Wiltshire Council

Wiltshire Council is the unitary authority for most of the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in the West of England, created in April 2009. It is the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council (1889–2009) and also to four district councils—Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, and West Wiltshire—all of which had been created in 1973 and were abolished in 2009.

The council is led by Jane Scott (Conservative), who had previously led the former Wiltshire County Council since 2003.

Establishment of the unitary authority

The ceremonial county of Wiltshire consists of two unitary authority areas, Wiltshire and Swindon, administered respectively by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council. Before April 2009, Wiltshire was administered as a non-metropolitan county by Wiltshire County Council, with four districts, Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, and West Wiltshire. Swindon, in the north of the county, had been a separate unitary authority since 1997, and on 5 December 2007 the British Government announced that the rest of Wiltshire would move to unitary status. This was later put into effect by a statutory instrument as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. To date, this has been one of the most successful Unitary initiatives in the UK, achieved on time and under budget, and gaining a glowing report from the DCLG.

Wiltshire

Wiltshire (/ˈwɪltʃər/ or /ˈwɪltʃɪər/) is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km² (1,346 square miles). It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Until 1930 the county town was Wilton but Wiltshire Council is now based at Trowbridge.

Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys. Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral. Important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trust's Stourhead, near Mere.

Toponymy

The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the former county town of Wilton.

History

Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology. The Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK.

Wiltshire (European Parliament constituency)

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each. The constituency of Wiltshire was one of them.

The constituency consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Devizes, Newbury, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, Swindon, Wantage, Westbury.

The constituency was represented for the whole of its existence by Caroline Jackson. At the 1994 European election, there were boundary changes. Most of Wiltshire then became part of the new Wiltshire North and Bath constituency, which again elected Caroline Jackson.

Members of the European Parliament

Election results

See also

References

External links

Wiltshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Wiltshire was a constituency of the House of Commons of England from 1290 to 1707, of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Members of Parliament (MPs), elected by the bloc vote system.

History

Boundaries

The constituency consisted of the whole historic county of Wiltshire. (Although Wiltshire contained a number of boroughs each of which elected two Members in their own right, the boroughs were not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within a borough could confer a vote at the county election.)

Medieval and Tudor period

In medieval times, the custom in Wiltshire as elsewhere was for Members called knights of the shire to be elected at the county court by the suitors to the court, which meant the small number of nobles and other landowners who were tenants in chief of the Crown. Such county elections were held on the same day as the election of the members for the boroughs. Thus we find it recorded that in the first year of the reign of Henry V, "at a full County Court held at Wilton, Twenty-Six persons chose the Knights for the County, and the same individuals elected Two Citizens respectively for New Sarum, Old Sarum, Wilton, Devizes, Malmesbury, Marlborough and Calne."