Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

History of Stockton Council

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has been responsible for all local authority services in the Borough since April 1996, when it became an all-purpose "unitary" Council. The evolution into this organisation has been centuries in the making.

Long-vanished authorities such as Stockton Rural District Council, Billingham Urban District Council, Thornaby-on-Tees Borough Council have all have formed stepping stones in Stockton's local government history which spans eight centuries or more.

Records of Stockton begin in 1183, when the Bishop of Durham ordered a survey of his lands. By 1310, the Bishop had granted the township of Stockton a Market Charter and, over the next few hundred years, a complex system of boroughs and parishes gradually evolved to meet the area's needs.

In 1835, the Government resolved to create a common system of local government throughout England and, with the Municipal Corporations Act, Stockton Borough Corporation was born.

Stockton Rural District Council was responsible for much of the area beyond. In 1893, the area known as South Stockton, together with Old Thornaby, became a Borough in its own right under Thornaby-on-Tees Borough Council. Yarm came under Stokesley Rural District Council while Billingham gained an Urban District Council in 1923. The next change came in 1968, when all the local councils were assimilated into the County Borough of Teesside and Stockton ceased to be a Borough in its own right after more than 700 years.

But the Teesside experiment was short-lived. In 1974, a new two-tier system of counties and districts saw Cleveland County Council created and the Borough of Stockton return, now incorporating Thornaby, Billingham and Yarm within its boundaries.

The most recent changes follow a nationwide review by the the Local Government Commission which, after lengthy consultation, concluded that the two-tier system should give way to a single council providing all local services. So, from April 1st 1996, Cleveland County Council vanished and a new-look Stockton Council created to face an exciting future.

There has been one other recent change. Parish and town councils in places like Yarm, Egglescliffe, Preston-on-Tees, Redmarshall and elsewhere have long had the power to provide their neighbourhoods with certain services and 1995 saw these joined by a new Thornaby Town Council. Thornaby continues to be part of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, which remains responsible for the lion's share of its local services.