Newport City Council
| Newport City Council | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | |
| Type |
Unitary authority of the Newport
|
| Leadership | |
|
Leader
|
Debbie Wilcox, Labour Party
|
|
David Atwell
|
|
| Seats | 50 |
| Elections | |
| First past the post | |
|
Last election
|
3 May 2012 |
| Meeting place | |
| Newport Civic Centre, Newport, NP20 4UR | |
| Website | |
| www.newport.gov.uk | |
Newport City Council (Welsh: Cyngor Dinas Casnewydd) is the governing body for the city of Newport, one of the subdivisions of Wales within the United Kingdom. It consists of 50 councillors, representing the city's 20 wards.
From the 2008 election until 2012 no party had an overall majority of councillors so the council was controlled jointly by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats with the Conservatives' Matthew Evans as council leader. For decades previously it had been controlled by the Labour Party. In the 2012 elections the Labour Party regained control with an overall majority.
Elections take place every four years. The last election was 3 May 2012.
Newport is an ancient mesne borough, occupying an important position on the Welsh Marches. The town grew up round the castle built early in the 12th century. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing in 1187, calls it Novus Burgus, probably to distinguish it from Caerleon, whose prosperity declined as that of Newport increased. The first lord was Robert Fitzhamon, who died in 1107, and from him the lordship passed to the Earls of Gloucester and Stafford and the Dukes of Buckingham. Hugh le Despenser, who held the lordship for a short time, obtained in 1323 a charter of liberties for the burgesses, granting them freedom from toll throughout England, Ireland and Aquitaine. Hugh, Earl of Stafford granted a further charter in 1385, confirmed by his grandson in 1427, which gave the burgesses the right of self-government and of a merchant gild. On the attainder of the Duke of Buckingham in 1483 the lordship lapsed to the crown, of whom it was held in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Pembrokes, and in the 19th by the Beauforts.
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Wikipedia