| Ref No | BCC |
| Title | Records of Birmingham City Council and its committees, departments and affiliated bodies (1838 - present) |
| Level | Collection |
| Date | 17th cent. - 20th cent. |
| Description | The collection includes records deposited by Birmingham City Council, its predecessor authorities, and associated authorities and organisations, and date from the Municipal Council's formation in 1838 until the present day. The records include the minutes of the Council itself, as well as its committees, sub-committees, the records of the Town Clerk, departmental records, building plans, photographs and other material.
Many of the early deposits of Council material were allocated MS numbers (normally denoting the donation from the archive of a business, estate, or private family or individual), particularly items donated by individuals who had previously worked for the Council. There are also minutes and other records of the Council in the IIR and ZZ sequence (see paper lists in the Archives and Heritage search room).
Although efforts will be made to eventually integrate the MS material with the main Birmingham City Council (BCC) sequence, researchers looking for the records of a specific committee or department are advised to search our electronic and paper catalogues and indexes as well as the main BCC catalogue. For example, records of the City Fire Brigade normally fell under the jurisdiction of the Birmingham City Council Watch Committee (see BCC/1/AC) then Fire Brigade Committee after 1940 (see BCC/1/CO), but the large deposit of surviving departmental records relating to the Fire Service were actually catalogued as MS 1303.
Please note this collection contains discriminatory, inaccurate and outdated language which may cause offence. |
| Access Status | Partially closed (Content) |
| AccessConditions | Some records may contain sensitive information and confidential personal data, and therefore may be subject to the provisions of legislation of either the Data Protection Act (1998), Freedom of Information Act (2000) or Environmental Information Regulations (2004). Access to such may be granted subject to the discretion of archive staff or a member of staff from the department (or body that succeeded that department) from which the records were originally transferred. |
| Arrangement | ARRANGEMENT FOR BCC COMMITTEES POST-1974
BCC 1/GA
Conservation Area Advisory Committee 1972 – 1987.
[subsequently Conservation Areas Committee 1987 onwards]
BCC 1/GB
West Midlands Regional Health Authority 1973 - 1990.
BCC 1/GC
Environmental Services Committee 1976 - 1977 and late 1990s.
[Afterwards: Environmental Health Committee 1978 – 1987, then Public Health and Environmental Protection Committee 1987 onwards]
BCC 1/GD
Finance & Priorities Committee 1976 - 1980.
[Afterwards: Finance & Management Committee 1980 - 1997, then Policy and Resources Committee 1997 onwards]
BCC 1/GE
Personnel Committee 1976 - 1984, then 1991 onwards.
[Personnel and Equal Opportunities Committee June 1987 – April 1991]
BCC 1/GF
Planning and Highways Committee 1976 - May 1984.
[subsequently Planning Committee May 1984 onwards]
[To include planning control / building plans as a departmental records BCC 1/GF/1 sub-field: previously Public Works?]
BCC 1/GG
National Exhibition Centre Committee 1976 - 1984.
[subsquently unknown from 1984 - 1990, then National Exhibition Centre Committee / International Convention Centre Committee 1990 onwards, then Policy and Resources (Finance and Central Services) Sub-Committee May 1999 – December 1999, then Executive Committee from January 2000 re general matters concerning NEC & ICC]
BCC 1/GH
West Midlands Community Health Council 1977 - 1984.
BCC 1/GJ
Economic Development Committee 1980 onwards.
BCC 1/GK
Urban Renewal Committee, January 1982 onwards
BCC 1/GL
Transportation Services, later Transportation and Technical ServicesCommittee May 1984 - onwards.
BCC 1/GM
Women’s Committee May 1984 - April 1987
BCC 1/GN
Performance Review Committee July 1985 – April 1987.
BCC 1/GO
Trading Services Committee June 1986 - June 1990
[Afterwards: Commercial Services Committee from June 1990 onwards]
BCC 1/GP
Contract Monitoring Committee June 1988 - June 1989
[subsequently Contract Services Committee A from June 1989 – June 1990, then Direct Services Organisation / Direct Labour Organisation 1990 - 1994]
BCC 1/GQ
Community Affairs Committee July 1991 onwards.
BCC 1/GR
Birmingham Joint Consultative Health Committee 1992 onwards.
BCC 1/GS
Contract Services Committee B June 1994 onwards
BCC 1/GT
Equalities Committee June 1996 onwards
[Previously: Personnel and Equal Opportunities Committee June 1987 – April 1991 - functions split]
BCC 1/GU
Ad Hoc Appointments Committee July 1996 (last minutes).
BCC 1/GV
Social Services Inspection Advisory Committee August 1997.
