Northampton Town Council
Type
Type
History
Founded1 April 2020 (2020-04-01) (became full functioning a year later)[1]
Leadership
Mayor
Stephen Hibbert
Structure
Seats25 councillors
Political groups
  Labour Party: 17 seats
  Conservative Party: 7 seats
  Liberal Democrats: 1 seat
Elections
Last election
7 May 2021
Next election
TBA
Meeting place
Northampton Guildhall
Website
www.northamptontowncouncil.gov.uk

Northampton Town Council is the parish council covering the majority of the town of Northampton, England. The council is the largest parish level authority in England by population served.[2] The council has its headquarters at Northampton Guildhall.[1]

History

The council was created on 1 April 2020, but did not become fully functional until a year later. It was created to eliminate the need for charter trustees and to ensure Northampton had a representative body, following the abolition of the former Northampton Borough Council, which was merged into the larger unitary authority West Northamptonshire Council, following local government changes in Northamptonshire. Unlike the former borough council, the town council does not cover the entire Northampton urban area, as several smaller parish councils cover several of the town's suburbs. The town council covers an area with around 130,000 people, out of the roughly 225,000 people in Northampton as a whole.[3]

The historic coat of arms from the former borough council were transferred to the new town council.[3]

Responsibilities

The council initially took responsibility for cemeteries, allotments and the mayoralty, and also the running of civic events like festivals, Remembrance Sunday and Armed Forces Day.[4] In 2021 it launched two schemes for distributing grants to local community groups and charities, from an annual budget of £125,000.[5] In 2022 it launched an additional grant scheme with a budget of £50,000, for environmental projects to help address climate change.[6]

Political control

At the first elections to the council on 7 May 2021, the Labour Party took control, winning 17 seats. The Conservative Party won seven, and the Liberal Democrats won one seat.[7]

Other parishes in Northampton

As well as the Northampton Town Council area, there are 12 other civil parishes in the Northampton urban area, ten were pre-existing, and two (Kingsthorpe and Far Cotton and Delapre) were created concurrently with the town council, these are:[8]

References

  1. 1 2 "New Town Council up and Running". Northampton Town Council. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  2. ↑ "England's 'largest' town council set for Northampton". BBC News. 21 January 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  3. 1 2 "'Historic' evening sees Northampton Town Council meet for the first time". Northampton Chronicle. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  4. ↑ "New Northampton Town Council has opportunity to achieve success working across political divide". Northampton Chronicle. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  5. ↑ "Newly formed Northampton Town Council launches two grant schemes for charities and community groups". Northampton Chonicle. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  6. ↑ "Northampton Town Council to donate £50,000 to environmental projects". Northampton Chronicle. 12 August 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  7. ↑ "Northampton Town Council elections 2021: All the results for every ward in your area - and a few parish councils". Northampton Chronicle. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  8. ↑ "Northampton parish boundaries" (PDF). Northampton Town Council. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
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