Salisbury City Council

Salisbury City Council
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Leadership
Leader
Andrew Roberts
Mayor
Cllr. Penny Brown[1]
Structure
Seats 23
Political groups
   Conservative Party (10)
  Labour Party (7)
  Liberal Democrats (3)
  Independents (2)
  Green Party (1)
Elections
Plurality-at-large voting
Last election
 2013
Meeting place
Guildhall, Salisbury
Website
salisburycitycouncil.gov.uk

Salisbury City Council is an English city council in which the Conservatives currently have the largest number of members but there is no overall control.

The council came into being in April 2009 to serve the city of Salisbury, Wiltshire, as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England, although its first elections were not held until June 2009. It is based in the city's historic Guildhall, following the adaptation of the building. Until that was completed it had its offices and meetings at 22, Bedwin Street, Salisbury.

Population

The civil parish of Salisbury - which excludes some of the city's suburbs such as Laverstock, Ford, Britford, Harnham and Odstock - had a population of 40,302 at the 2011 census.[2]

City status

Salisbury has been ranked as a city since "time immemorial", and the status was preserved after 1974 by the Charter Trustees of the City of New Sarum, a body which was dissolved at the time of the new grant.[3] The parish was once again granted city status by letters patent dated 1 April 2009.[4]

Coat of arms

On 23 March 2010, the city council was granted a royal licence, transferring to it the armorial bearings of the previous City of New Sarum. The arms and supporters were originally recorded at the heraldic visitations of Wiltshire in 1565 and 1623.[5] The blazon of the arms is:

Barry of eight Azure and Or. Supporters: On either side an eagle displayed with two heads Or, ducally gorged Azure.[6][7]

There do not appear to be any meanings attached to the design.[8] The traditional explanation that the blue stripes represent the rivers that meet in the city is now discounted.[8][9] It has also been suggested that the eagles derive from the arms of the Bouverie family, Earls of Radnor, benefactors of the city. However, this also can be discounted, as the arms of the city were recorded before the family was connected with it.[8][9]

Membership

The council consists of twenty-three councillors, elected in eight wards, seven of which have three councillors each, while one (St Mark's and Bishopdown) has only two. Elections to the city council took place on Thursday, 2 May 2013. Soon after them Jo Broom, who had been elected in Fisherton & Bemerton Village as a Liberal Democrat, joined the Conservatives. Following the resignation of a Conservative, there was a by-election in the St Martin's & Cathedral ward on 9 January 2014, won by Patricia Fagan for Labour. The city councillors are now as follows:

Bemerton (3 members)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Caroline Corbin 559
Labour Thomas Corbin 544
Labour Mike Osment 489
Fisherton & Bemerton Village (3 members)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Walsh 429
Independent Margaret Ann Wilmott 409
Conservative Vanessa Jo Broom[10] 385
Harnham (3 members)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat Brian Edward Dalton 855
Conservative John Malcolm Collier 612
Liberal Democrat Grahame William Henry Alexander 495
St Edmund & Milford (3 members)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat James Robertson 620
Green Michael Robert Pope 467
Labour Mark Frank Timbrell 427
St Francis & Stratford (3 members)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Derek William Brown 857
Conservative Atikul Hoque 764
Conservative Charles Rogers 667
St Mark's & Bishopdown (2 members)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Penelope Brown 460
Conservative Colin Froude 437
St Martin's & Cathedral (3 members)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Ian Robert Tomes 870
Conservative Sven Hocking 622
Labour Patricia Ann Fagan 538
(By-election
Jan 2014)
St Paul's (3 members)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Matthew Jonathan Anthony Dean 418
Independent Andrew Charles Righton Roberts 395
Conservative John Lindley 376

Functions

The council is initially responsible for the following properties and services:

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mayor of Salisbury". Salisbury City Council. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Office for National Statistics
  3. ↑ "Civic History Its Charters and Silver". The Guildhall Salisbury. Salisbury City Council. 2009. Archived from the original on December 23, 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2009.
  4. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 59250. p. 20329. 24 November 2009.
  5. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 59398. p. 7045. 21 April 2010.
  6. ↑ Briggs, Geoffrey (1971). Civic and Corporate Heraldry: A Dictionary of Impersonal Arms of England, Wales and N. Ireland. London: Heraldry Today. p. 346. ISBN 0-900455-21-7.
  7. ↑ Fox-Davies, A C (1915). The Book of Public Arms, 2nd edition. London: T C & E C Jack. p. 690.
  8. 1 2 3 "What is the symbolism behind Salisbury’s coat of arms?". Wiltshire History Questions. Wiltshire Council. 19 November 2004. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  9. 1 2 Scott-Giles, C Wilfrid (1953). Civic Heraldry of England and Wales, 2nd edition. London: J M Dent & Sons. p. 384.
  10. ↑ Broom was elected as a Liberal Democrat and became leader of the council's Liberal Democrats, but she joined the Conservatives at the first council meeting. This followed the refusal of the other Liberal Democrats to support her nomination by the Conservatives as Leader of the Council. Subsequently, the Independent Councillor Andrew Roberts was elected Leader with the support of the remaining Liberal Democrats, Labour, Green and one other Independent. The nomination was opposed by the Conservatives. See "Row as councillor switches parties". Salisbury Journal. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2013.

External links

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