[previously filed with Social Services Committee]
BCC 1/GW
Policy and Resources Special Review Committee February 1998 onwards. |
| AdminHistory | The history of local government and administration in Birmingham can be traced back to the Domesday Survey of 1086. At this time the main unit of local government, the manor, comprised only nine households, with landholdings of 4 hides (480 acres) worth 20s per year. The land was used primarily for arable farming, with common land for both crops and grazing. In 1166 Peter de Bermingham, then lord of the manor, was granted a Royal Charter to hold a weekly market every Thursday. In 1251 the township was allowed to hold a fair lasting four days beginning every Holy (Maundy) Thursday. The market quickly flourished, and artisans and tradesmen began to gradually settle in the area. Economic activity was probably stimulated by the fact the settlement still bore the status of a manor, as opposed to that of a medieval borough, which allowed trades to be practiced free from the restrictions of the medieval craft guild system that existed in most boroughs.
Throughout the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, local government remained in the hands of the lord of the manor, his authority legally enshrined by the proceedings of the court baron and court leet. The court baron dealt chiefly with manorial rights, and it was here that byelaws were passed and other local business was transacted. The court leet exercised a wider jurisdiction and certain judicial powers, appointing stewards to look after the lord's interests and collect his dues, bailiffs to oversee the fairs and markets and constables to maintain order and apprehend criminals. The records of the courts themselves do not survive prior to 1779, by which time there was a twice-yearly court leet for the whole of the manor (including Deritend) until 1854.
The Guild of the Holy Cross founded in 1392 provided a form of local administration for all classes, and was peculiar to the township of Birmingham. The members of guilds of a religious or social character such as this one were bound to certain religious exercises such as the maintenance of chaplains to say mass for the souls of the dead, and were also obliged to render assistance or services to the brotherhood. It provided an unofficial forum for local people to provide mutual aid and organise themselves to effect reforms for common benefit. It also used its lands and income to help Birmingham's poor, and members also took an interest in the repair of roads and bridges in its area. To help finance these reforms a charitable fund was set up in 1525 known as Lench's Trust.
The parish acted as a separate unit local government authority in spiritual matters, although from the late sixteenth century its duties began to overlap with those of the manor. The parish was vested with the responsibility of providing poor relief under the provisions of the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601. Poor relief was financed from income derived from the rates, which were levied in accordance with the ratepayer's income. By the eighteenth century expenditure on the needy accounted for two-thirds of the rates in Birmingham. The parish, namely the vestry and the churchwardens, also began to take responsibility for road repairs and the payment of expenses to the constables. Although there remained an overlap between the duties of manor and parish, the vestry was taking a more active role in bearing the brunt of costs by the costs of local government.
By the second half of the eighteenth century the town was outgrowing both the ability of the manor and the parish to provide adequate governmental and administrative jurisdiction. The town now faced the challenges of overcrowded and poor quality housing (particularly in the inner urban area), poor drainage and insanitary and narrow streets, the result of rapid population expansion and unregulated economic growth. The eighteenth century witnessed the continuing decline of the traditional functions and activities of the manor in Birmingham as elsewhere. By the 1760s many began to feel that more formal administrative arrangements should be proposed, and in 1765 an application was made to obtain an Act of Parliament, finally passed in 1769, appointing commissioners to carry out specific improvements in the town. |
The first Act of Parliament (1769, Geo. III., c. 98) appointing Birmingham's Street Commissioners read thus; 'Act for laying open and widening certain ways within the Town of Birmingham, and for cleansing and lighting the streets, ways, lanes, and passages there, and for removing and preventing nuisances and obstructions therein'. The town was now effectively a Sanitary Authority, with the commissioners also given the power to buy and sell properties and land not required for widening the streets, although their absorption of other traditional parochial and manorial functions proved a more gradual process (for minutes of the Commissioners of the Streets for Birmingham, see MS 2818).
The Act originally appointed 50 commissioners, although the numbers fluctuated over the years, rising to 88 by 1828. All Justices of the Peace living within seven miles of Birmingham were to serve, and there were an additional twelve co-opted commissioners. To qualify, a prospective commissioner had to be assessed at not less than £15 per year for the rates, or possess real or personal estate to the value of at least £1,000. The commissioners were not an elected representative body, but a self-perpetuating oligarchy which chose replacement members known to them as other commissioners died or resigned. They met in private rooms at first, although by 1807 the commissioners were using the new Public Office, which they shared with the local magistrates. The commissioners employed a skeletal staff, including a clerk, treasurer, an assessor and collector of rates, scavengers (responsible for refuse collection), an inspector of nuisances, and a surveyor. Additionally, some work was put out to contract to private individuals and companies.
