Local government

History

Most of Birmingham was historically a part of Warwickshire, though the modern city also includes villages and towns formerly in Staffordshire or Worcestershire.

Until the 1760s Birmingham was administered by manorial and parish officials, most of whom served on a part-time and honorary basis. By the 1760s the population growth of Birmingham made this system completely inadquate, and salaried officials were needed. In 1768 a body of “Commisioners of the Streets” was established who had powers to levy a rate for functions such as cleaning and street lighting. They were later given powers to provide policing and build public buildings.

The Reform Act of 1832 gave Birmingham its first representation in Parliament initially with only two MP’s but this has been gradually expanded.

Birmingham gained the status of a municipal borough in 1838 and gained its first elected town council which took over the functions of the Street Comissioners. In 1889 it became a county borough (unitary authority) and a city. This remained unchanged until 1974 when Birmingham became a metropolitan district of the newly-created West Midlands county under the West Midlands County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986 and Birmingham effectively reverted to being a unitary authority although sharing some services with other authorities in the county.

City Council

Birmingham City Council is the largest local authority in the UK with, following a reorganisation of boundaries in June 2004, 120 councillors representing just under one million people, in 40 wards.

After the election of 10 June 2004, there was no overall control, with the 120 seats being divided between the Labour, (53 councillors), Conservative (39) and Liberal Democrat (”Lib-Dem”, 28) parties.

By-elections in 2005 altered the distribution of seats within the council with Labour holding 46 seats, Conservatives holding 40, Liberal Democrats holding 30, the People’s Justice Party holding 2 and independent councillors holding a further 2. In 2006, the People’s Justice Party joined the Liberal Democrats.

There is a Conservative/Lib-Dem coalition, with Conservative group leader Mike Whitby as Leader of the council and Lib-Dem group leader Paul Tilsley as Deputy Leader.

Joint services

The city council runs some services jointly with the other authorities in the West Midlands county.

These include the West Midlands Police, the West Midlands Fire Service and the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive which oversees public transport.

Wards

Following the June 2004 reorganisation, Birmingham’s wards are:
Acocks Green
Aston
Bartley Green
Billesley
Bordesley Green
Bournville
Brandwood
Edgbaston
Erdington
Hall Green
Handsworth Wood
Harborne
Hodge Hill
Kings Norton
Kingstanding
Ladywood
Longbridge
Lozells and East Handsworth
Moseley and Kings Heath
Nechells
Northfield
Oscott
Perry Barr
Quinton
Selly Oak
Shard End
Sheldon
Soho
South Yardley
Sparkbrook
Springfield
Stechford and Yardley North
Stockland Green
Sutton Four Oaks
Sutton New Hall
Sutton Trinity
Sutton Vesey
Tyburn
Washwood Heath
Weoley

Districts

From 5 April 2004, responsibility and budgets for a number of services were devolved to 11 district committees, as part of a growing trend in the UK to use area committees for large councils. These are:
Edgbaston
Erdington
Hall Green
Hodge Hill
Ladywood
Northfield
Perry Barr
Selly Oak
Sparkbrook
Sutton Coldfield
Yardley

Each comprises three or four wards. They are not identical to the Parliamentary constituencies mentioned below, as the districts are composed of whole wards, whilst, following ward boundary changes in June 2004, the 11 constituencies split wards. However, the district boundaries have been drawn with the minimum change from the parliamentary boundaries in mind. They therefore maintain some rather undesirable qualities for service provision, notably a boundary bisecting Kings Heath, the main centre for much of South Birmingham.

Parishes

Birmingham is nearly entirely unparished. Its only civil parish, New Frankley, was established in 2000 in an area transferred from Bromsgrove in 1995, which had previously been part of the Frankley parish.