Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Template other Wigan Council, or Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan 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.

The council has been under Labour majority control since the metropolitan borough was created in 1974. It meets at Wigan Town Hall and has its main offices at the adjoining Wigan Life Centre.

History

The town of Wigan was an ancient borough, having been granted a charter in 1246. From around 1350 the borough was led by a mayor. The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. It was then governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Wigan', generally known as the corporation, town council or borough council.

File:Old Wigan Town Hall.jpg

Old Town Hall, King Street: Built 1867, vacated 1990 and demolished 2013

When elected county councils were established in 1889, Wigan 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.

The larger Metropolitan Borough of Wigan 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 fourteen outgoing authorities, being the borough councils of Wigan and Leigh, the urban district councils of Abram, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Aspull, Atherton, Billinge and Winstanley, Golborne, Hindley, Ince-in-Makerfield, Orrell, Standish-with-Langtree, and Tyldesley, and the Wigan Rural District Council. 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.

The metropolitan district was awarded borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Wigan's series of mayors dating back to the 14th century. The council styles itself Wigan Council rather than its full formal name of Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council.

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 Wigan, with some services provided through joint committees.

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 Wigan Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions.

Governance

Wigan Council provides metropolitan borough services. Some strategic functions in the area are provided by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority; the leader of Wigan Council sits on the combined authority as Wigan's representative. There are three civil parishes in the borough at Haigh, Shevington and Worthington which form an additional tier of local government for their areas; the rest of the borough is unparished.

Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since the 1974 reforms.

Party		Period
REDIRECT Template:Party name with color Template:Redirect category shell || 1974–present

Leadership

The role of Mayor of Wigan is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1991 have been:

Councillor	Party		From	To
Peter Smith	REDIRECT Template:Party name with color Template:Redirect category shell || align=right|1991 || align=right|23 May 2018
David Molyneux	REDIRECT Template:Party name with color Template:Redirect category shell || align=right|23 May 2018 || align=right|

Composition

Following the 2024 election, the composition of the council was:

Party		Councillors
REDIRECT Template:Party name with color Template:Redirect category shell || align=center|64
REDIRECT Template:Party name with color Template:Redirect category shell || align=center|10
REDIRECT Template:Party name with color Template:Redirect category shell || align=center|1
Total		75

Four of the independent councillors are supported by the Independent Network and sit together as a group, another four form the 'Independent Together' group and the remaining two do not form part of a group. The next routine election is due in May 2026.

Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2023, the council has comprised 75 councillors representing 25 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.

Wards and councillors

The councillors as at February 2025 were:

Ward	Party		Councillor	Offices
Abram	Template:Party name with color	Nazia Rehman	Portfolio Holder for Finance, Resources & Transformation
	Template:Party name with color	Eunice Smethurst	Chairman - Confident Council Scrutiny Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Martyn Smethurst	Lead Member - Armed Forces & Veterans
Ashton-in-Makerfield South	Template:Party name with color	Andrew Bullen
	Template:Party name with color	Jenny Bullen	Portfolio Holder for Children and Families / Deputy Mayor
	Template:Party name with color	Danny Fletcher	Lead Member - Leisure & Public Health
Aspull, New Springs and Whelley	Template:Party name with color	Ronald Josef Conway	Chair of the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Laura Flynn	Lead Member - Youth Opportunities
	Template:Party name with color	Christopher Ready	Portfolio Holder - Communities & Neighbourhoods
Astley	Template:Party name with color	Christine Lillian Roberts
	Template:Party name with color	Barry John Taylor	Vice-Chair of the Confident Places Scrutiny Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Paula Wakefield	Lead Member for Equalities and Domestic Abuse
Atherton North	Template:Party name with color	Stuart Andrew Gerrard
	Template:Party name with color	Jamie Hodgkinson
	Template:Party name with color	James Paul Watson	Leader of the opposition
Atherton South and Lilford	Template:Party name with color	John Harding	Vice Chair of Planning Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Lee McStein
	Template:Party name with color	Debra Susan Ann Wailes
Bryn with Ashton-in-Makerfield North	Template:Party name with color	Steve Jones
	Template:Party name with color	Scarlett Myler
	Template:Party name with color	Sylvia Wilkinson
Douglas	Template:Party name with color	Mary Callaghan	Vice-Chair of the Confident Council Scrutiny Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Matt Dawber
	Template:Party name with color	Pat Draper
Golborne and Lowton West	Template:Party name with color	Susan Gambles	Portfolio Holder for Housing and Welfare
	Template:Party name with color	Yvonne Klieve	Lead Member - District Centres and Night Time Economy
	Template:Party name with color	Gena Merrett	Vice-Chair of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee
Hindley	Template:Party name with color	Paul John Blay	Vice-Chair of the Licensing and Regulation Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Jim Churton
	Template:Party name with color	James Talbot
Hindley Green	Template:Party name with color	Bob Brierley
	Template:Party name with color	James Palmer
	Template:Party name with color	John Melville Vickers
Ince	Template:Party name with color	David Trevor Molyneux	Executive Leader and Portfolio Holder for Economic Development
	Template:Party name with color	Maureen O'Bern
	Template:Party name with color	Tony Whyte
Leigh Central and Higher Folds	Template:Party name with color	Keith Cunliffe	Deputy Leader Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care
	Template:Party name with color	Shelley Guest
	Template:Party name with color	Fredrick Bown Walker
Leigh South	Template:Party name with color	Kevin Anderson	Chair of Licensing and Regulation Committees
	Template:Party name with color	Charles Rigby	Chair of Audit, Governance and Standards Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Barbara Caren
Leigh West	Template:Party name with color	Dane Anderton	Portfolio Holder for Police, Crime and Civil Contingencies
	Template:Party name with color	Samantha Brown
	Template:Party name with color	Susan June Greensmith
Lowton East	Template:Party name with color	Jenny Gregory
	Template:Party name with color	Garry Lloyd
	Template:Party name with color	Mike Smith
Orrell	Template:Party name with color	Anne Collins
	Template:Party name with color	Jim Nicholson
	Template:Party name with color	Mark Tebbutt
Pemberton	Template:Party name with color	Jeanette Prescott
	Template:Party name with color	Paul Prescott	Portfolio Holder for Planning, Environmental Services and Transport
	Template:Party name with color	Eileen Winifred Rigby
Shevington with Lower Ground and Moor	Template:Party name with color	Paul Anthony Collins
	Template:Party name with color	Michael John Crosby
	Template:Party name with color	Vicky Galligan
Standish with Langtree	Template:Party name with color	Terry Mugan
	Template:Party name with color	Debbie Parkinson	Mayor
	Template:Party name with color	Raymond Whittingham	Leader of the Conservatives in wigan council
Tyldesley and Mosley Common	Template:Party name with color	Jess Eastoe	Vice-Chair of Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee
	Template:Party name with color	James Fish
	Template:Party name with color	Joanne Marshall	Lead Member for Greener Wigan
Wigan Central	Template:Party name with color	George Davies
	Template:Party name with color	Lawrence Hunt	Lead Member for Heritage and Building Conservation
	Template:Party name with color	Michael McLoughlin
Wigan West	Template:Party name with color	Phyllis Cullen
	Template:Party name with color	Sheila Ramsdale
	Template:Party name with color	David Wood
Winstanley	Template:Party name with color	Paul Terence Kenny	Chair of the Planning Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Clive William Morgan	Chair of Confident Places and Environment Scrutiny Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Marie Morgan
Worsley Mesnes	Template:Party name with color	David Hurst
	Template:Party name with color	Paul Molyneux	Vice-Chair of Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee
	Template:Party name with color	Helen O’Neill

Premises

The council meets at Wigan Town Hall on Library Street, which had been built in 1903 as the Wigan Mining and Technical College. After the college moved to new premises, the building was converted into a town hall in 1990 to replace the Old Town Hall on King Street.

File:Wigan Life Centre.jpg

Wigan Life Centre, The Wiend, Wigan, WN11NH: Council's main offices

The council's main offices are at the Wigan Life Centre on The Wiend, a modern building completed in 2012 behind the retained façade of the former Municipal Buildings facing Hewlett Street and Library Street. The building also incorporates the town's library.

File:Building on the corner of Hewlett Street and Library Street, Wigan.jpg

Municipal Buildings, Hewlett Street: Retained façade of 1900 building, with Wigan Life Centre behind

File:Wigan Civic Centre.jpg

Wigan Civic Centre, Millgate: Council's main offices 1970–2018

The old Wigan Borough Council had held its meetings at the Old Town Hall on King Street, which had been built as a courthouse in 1867 and had become the council's headquarters in 1882. By the 1950s the council had moved its main offices to the Municipal Buildings, being a converted row of shops and offices at the corner of Hewlett Street and Library Street, which had been built in 1900. Meetings continued to be held at the Old Town Hall until the new Town Hall opened in 1990. The offices were supplemented by the construction of the Civic Centre on Millgate in 1970. After the council consolidated its offices at the Wigan Life Centre and Town Hall, the Civic Centre closed in 2018.