The Act of 1769 gave the Street Commissioners the responsibility of scavenging and removing obstacles from the roads within the urban area of Birmingham, yet the vestry remained responsible for carrying out actual repairs to the roads until 1812. The vestry continued to meet the expenses of the parish constables, with its resources also covering the maintenance of the gaol and fire-engine house or the occasional repair of wells. The churchwardens also retained their other functions outside of the church, which required other minimal expenses. The manor also continued to retain some degree of control over the conduct of the town retail trade through the election of manorial officers and the amercement of offenders. Further Acts of 1773, 1801, 1812 and 1828 extended the powers of the commissioners. Special Acts were also obtained for the hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley (1791) and Duddeston and Nechells (1829 and 1845 respectively), which were later absorbed into the new Incorporated Borough during the nineteenth century.
The Act of 1769 allowed the Street Commissioners to levy a rate on a sliding scale in accordance with income, and were authorised to borrow money in 1773 up to the limit of £1,000. Successive Acts of Parliament widened their powers to determine the sites of particular markets and to treat with the lord of the manor as to their acquisition. The other original function by which the commissioners were appointed, the policing of the town, required unpaid parish constables by day, with a night watch established with the passing of the second Act of Parliament in 1773. As well as carrying out street-widening schemes, the Commissioners were now empowered to acquire and demolish buildings in the town centre, focused around New Street, High Street, the Bull Ring, and St Martin’s Church.
In terms of street cleansing, the work of the scavengers was made easier by a provision in the Act of 1769 which made householders responsible for cleaning the streets in front of their houses on penalty of a fixed fine. Later Acts laid down regulations for the emptying of privies and disposal of industrial waste. The commissioners were effectively an early planning authority, and had the power to fix the level of the town’s streets, put up name-boards for streets and number houses. They also became a Drainage Authority, gradually implementing a more comprehensive system of public health in Birmingham that was more fully realised during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Responsibility for providing street lighting also fell to the commissioners, which was achieved in piecemeal fashion until the introduction of gas-lighting in 1818, when the work was finally put out to tender. They had had the power to curtail traffic in the city centre and tackle other nuisances such as bull-baiting, the lighting of bonfires and fireworks and the emission of industrial smoke. By the time the new Public Offices opened in 1807 the existing parish had shed most of its secular functions bar poor relief, which it kept control of until 1911. The repair of the roads and streets now fell squarely on the shoulders of the Street Commissioners, fire-fighting to the local insurance companies and the maintenance of law and order to a small police force.
By 1812 a fourth Local Act (amended again in 1828) repealed the series of Acts passed since 1769, incorporating their provisions into one piece of legislation. That year the Street Commissioners took full responsibility for the upkeep of Birmingham's roads, with a further Act of 1828 transferring the duties of the parish's Surveyors of the Highways to the commissioners, and extending the scope of their duties beyond the urban limits of the town. Amongst their crowning achievements was the planning of the new Town Hall, which they took responsibility for in 1827 following sufficient demands for a public building suitable for hosting Birmingham's music festivals.
When Birmingham was granted the status of an incorporated borough in 1838, the work of the Street Commissioners continued as before, and when the new Council tried to bring a Bill before Parliament in 1844 to take over their responsibilities, it failed. Yet shortly after, an attempt by the commissioners to present their own Improvement Bill at a council meeting was rejected, with the Public Health Act, 1848, effectively transferring the administration of public health to the new borough authority. By the mid-nineteenth century the Street Commissioners began to detect a changing climate in Birmingham politics and reconciled their earlier differences with the council. In 1851 they transferred all public works functions over to the Corporation under the terms of the Borough Improvement Act passed that year, vesting with the council all powers formally exercised by the commissioners themselves.
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A petition had been made to grant Birmingham a Charter of Incorporation as early as 1715, but it was not until the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act in 1835 that enthusiasm resurfaced in the town. A local reform group called the Birmingham Political Union welcomed the proposed bill, and advocates of incorporation desired further action from central government. In 1837 a local deputation was informed by the Home Secretary that the process of incorporation must be initiated by the ‘inhabitant householders’ of the town, after which a petition was submitted to the government, although local Conservative opponents issued a counter-petition, prompting the despatch of Home Office commissioners to look into the merits of the two arguments in February 1838.
