Street, which had been built in 1900. Meetings continued to be held at the Old Town Hall until the new Town Hall opened in 1990. The offices were supplemented by the construction of the Civic Centre on Millgate in 1970. After the council consolidated its offices at the Wigan Life Centre and Town Hall, the Civic Centre closed in 2018.

References

References

1. "Council minutes, 21 May 2025".
2. (22 May 2025). "Former teacher sworn in as new Wigan mayor". Wigan Today.
3. (15 June 2024). "Wigan Council's chief executive 'delighted' to receive OBE in King's birthday honours list". Wigan Today.
4. (1911). "A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 4". Victoria County History.
5. "Wigan Municipal Borough / County Borough". GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth.
6. {{cite legislation UK. (1972)
7. (28 March 1974). "District Councils and Boroughs".
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10. {{cite legislation UK. (2011)
11. "Understand how your council works".
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13. "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey.
14. "Compositions Calculator". University of Exeter.
15. (19 April 2008). "Wigan". [[BBC News Online]].
16. (30 October 1973). "Leading the way". Manchester Evening News.
17. (24 November 1975). "Council leader dies in hospital". Bolton News.
18. (23 January 1976). "Council to slash £1m from estimates". Bolton News.
19. (10 May 1991). "Mr Wigan stepping down". Wigan Observer.
20. (31 January 1995). "Mayor Coyle!". Wigan Observer.
21. (17 May 1991). "New Metro leader pays tribute". Wigan Observer.
22. (11 May 2018). "Lord Peter Smith quits: Greater Manchester's longest-serving council leader stands down after 27 years". Mancunian Matters.
23. "Council minutes, 23 May 2018".
24. (4 May 2024). "Local elections 2024: full mayoral and council results for England". The Guardian.
25. "Wigan". Thorncliffe.
26. "Your councillors by political grouping".
27. {{cite legislation UK. (2019)
28. (9 May 2007). "Your Councillors by Ward".
29. {{NHLE
30. "Mayors Handbook".
31. "Wigan Life Centre".
32. (27 January 2012). "Morgan Sindall completes £50m Wigan Life Centre". The Business Desk.
33. {{NHLE
34. (8 February 2024). "Shedkm cleared to turn brutalist former council HQ into start-up space". Building Design.