Gloucestershire County Council

Gloucestershire County Council
Coat of arms of Gloucestershire County Council
Council logo
Type
Type
Leadership
Sarah Hands,
Liberal Democrats
since 13 May 2026[1]
Lisa Spivey,
Liberal Democrats
since 21 May 2025
Jo Walker
since 19 May 2025[2]
Structure
Seats55 councillors[3]
Graph of the party split among 55 seats.
Political groups
Administration (27)
    Liberal Democrats (27)
Other parties (28)
    Reform (10)
    Green (9)
    Conservative (6)
    Labour (1)
    Independent (2)
Length of term
4 years
Elections
First past the post
Last election
1 May 2025
Next election
Council to be abolished
Meeting place
Shire Hall, Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2TG
Website
www.gloucestershire.gov.uk

Gloucestershire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire, in England. The council was created in 1889. The council's principal functions are county roads and rights of way, social services, education and libraries, but it also provides many other local government services in the area it covers. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, the latter additionally including South Gloucestershire. The council has been under no overall control since May 2024. Following the 2025 election a minority Liberal Democrat administration formed to run the council. It is based at Shire Hall in Gloucester.

The area administered by the county council comprises 2,653 square kilometres (1,024 sq mi).[4]

The current Gloucestershire County Council is planned to be abolished on 1 April 2028 and replaced by a new unitary authority Gloucestershire 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 cities of Bristol and Gloucester were both considered large enough to provide their own county-level services, so they became county boroughs, independent from the county council. The county council was elected by and provided services to the remainder of the county outside those two boroughs, which area was termed the administrative county.[5]

The first elections were held in January 1889, and the council formally came into being on 1 April 1889, when it held its first official meeting at Shire Hall in Gloucester. The first chairman of the council was John Dorington, a Conservative, who was also the Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury at the time.[6]

Local government was reformed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, which made Gloucestershire a non-metropolitan county. As part of the 1974 changes it ceded an area in the south of the county to the new county of Avon, but gained the former county borough of Gloucester. The lower tier of local government was rearranged at the same time, with the county being divided into six non-metropolitan districts.[7]

Avon was abolished in 1996 and a new unitary authority called South Gloucestershire created, covering the area which had been ceded from the old administrative county of Gloucestershire to Avon in 1974.[8] As a unitary authority South Gloucestershire is independent from Gloucestershire County Council, although it is classed as part of the wider ceremonial county of Gloucestershire for the purposes of lieutenancy.[9]

As part of upcoming local government reform in England, the two-tier Gloucestershire councils are due to be replaced by either one or two unitary councils. In March 2026, the leaders of Gloucestershire County Council, and five district councils in Gloucestershire, wrote a letter to local government ministers outlining the ambition for a single Gloucestershire unitary authority, with the ambition for it to join the West of England Combined Authority.[10] Other options considered previously by Gloucestershire councils include a Three Counties combined authority with Herefordshire and Worcestershire, or joining the proposed Thames Valley Combined Authority.[11]

Gloucestershire Council (from 2028)

Gloucestershire Council
Type
Type
History
Founded1 April 2028
Preceded byGloucestershire County Council
Structure
Length of term
4 years
Elections
First past the post
First election
6 May 2027

Gloucestershire Council is a planned English unitary authority for the local government district of Gloucestershire, replacing the existing Gloucestershire County Council and its constituent district councils as part of a move to phase out two-tier local government. It is planned to have a leader and cabinet model of government. It will have 110 councillors.[12]

As part of the Starmer ministry local government reform, a goal of "simpler local government structures" was set out by the government, including a commitment to phase out two-tier local government structures.[13][14]

The 2027 Gloucestershire Council election is set to take place on 6 May 2027, with the authority taking over local government responsibilities on 1 April 2028.[12]

Political control

The council has been under no overall control since a change of allegiance in May 2024.[15] Following the 2025 election the Liberal Democrats were the largest party on the council, but were one seat short of a majority. They formed a minority administration with informal support from Labour (whose only councillor was made chairman of the council) and the Green Party.[16]

Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:[17][18]

Party in controlYears
No overall control1974–2005
Conservative2005–2013
No overall control2013–2017
Conservative2017–2024
No overall control2024–present

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 2001 have been:

CouncillorPartyFromTo
Peter Clarke[19][20]Labour3 Sep 2001Apr 2005
IndependentApr 2005May 2005
Barry Dare[21][22]Conservative18 May 200519 May 2010
Mark Hawthorne[22][23]Conservative19 May 201011 Sep 2024
Stephen Davies[23][24][25]Conservative11 Sep 2024May 2025
Lisa Spivey[26]Liberal Democrats21 May 2025