In October 1838 the Charter of Incorporation was finally granted. The municipal borough was to have the same boundaries as the parliamentary one, thereby encompassing Edgbaston, Bordesley and Deritend, and Duddeston and Nechells. The latter two areas already had their own Street Commissioners since 1791 and 1829 respectively. Municipal elections were held on 26 December 1838, returning sixteen aldermen and 48 councillors. William Scholefield became the first Mayor, and William Redfern was appointed Town Clerk. The borough was divided into thirteen wards. Ten of the wards (including All Saints, Edgbaston, Hampton and Ladywood) elected three councillors each, and the remaining three wards (Deritend and Dudley, Duddeston and Nechells, and St Peter’s) elected six each.
The principal officers of the Borough Council in 1838 were not employed full time, many having private practices and other incomes. The first salaried Town Clerk was appointed in 1868 on £1,000 per year, paid directly by the council. The Borough Treasurer’s office was salaried at £500 per year from 1858 and a Deputy Town Clerk was appointed in 1881. The council first met in the committee room of the Town Hall, but soon after moved to a room known as the Council Chamber, located at the Public Office on Moor Street, which also housed the Borough Surveyor’s Department, and continued to use this location until the new Council House was completed.
The Liberal-Radical element won the 1838 elections resoundingly, although the Conservatives did field candidates, despite their opposition to Incorporation. A Coroner’s Court, Court of Quarter Sessions and a Commission of the Peace were quickly established. The general powers of the Corporation under the terms of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, and the Charter of Incorporation, 1838, were kept limited, whilst the elected body had not absorbed the wide-ranging public works functions still enjoyed by the Street Commissioners. It was simply to provide a police force and the money necessary for the new law courts. In 1839 the Corporation experienced opposition when the Overseers of the Poor of the parish of Birmingham refused to levy a borough rate.
In 1840 it was decided by the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, to place the police under the control of a commissioner appointed by the Home Office, as expressed in the Act for Improving the Police of Birmingham, since the council was seen as partisan when dealing with the Chartist demonstrations of 1838 - 1840. The borough had lost control of one of its two key functions, even though it still had to finance the police force itself. By August 1842 the troubles of the previous years were ended with the passing of two pieces of important legislation, the Borough Charter Confirmation Act and the Police Act. The latter allowed the easy transfer of the police force back to the Corporation, overseen by the new Watch Committee appointed that year.
Despite its growing powers, several works schemes were threatened by a powerful conservative clique in the council that favoured strict economics and the easing of the rate burden, who in 1842 unsuccessfully petitioned the government in the hope that the Charter of Incorporation would be revoked. There was a small increase in the number of newly appointed committees, but it was not until the passing of the Borough Improvement Act, 1851, that the Corporation's responsibilities and activities expanded as it took over the public works functions that had hitherto been the responsibility of the Street Commissioners. The challenges were now pressing as Birmingham's industrial and commercial sector continued to boom, with a rapidly increasing urban population creating new challenges in the field of public health and town planning.
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The Borough Improvement Act was passed in 1851, after which Birmingham Corporation took over the sanitary and street works functions of the Birmingham Street Commissioners, as well as those of the newly added areas of Deritend and Bordesley, and Duddeston and Nechells, plus the parish officials of Edgbaston. Political factions within the council created problems during the mid-1850s when a group of conservative small tradesmen led by Joseph Allday took control of the council, slashing spending designated for Birmingham’s crumbling infrastructure. Only one plot of land was purchased for public buildings during the 1850s, and it was not until the 1860s that the council’s activities began to expand, with the opening of the first libraries and acquisition of land to be used for public parks.
Nonetheless, under the provisions of the 1851 Act, the council had begun to delegate more and more public works functions to committees, a practice that had become, and remains, the norm in local government. A General Purposes Committee and a Finance Committee had already been appointed in the years 1845 and 1848 respectively, but in 1851 alone, six new committees were constituted to administer or oversee the collection of rates, baths and wash houses, estates, markets and fairs, and general public works, formalising the Council's incorporation of the functions of the existing Street Commissioners. With the transfer of duties came the management of the Commissioners' debts, and in order to meet these and cope with its increasing portfolio of duties, Birmingham Corporation was empowered to levy a rate of up to 2s in the pound, plus a separate street improvement rate of up to 6d in the pound. Up until 1882, the Corporation was assessing the two rates in different ways in Birmingham and Duddeston and Nechells.
In 1861 a further Improvement Act enlarged the powers granted by the Act of 1851, at which point the liberal element again began to displace the existing conservative influence in the Council Chamber. With new blood came new ideas, namely the desire for municipal reform already taking root in the pulpits of radical Nonconformist churches. Charismatic preachers like George Dawson spoke of the importance of the community and the organic wholeness of the city body politic. Dissenting elites who attended these churches began to stand for office. Many of these were substantial businessmen, and increased their sphere of influence in the council from 7.8 per cent in 1862 to 23.4 per cent in 1882. By now it had now become a sign of social status and respectability in itself to serve as a councillor.
