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Birmingham City Council

Birmingham shown within West Midlands

This page is about the Government of Birmingham, England.

Local Government

History

Most of Birmingham was traditionally a part of Warwickshire, though the modern city also includes villages and towns formerly in Staffordshire or Worcestershire. It became a city and county borough in 1889. It became a part of the West Midlands metropolitan county upon the latter's creation in 1974. Since the West Midlands County Council's abolition in 1986, it has been a unitary authority area.

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 is no overall control, with the 120 seats being divided between the Labour, (53 councillors), Conservative (39) and Liberal Democrat ("Lib-Dem", 28) parties.

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

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, Birmingham, 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.

Parishes

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

National Government

Birmingham's eleven constituencies are represented in the House of Commons by one Conservative and 10 Labour MPs.

#	Constituency	MP	Party
1	Birmingham, Edgbaston	Gisela Stuart	Labour
2	Birmingham, Erdington	Siôn Simon	Labour
3	Birmingham, Hall Green	Stephen James McCabe	Labour
4	Birmingham, Hodge Hill	Liam Byrne	Labour
5	Birmingham, Ladywood	Clare Short	Labour
6	Birmingham, Northfield	Richard Burden	Labour
7	Birmingham, Perry Barr	Khalid Mahmood	Labour
8	Birmingham, Selly Oak	Dr Lynne Jones	Labour
9	Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath	Roger Godsiff	Labour
10	Birmingham, Yardley	Estelle Morris	Labour
11	Sutton Coldfield	Andrew Mitchell	Conservative