Vale Royal

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

Former borough in Cheshire, England

title: "Vale Royal" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["council-elections-in-cheshire", "district-council-elections-in-england", "districts-of-england-established-in-1974", "english-districts-abolished-in-2009", "former-non-metropolitan-districts-of-cheshire", "former-boroughs-in-england"] description: "Former borough in Cheshire, England" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale_Royal" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Former borough in Cheshire, England ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox historic subdivision|"]

Field	Value
Name	Borough of Vale Royal
HQ	Winsford
Status	Non-metropolitan district
Origin	Northwich Urban District
Winsford Urban District
Northwich Rural District
Runcorn Rural District (part of)
Start	1 April 1974
End	31 March 2009
Replace	Cheshire West and Chester
Map	[[File:Vale Royal UK locator map.svg
Shown within Cheshire
CodeName	ONS code
Code	13UH
::

::callout[type=note] Vale Royal, Cheshire, England, UK ::

Vale Royal was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district with borough status in Cheshire, England. It contained the towns of Northwich, Winsford and Frodsham.

History

The district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 covering the area of three former districts and part of a fourth, which were abolished at the same time:

The district took its name from Vale Royal Abbey, formerly one of the largest in England, which was situated near the village of Whitegate near the centre of the district. The name was suggested in 1972 by a joint committee of the previous district councils, on the basis of the historic use of the name for the general area of the new district. The district was granted borough status on 5 May 1988, allowing the chairman of the council to take the title of mayor.

In 2006 the Department for Communities and Local Government considered reorganising Cheshire's administrative structure as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. The decision to merge Vale Royal with the districts of Chester and Ellesmere Port and Neston to create a single unitary authority was announced on 25 July 2007, following a consultation period in which a proposal to create a single Cheshire unitary authority was rejected.

Vale Royal was abolished on 31 March 2009, with the area becoming part of the new unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester from 1 April 2009.

Civil parishes

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/vale_royal_parishes.png" caption="Civil parishes within Vale Royal (2009)."] ::

The district comprised the following civil parishes:

Political control

The first elections to the council were held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority until the new arrangements came into effect on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council from 1974 until its abolition in 2009 was as follows:

::data[format=table]

Party in control	Years
	1974–1991
	1991–2003
	2003–2007
	2007–2008
	2008–2009
::

Leadership

The leaders of the council from 1988 were:

::data[format=table]

Councillor	From	To
Marie Birkenhead		5 May 1988
Arthur Neil	5 May 1988	11 May 1989
David Broster	11 May 1989	10 May 1990
Bernard Burton	10 May 1990	1991
Arthur Neil	1991	Apr 2000
Bob Mather	Apr 2000	May 2003
Keith Musgrave	May 2003	May 2007
Les Ford	May 2007	31 Mar 2009
::

Composition

The political composition of the council at its abolition in 2009 was: ::data[format=table]

	Weaverham Independents	3
::

Premises

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Wyvern_House_-geograph.org.uk-_1800344.jpg" caption="Wyvern House, The Drumber, Winsford: Council headquarters 1990–2009"] ::

Until 1990 the council operated from the various offices it had inherited from its predecessors, being Whitehall in Hartford (from Northwich Rural District Council), the Council House in Northwich (from Northwich Urban District Council), Castle Park House in Frodsham (from Runcorn Rural District Council), and Over Hall in Winsford (from Winsford Urban District Council). In 1990 the council consolidated its offices into a new purpose-built headquarters called Wyvern House on The Drumber in Winsford. Wyvern House was formally opened by Princess Margaret on 19 July 1991. Since the council's abolition in 2009, Wyvern House has been used as one of the offices of its successor, Cheshire West and Chester Council.

Council elections

1973 Vale Royal District Council election
1976 Vale Royal District Council election (New ward boundaries)
1979 Vale Royal District Council election
1983 Vale Royal District Council election (District boundary changes took place but the number of seats remained the same)
1987 Vale Royal District Council election
1991 Vale Royal Borough Council election (Borough boundary changes took place but the number of seats remained the same)
1995 Vale Royal Borough Council election
1999 Vale Royal Borough Council election (New ward boundaries)
2003 Vale Royal Borough Council election
2007 Vale Royal Borough Council election

Results maps

File:Vale Royal UK ward map 2003.svg|2003 results map File:Vale Royal UK ward map 2007.svg|2007 results map

By-election results

References

{{cite legislation UK. (1972)
(7 December 1972). "Vale Royal as new name for District 4?". Crewe Chronicle.
{{cite legislation UK. (1973)
"Bulletins of Change 1987–1988". The National Archives.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/6916055.stm BBC News, 25 July 2007 – County split into two authorities.] {{Webarchive. link. (7 January 2009 Retrieval Date: 25 July 2007.)
"Cheshire (Structural Changes) Order 2008".
"Compositions Calculator". University of Exeter.
"Local Election Results 2007: Vale Royal".
(12 May 1988). "Vale Royal's first Labour leader". Runcorn Weekly News.
(17 May 1989). "Labour loses its grasp after mayor change". Northwich Chronicle.
(17 May 1990). "Vale Royal elects its officers". Runcorn Weekly News.
(28 April 2000). "It's a tough job - but worth it to help people". Warrington Guardian.
"Executive Group".
(26 May 2007). "Party ditches council leader". Northwich Guardian.
(12 May 2014). "Veteran councillor steps down from deputy leader role". Cheshire Live.
(3 December 1987). "Council bid for HQ". Winsford Chronicle.
(26 May 1989). "Cheshire County Council". London Gazette.
"The Council".
(11 July 1991). "Vale Royal office opening". Runcorn Weekly News.
(24 July 1991). "Princess of smiles on tour". Crewe Chronicle.
"Customer service centres".
legislation.gov.uk - [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1976/286/made The District of Vale Royal (Electoral Arrangements) Order 1976] {{Webarchive. link. (7 September 2022 . Retrieved on 19 November 2015.)
The Macclesfield and Vale Royal (Areas) Order 1982
legislation.gov.uk - [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1988/70 The Cheshire (District Boundaries) Order 1988]. Retrieved on 6 November 2015.
legislation.gov.uk - [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/2846/made The Borough of Vale Royal (Electoral Changes) Order 1998] {{Webarchive. link. (7 September 2022 . Retrieved on 4 October 2015.)

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::