One admirer of Dawson who carried this 'municipal gospel' forward was Joseph Chamberlain, elected as Councillor in 1869. In this capacity, and most significantly later as Mayor (1873 - 1876), Chamberlain worked tirelessly to not just reform the town's overstretched infrastructure, but physically alter the urban landscape, with the provision of parks, libraries, museums, and other public buildings. Chamberlain celebrated the immediacy of local government, its proximity to the populace, and its emphasis on mutual aid and values that emphasised the duty of public service, and sought to improve the standing of Councillors and their officials. Chamberlain believed that all 'all monopolies which are sustained in any way by the State ought to be in the hands of the representatives of the people, by whom they should be administered and to whom their profits should go'. He was inclined to increase the responsibilities of the Council, and sought to consolidate these assemblies as real local parliaments.
During Chamberlain's mayoralty the borough took over the supply of gas and water, established a fire brigade, and instigated a new and far reaching Improvement Scheme, embodied by an Act of Parliament in 1876, and the appointment of an Improvements Committee the previous year. Huge swathes of insanitary slum housing were demolished throughout the 1870s and 1880s, with new shops and working class dwellings built, albeit by the private sector Throughout the 1860s and 1870s further committees were appointed to oversee the treatment of sewage, the gas supply and the new Free Libraries. A new Museum and School of Art building was opened on Chamberlain Square in 1885.
In terms of representation, the system introduced in 1838 remained until 1873, when the number of wards was raised to sixteen, represented by three Councillors each. The structure of the existing wards had now changed. Deritend and Bordesley, and Duddeston and Nechells were divided into two separate wards each. The boundaries of the others were altered, Hampton and St Peter’s were dissolved, while Rotton Park, St Bartholomew’s and St Stephen’s comprised the three new wards created that year. This change restored an electoral balance upset by the growing urban population and the extension of municipal suffrage in 1867, although the size of the Council Chamber remained as before. The Council departments themselves moved to a new Council House which opened in 1879. The Town Clerk and Mayor both had offices on Temple Street.
Under the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1882, Birmingham became a county borough, while an Act of Parliament passed the following year consolidated all powers previously granted into one encompassing piece of legislation. Collection of the borough poor rate now became the responsibility of the Overseers of the Poor only, although very few new committees were formed, since the main ones had already been appointed during the period that stretched from the 1840s to 1870s, and were now well established. In 1889 a new Charter conferred on Birmingham city status, after which the city and its government embarked on a period of further expansion.
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When Joseph Chamberlain resigned from Prime Minisiter Gladstone’s Liberal government in 1886, he succeeded in bringing the Birmingham Liberal Association with him, the Conservatives now becoming one of three roughly equal sized groups represented on the Council. The Conservatives and Liberal Unionists (those of Gladstone’s party who did not support Home Rule for Ireland) established a joint committee within the Council. Local politics becoming very much in favour of Unionism, and also trade protectionism, the result of growing competition from the increasingly developed industrial economies of Germany and the USA. Municipal reforms continued apace. In 1889 the first municipal housing was built. In 1892 the Council approved an ambitious scheme for supplying Birmingham with fresh water pumped from high basins around the Elan Valley in Wales.
In 1891 the city was enlarged, with the new wards added comprising Balsall Heath, and Saltley and Little Bromwich, whilst Harborne was included in Edgbaston, although most of the existing wards remained unchanged. The number of Council wards had now risen to eighteen and the number of Councillors from 64 to 72. The Mayor's status was changed to Lord Mayor, the first being Sir James Smith, who was appointed on 3 June 1896. Other significant reforms were put into effect by the Council at the turn of the century. In 1899 the first electricity supply was established, and in 1903 the new Education Committee took over the responsibility of the local schools, including Technical Schools and Industrial Schools.
As the Council’s remit expanded, new committees were appointed to relieve others of their workload. Likewise, old ones were abolished when their function became redundant, or existing committees were amalgamated to carry out a number of functions together. As a result the number of Council committees expanded to sixteen by 1884, then to 20 by 1911, and, again, to 22 by 1914. With the extension of the City boundaries in 1911, more formal committee structures were implemented, whereby each member sat on at least two committees, except in the case of the General Purposes Committee, which included one member from each of the other committees. By 1911 certain committees were co-opting members from outside of the Council. They also began to appoint more specialised sub-committees to tackle specific work areas and projects as their operational remit expanded.
