Northampton Borough Council

Northampton was an ancient borough. It was granted its first municipal charter in 1189 by Richard I. The borough was given the right to appoint a mayor in 1215 by King John.^[1] The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough in 1836 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 Northampton", which was generally known as the corporation, town council, or borough council.^[2]

When elected county councils were established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, Northampton was considered large enough for its existing borough council to provide county-level functions, and so it was made a county borough, independent from Northamptonshire County Council. It comprised 6 wards from 1898, 9 wards from 1900 and 12 wards from 1911.^[3] The borough boundaries were enlarged several times as the town grew.^[4]

County boroughs, including Northampton, were abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. A non-metropolitan district called Northampton was created instead, subordinate to Northamptonshire County Council. The new district covered the area of the former county borough plus adjoining areas within the designated area for the New Town expansion of Northampton.^[5][6] The district was granted borough status from its creation, allowing the council to take the name Northampton Borough Council and letting the chair of the council take the title of mayor, continuing Northampton's series of mayors dating back to 1215.^[7][8]

Many former county boroughs regained their independence from county councils during local government reforms in the 1990s by being made unitary authorities. Northampton Borough Council also sought to be made a unitary authority at that time, but was unsuccessful. It was decided that "the separation of Northampton from its county would have a significant and detrimental effect."^{[9][10][11][12]}

In March 2018, an independent report commissioned by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, proposed structural changes to local government in Northamptonshire. These proposals saw the existing county council and district councils abolished and two new unitary authorities created in their place.^[13] One authority would consist of the existing districts of Daventry, Northampton and South Northamptonshire and the other authority would consist of Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering and Wellingborough districts.^[14]

In 2021 the council was abolished and succeeded by West Northamptonshire Council, a unitary authority, and Northampton Town Council, a parish council. This was done, in part, due to failing a corruption probe into the disappearance of over £10 million.^[15]

Political control of the council from the 1974 reforms until the council's abolition in 2021 was as follows:^[16][17]

• List of mayors of Northampton
• Northamptonshire Credit Union