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Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, also known as Bury Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government services in the borough. The council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority since 2011.
Bury Metropolitan Borough Council | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
 Council logo | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 1 April 1974 |
| Leadership | |
Lynne Ridsdale since 16 May 2018 | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 51 councillors[2] |
 | |
Political groups |
|
Joint committees | Greater Manchester Combined Authority Greater Manchester Police, Fire and Crime Panel |
| Elections | |
Last election | 2 May 2024 |
Next election | 7 May 2026 |
| Meeting place | |
.jpg) | |
| Town Hall, Knowsley Street, Bury, BL9 0SW | |
| Website | |
| www | |
The council has been under Labour majority control since 2011. It is based at Bury Town Hall.
The town of Bury had been governed by improvement commissioners from 1846. They were replaced in 1876 when the town was incorporated as a municipal borough, after which it was governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Bury', generally known as the corporation, town council or borough council.[3] When elected county councils were established in 1889, Bury was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it became a county borough, independent from the new Lancashire County Council, whilst remaining part of the geographical county of Lancashire.[4]
The larger Metropolitan Borough of Bury 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 six outgoing authorities, being the borough councils of Bury, Prestwich and Radcliffe, and the urban district councils of Ramsbottom, Tottington and Whitefield. 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.[5]
The metropolitan district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Bury's series of mayors dating back to 1876.[6] The council styles itself Bury Council rather than its full formal name of Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council.[7]
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 Bury, with some services provided through joint committees.[8]
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 Bury Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions.[9][10]
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Bury Council provides metropolitan borough services. Some strategic functions in the area are provided by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority; the leader of Bury Council sits on the combined authority as Bury's representative.[11] There are no civil parishes in the borough; the whole area is unparished.[12]
Political control
The council has been under Labour majority control since 2011.
Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms took effect has been as follows:[13][14]
| Party in control | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| No overall control | 1974–1975 | |
| Conservative | 1975–1986 | |
| Labour | 1986–1992 | |
| No overall control | 1992–1995 | |
| Labour | 1995–2006 | |
| No overall control | 2006–2008 | |
| Conservative | 2008–2010 | |
| No overall control | 2010–2011 | |
| Labour | 2011–present | |
Leadership
The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Bury. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 2002 have been:[15]
| Councillor | Party | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Byrne | Labour | pre-2002 | 18 May 2005 | |
| Wayne Campbell | Labour | 18 May 2005 | 16 May 2007 | |
| Bob Bibby | Conservative | 16 May 2007 | 18 May 2011 | |
| Mike Connolly | Labour | 18 May 2011 | 18 May 2016 | |
| Rishi Shori | Labour | 18 May 2016 | 10 Jul 2019 | |
| David Jones | Labour | 10 Jul 2019 | 20 May 2020 | |
| Eamonn O'Brien | Labour | 20 May 2020 | ||
Composition
Following the 2024 election, the composition of the council was:[16]
| Party | Councillors | |
|---|---|---|
| Labour | 32 | |
| Conservative | 10 | |
| Radcliffe First | 8 | |
| Independent | 1 | |
| Total | 51 | |
The next election is due in May 2026.
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Since the last boundary changes in 2022, the council has comprised 51 councillors representing 17 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.[17]
Each ward is represented by three councillors.[18]
1 Ramsbottom
2 North Manor
3 Tottington
4 Elton
5 Moorside
6 Bury West
7 Bury East
8 Redvales
9 Radcliffe North & Ainsworth
10 Radcliffe East
11 Radcliffe West
12 Unsworth
13 Pilkington Park
14 Besses
15 St. Mary's
16 Holyrood
17 Sedgley
| Parliamentary constituency | Ward | Councillor | Party | Term of office | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bury North constituency | Bury East | Ayesha Arif | Labour | 2022-26 | |
| Ummrana Farooq | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Gavin McGill | Labour | 2024-28 | |||
| Bury West | Shahbaz Arif | Conservative | 2023-27 | ||
| Jackie Harris | Conservative | 2022-26 | |||
| Dene Vernon | Conservative | 2024-28 | |||
| Elton | Martin Hayes | Labour | 2024-28 | ||
| Charlotte Morris | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Jack Rydeheard | Conservative | 2022-26 | |||
| Moorside | Ciaron Boles | Labour | 2024-28 | ||
| Babar Ibrahim | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Sandra Walmsley | Labour | 2022-26 | |||
| North Manor | Roger Brown | Conservative | 2022-26 | ||
| Khalid Hussain (Mayor) | Conservative | 2023-27 | |||
| John Southworth | Labour | 2024-28 | |||
| Radcliffe North and Ainsworth | Donald Berry | Radcliffe First | 2022-26 | ||
| Andrea Booth | Radcliffe First | 2024-28 | |||
| Jo Lancaster (Conservative Group Deputy Leader) | Conservative | 2023-27 | |||
| Ramsbottom | Clare Cummins | Labour | 2022-26 | ||
| Tom Pilkington | Labour | 2024-28 | |||
| Gareth Staples-Jones | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Redvales | Nikki Frith | Labour | 2022-26 | ||
| Shaheena Haroon | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Tamoor Tariq (Labour Group Deputy Leader) | Labour | 2024-28 | |||
| Tottington | Iain Gartside | Conservative | 2023-27 | ||
| Luis McBriar | Conservative | 2024-28 | |||
| Yvonne Wright | Independent | 2022-26 | |||
| Bury South constituency | Besses | Noel Bayley | Labour | 2022-26 | |
| Miriam Rahimov | Labour | 2024-28 | |||
| Lucy Smith | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Holyrood | Elliot Moss | Labour | 2022-26 | ||
| Imran Rizvi | Labour | 2024-28 | |||
| Lynn Ryder | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Pilkington Park | Russell Bernstein (Conservative Group Leader) | Conservative | 2022-26 | ||
| Elizabeth Fitzgerald | Labour | 2024-28 | |||
| Michael Rubinstein | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Radcliffe East | Carol Birchmore | Radcliffe First | 2022-26 | ||
| Ken Simpson | Radcliffe First | 2024-28 | |||
| Mary Walsh | Radcliffe First | 2023-27 | |||
| Radcliffe West | Des Duncalfe | Radcliffe First | 2024-28 | ||
| Glyn Marsden | Radcliffe First | 2022-26 | |||
| Mike Smith (Radcliffe First Group Leader) | Radcliffe First | 2023-27 | |||
| Sedgley | Richard Gold | Labour | 2022-26 | ||
| Alan Quinn | Labour | 2024-28 | |||
| Debbie Quinn | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| St. Mary's | Debra Green | Labour | 2024-28 | ||
| Eamonn O'Brien (Labour Leader and Leader of the Council) | Labour | 2022-26 | |||
| Sean Thorpe | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
| Unsworth | Nathan Boroda | Labour | 2024-28 | ||
| Joan Grimshaw | Labour | 2022-26 | |||
| Tahir Rafiq | Labour | 2023-27 | |||
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The council is based at the Town Hall on Knowsley Street in Bury. The building was officially opened in 1954 for the old Bury Borough Council; construction had begun fifteen years earlier but had been interrupted by the Second World War.[19] In 2023 the council announced plans to refurbish the building, allowing the council to consolidate its other offices into the Town Hall, notably from Knowsley Place opposite.[20]
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