On 9 November 1909 the civil parish of Quinton was incorporated into the Borough, and added to Edgbaston and Harborne ward. In 1911 a more significant enlargement of the city took place under the Greater Birmingham Scheme, with the city now divided into 30 wards. Many of the old wards were amalgamated (Duddeston and Nechells, St Martin’s and Deritend, St Mary’s and St Stephen’s, and St Paul’s and St George’s), three new wards created, while the added wards were Moseley and Kings Heath, Kings Norton, Northfield and Selly Oak (in Kings Norton and Northfield); Acock’s Green, Sparkhill and Yardley (in Yardley); Aston and Lozells (in Aston Manor); Erdington North and South (in Erdington); and Handsworth, Sandwell and Soho (in Handsworth). Membership of the Council now stood at 120, with three Councillors and one Alderman elected for each ward.
With the increased size of the borough and renewed pressures of population growth, the Council approved the introduction of the first Town Planning Scheme in 1912, overseen by the Town Planning Committee which was appointed the previous year, while the existing Housing and Public Health Committees were merged in 1911. With the passing of the National Insurance Act of 1911 the collection of the poor rate was also transferred to the Council, with the Overseers of the Poor elected by the authority's own Finance Committee. That same year the Council made improvements to the public transport system, taking control of the local tramways and operating bus services. The outbreak of war in August 1914 did not radically alter the business of the Council, as it did in 1939 with the increased threat of air attack. When the war ended in November 1918, the City, its Council, and the composition of the Council and its committees began to alter.
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The passing of the Representation of the People Act, 1918, created a corresponding shift in party representation in Parliament, and this change was reflected in local politics in Birmingham as well. The Act extended the franchise to all males over the age of 21 and females over the age of 30. During the 1918 Parliamentary elections the Liberals suffered significant losses in seats, with the Labour Party emerging as the main party of opposition. In Birmingham, Labour gained significant ground during the post-war years, holding 30 of the 120 places on the Council by 1926, although support subsided during the late 1920s and 1930s, but the Conservative-Unionist bloc continued to dominate local politics. As further land in the city had been purchased from the late nineteenth century, the Council offices underwent considerable expansion.
The number of Council committees continued to increase as a result of national legislative changes. For example, the Ratings and Assessments Committee was constituted in 1926 as a result of the Rating and Valuation Act, 1925, while new local enterprises taken on by the Council itself brought about the appointment of others, such as the Airport Committee in 1934. By 1935 there were now 30 standing committees of the Council. By 1921 the Council and its committees had now streamlined the way they conducted legislative business, as can be seen in the surviving minute books, with typescript minutes replacing the handwritten format, and the books themselves taking on a standardised bound format.
On 1 April 1928 most of Perry Barr Urban District was incorporated, with the remainder divided between West Bromwich and Sutton Coldfield. On 1 April 1931 a larger expansion of the City boundaries was inititated, with part of the parishes of Solihull, Castle Bromwich, Minworth and Sheldon (in Meriden Rural District) added. The 1931 extension did not increase the number of wards, with the new areas divided amongst the existing ones, but in 1934 the ward boundaries were extensively revised, with three new wards created, bringing the total to 34 (including Perry Barr which was made a ward the year before), with the City of Birmingham now represented by 136 members.
Council expenditure continued to rise rapidly as the urban area expanded, the collection of the borough rate having already been revised in previous years. In 1921 it was decided to raise a certain rate in the pound, dividing the proceeds amongst the committees, rather than the existing system of levying a rate specifically to meet the requirements of the various committees. To meet capital expenditure the Council had previously issued debenture stock in 1880, by which capital was raised during 1903 - 1920 by issuing of short-term Corporation Bills. By 1930 the Council began implementing a far-reaching municipal housing scheme, interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. The same year the Corporation took over responsibility of administering the Poor Law from the Board of Guardians, who had been chosen by the Council since 1911.
During the 1920s the Corporation carried out further improvements on the public transport system. The inter-war years also saw a major growth in the supply of electricity, and with the establishment of the National Grid in 1926 Birmingham was recognised as the supply centre of the Midlands region. Other public works schemes continued, and new committees were formed and existing ones amalgamated, but the biggest change to take place concerned matters of civil defence. By the late 1930s the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy caused fears across Europe that another war was imminent, and changes in military technology increased the risk of grave civilian casualties on the home front. The Home Office recommended that local authorities take air raid precautions as early as 1935, and in 1938 the Air Raid Precautions Committee was formed.
With the outbreak of hostilities on 1 September 1939 until the end of 1940, the Emergency and Prisoner of War Joint Committees were formed, and an Auxiliary Fire Service was established, by which point Birmingham had suffered its first major air raids. The Council continued to administer several essential services, the fire brigade was put under the control of central government, and hospitals and ambulances rigidly subordinated to national and regional requirements. A plethora of voluntary organisations sprung up either to raise money for the war effort or help people in need of assistance. The war ended in May 1945, but the Civil Defence Committee, as it was now known, remained operational until 1968 with the Western powers now engaged in a 'Cold War' with the Soviet Union, who by the early 1950s, were now a nuclear power.