Composition

Following the 2025 election,[27] and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to July 2026, the composition of the council was:[28]

Party Councillors
Liberal Democrats 27
Reform 10
Green 9
Conservative 6
Labour 1
Independent 2
Total 55

Premises

The county council has its headquarters at Shire Hall on Westgate Street in Gloucester.[29] The building had originally been built in 1816 as a courthouse and had served as the meeting place for the quarter sessions which preceded the county council. The county council then used the Shire Hall as its meeting place and built various extensions to accommodate its offices. Most of the building was demolished and rebuilt in the 1960s behind the retained façade of the 1816 building, with the reconstructed building being completed in 1970.[30]

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in May 2025,[31] the council has comprised 55 councillors, each representing an electoral division.[32] Elections are held every four years.

Notable members

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Council minutes, 13 May 2026". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
  2. ↑ Lillywhite, Maisie (21 February 2025). "County council appoints new chief executive". BBC News. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
  3. ↑ "Open Council Data UK - compositions councillors parties wards elections".
  4. ↑ "Land Area of Gloucestershire" (PDF).
  5. ↑ "Local Government Act 1888", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1888 c. 41, retrieved 27 August 2023
  6. ↑ "Gloucestershire County Council: First general meeting of the council". Gloucestershire Echo. Cheltenham. 2 April 1889. p. 3. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  7. ↑ "The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1972/2039, retrieved 31 May 2023
  8. ↑ "The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1995/493, retrieved 27 August 2023
  9. ↑ "Lieutenancies Act 1997", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1997 c. 23, retrieved 27 August 2023
  10. ↑ "Gloucestershire's position on devolution and spatial planning" (PDF). 26 March 2026. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  11. ↑ "Devolution could see the creation of a Three Counties combined authority". Gloucestershire Echo. 3 January 2025. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  12. 1 2 Miller, Ruth (20 July 2026). "Dear Chief Executives," (PDF).
  13. ↑ "Local government reorganisation: Policy and programme updates". GOV.UK. 11 July 2025. Retrieved 29 October 2025.
  14. ↑ "Summary of the local government reorganisation process". GOV.UK. Retrieved 29 October 2025.
  15. ↑ Rowe, Edward (13 May 2024). "Tories lose county council majority after defection". BBC News. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  16. ↑ Garcia, Carmelo (12 May 2025). "Shire Hall on course for Liberal Democrat minority administration with Labour chairman". Gloucestershire Live. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
  17. ↑ "Cotswold". BBC News Online. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 25 September 2009.
  18. ↑ "Compositions Calculator". The Elections Centre. University of Exeter. Retrieved 26 November 2024. (Put "Gloucestershire" in search box to see specific results.)
  19. ↑ "Council minutes, 3 September 2001". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  20. ↑ "County council leader quits party". BBC News. 21 April 2005. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  21. ↑ "Council minutes, 18 May 2005" (PDF). Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  22. 1 2 "Council minutes, 19 May 2010". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  23. 1 2 "Council minutes, 11 September 2024" (PDF). Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  24. ↑ Ashcroft, Esme (11 September 2024). "New council leader promises to tackle potholes". BBC News. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  25. ↑ Limbu, Dawn; Garcia, Carmelo (2 May 2025). "Lib Dems win in Gloucestershire as Tories lose seats". BBC News. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
  26. ↑ "Council minutes, 21 May 2025". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
  27. ↑ "Gloucestershire council results". BBC news. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2025.
  28. ↑ "Gloucestershire". Local Councils. Thorncliffe. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
  29. ↑ "Our address". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  30. ↑ Historic England. "Shire Hall (Grade II) (1245084)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 August 2023.
  31. ↑ "Explanatory memorandum to the Gloucestershire (Electoral Changes) Order 2025" (PDF). Legislation.gov.uk. May 2025. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
  32. ↑ "Your Councillors". Gloucestershire County Council. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
  33. ↑ F. W. S. Craig, British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services, 1983 edition), p. 359
  34. ↑ 'ELWES, Sir Henry (William George)' in Who's Who 2013 (London: A & C Black, 2012)
  35. ↑ 'GIRLING, Julie McCulloch', in Who's Who 2014 (London: A. & C. Black, 2014); online edition by Oxford University Press, December 2013, accessed 17 January 2014
  36. ↑ Watson, Sarah Phaedre (24 January 2018). "Can you help uncover the history of a 'dangerous woman' of Stroud?". Stroud Journal. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  37. ↑ "No. 57683". The London Gazette. 23 June 2005. p. 8169.
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