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The general election of 1945 marked the first Labour Party landslide in history, with a government led by Clement Attlee controlling 393 Parliamentary seats. The Labour party introduced wide-reaching social and economic reforms during 1945 - 1951, which gathered pace after 1948 with the formation of the National Health Service. Key industries, utilities and services such as gas and electricity, social security, and hospitals were now controlled by national boards. There was a contraction in Birmingham Council's responsibilities, as functions shifted to the government in London. The Corporation's responsibility for administering poor relief was curtailed when the existing Poor Law was abolished in 1948, with the function now falling to the new Department for Social Security.
In 1948 the city boundary expanded again. The number of wards increased to 38, with the boundaries of all wards except Washwood Heath being revised. Council membership now stood at 156. In 1945 Labour held a commanding lead with 60 seats, the Conservatives had 40 seats, with one going to an Independent member. The party retained its majority in Council until the 1960s. Despite the disbandment of several committees, a few new ones were appointed, albeit with a smaller and more tightly focused remit, the number of committees now rising to 36 by the 1950s. Some were reconstituted versions of existing committees, such as the House Building and Housing Management Committees, both appointed in 1950. Others were completely new, such as the Traffic Arbitration and Daventry Development Committees, appointed in 1959 and 1964 respectively.
The Council had plenty of work to do after 1945 rebuilding Birmingham's damaged infrastructure. As early as 1943 the Public Works Department had revived a proposal suggested in 1917 of an inner ring road as 'indispensible...when traffic once again resumes a normal basis'. The huge size of the urban area and its population now made such a road inevitable, but work did not begin until 1953 due to government restrictions on capital expenditure, in place during the immediate post-war period. The circle was finally completed in 1971, and further large scale road widening and building schemes were completed throughout the 1960s and 1970s, stimulated by government grants.
The development of Birmingham's roads impacted on the Corporation's earlier town planning and housing schemes interrupted by the outbreak of war. The impact of an urban population that had reached one million by 1948 was significant. The Town and Country Planning Act, 1944, allowed the city to move towards the compulsary purchase of five designated 'new towns' or Redevelopment Areas, namely Nechells and Duddeston, Bath Row (becoming Lee Bank), Summer Lane (becoming Newtown), Ladywood and Gooch Street (becoming Highgate), with 100 acres of land and 30,000 houses targeted for redevelopment. Between 1945 - 1970 the Council had demolished 55,000 homes and built 81,000 new ones, encouraged by new laws that encouraged high density, high rise flats to protect Birmingham's Green Belts. The first tower blocks were opened at Tile Cross in 1953, and the Castle Vale estate accommodated a population of 20,000, many of whom lived in the new flats.
Redevelopment of Birmingham's city centre and environs was more haphazard, as the Council parcelled up blocks of the area and invited tenders from developers in order to get sites occupied and rated. The Big Top site of World War II (located on the corner of New Street and High Street) became the first area earmarked for development, with the completion in the late 1950s of a new shopping centre and office blocks. In 1965 the Repertory Theatre was relocated to what is now Centenary Square. The new Central Library would be at the centre of Paradise Circus at the top of Chamberlain Square opened in 1973.
Urban planning and housing allocation was affected by rising levels of immigration. Many people from Britain's former colonies finding employment in Birmingham during the 1950s, while the 1962 Immigration Act, the first piece of legislation to restrict immigration substantially, increased the movement of whole families into the city, most of whom settled in the middle ring of Handsworth, Aston, Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath as the existing population relocated to the 'new towns' of Birmingham's outer limits, although the resulting 'ghettoisation', exacerbated by unemployment, poor housing and racial prejudice created its own challenges for the Corporation. The Handsworth riots of 1981 eventually forced the Council to address the needs of Birmingham's substantial and increasingly frustrated Afro-Carribbean and Asian communities.
The 1970s saw the stagnation of Birmingham's predominantly industrial economy, beginning with the collapse of the BSA motorcylce manufacturers in July 1973. British Leyland began to shed jobs at the end of the 1970s amidst stormy industrial relations, the management team favouring technological change to improve the efficiency and competitiveness. The National Exhibition Centre (NEC), approved by the Corporation and funded with the aid of a massive £1.5 million grant from central government, opened in 1977, and was seen as a means of advertising the continuing diversification and realignment of Birmingham's economic infrastructure and attracting investment. The centre was developed rapidly during the 1980s, including an arena for sports and musical events, with a further three halls added to the original twelve in 1989, generating 4,000 jobs and attracting £59 million of inward investment during its first ten years.
With the passing of the Local Government Act of 1972, the City of Birmingham comprised 39 wards, each represented by one Alderman and three Councillors, or 156 members in total. The new Act led to a major reorganisation of local government across the United Kingdom when it came into effect on 1 April 1974. Birmingham became a metropolitan district of the new West Midlands District Council, combining with the borough of Sutton Coldfield to form what was essentially a new authority, now comprising 42 wards, each represented by three Councillors, although a subsequent reorganisation reduced the number of wards back to 39 in 1982.
Council expenditure continued to grow. In 1852 the Borough assessment stood at £600,000, rising to £2.5 million in 1901. By 1958 this figure had risen to £15 million. Income derived from the rate stood at £100,000 in 1856, rising to £1 million by 1911, then £6 million in 1949. The Corporation remained reliant on central government funding as well, its powers and functions resting on parliamentary sanction, and this restricted the independence of local government to some degree in Birmingham and elsewhere. Even with the passing of the Local Government Act, 1958, which reformed the subsidy system, local authorities still lacked real independence. From the 1970s and 1980s the Council was also aided by grants from the European Community to fund capital projects such as the new Wholesale Markets and the International Convention Centre. Despite the generation of revenues and the economic stimulus provided by the NEC, the Council could still not afford to regenerate the dilapidated inner ring of Victorian terraces, abandoned factories and deteriorating Council estates.
In 1977 the City Council, West Midlands County Council, central government and the Birmingham Area Health Authority entered into an economic partnership to combine resources to regenerate this zone. The purpose of the investment was to improve the road network and directly improve the exteriors of the existing housing stock, whilst encouraging occupants to carry out their own improvements to the interiors of their properties. Aided by European assistance, Private Finance Regeneration and public works schemes evolved and contined well into the 1980s, during which period the authority was renamed Birmingham City Council in 1986.
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On 1 July 1986 the Birmingham District Council was abolished, and the authority now became Birmingham City Council. On 1 April 1995 the city incorporated the part of Bromsgrove District known as Frankley and the Kitwell Estates. In June 2004 the ward boundaries were reorganised again, leaving the city with 120 councillors representing 40 wards. Since 1986 Birmingham City Council has remained a unitary authority, responsible for running all services bar those administered by joint boards. In some cases, services have been devolved to Districts represented by Area Committees made up of councillors from the districts. The office of Town Clerk was abolished in 1996, to be replaced with the office of the Chief Executive, who became the main administrative official.
The community regeneration schemes implemented in the central zone during the late 1970s continued into the 1990s. In 1988 a private Urban Development Agency was established covering about 2,300 acres in the East Birmingham area, signalling the increasing involvement of the private sector in the field of local government and administration, which was encouraged by central government. Despite a slight decline in population, Birmingham was facing another housing crisis by the late 1980s with the decay of the high-rise tower blocks built during the 1950s and 1960s. At Castle Vale the high-density flats were in most cases replaced by lower density housing.
In the central areas the City Centre Symposium (Highbury Initiative) of March 1988 made recommendations for improving the quality of life and shopping facilities in the city centre, by breaking the 'concrete collar' of the ring road that separated the core shopping zone from its surroundings, most notably districts of distinctive character highlighted in the Central Area Local of 1984, including the Jewellery Quarter, an Entertainment Quarter and a Heritage Quarter based around Digbeth. The lowering of Paradise Circus in 1989 allowed direct pedestrian access to and from Chamberlain Square to Centenary Square and the International Convention Centre, which opened in June 1991. Improvements were also made to the rail network with the electrification of track and the opening of the Midland Metro and new Snow Hill Station during the 1990s.
The opening of the Convention Centre stimulated development, with the opening of other key public buildings such as the National Indoor Arena (NIA), the new Bull Ring and other shopping centres and office space. The Council's commitment to a 'percentage for art scheme' was emphasised by the erection of modern scupltures and 'public art' around Centenary Square, emphasising the Council's commitment to pedestrianisation and the regeneration of the urban environment, as opposed to complete alteration. Even Birmingham's neglected canal network, once a sign of its economic and industrial strength, began to be redeveloped, such as the Brindley Canal behind the Convention Centre, a key means of attracting new businesses to 'water-side locations'.
Politically, Labour retained overall control of the Council between 1984 - 2004, losing overall control in 2003. During the Council elections of 2004 Conservatives and Liberal Democrat parties had enough seats between them to form a coalition, which remains in place in 2008. |
| CreatorName | Birmingham City Council |
| Language | English |