Essex County Council

Essex County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Essex in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county; the non-metropolitan county excludes Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock which are both administered as separate unitary authorities. The county council has 75 councillors, elected from 70 divisions, and has been under Conservative majority control since 2001. The council meets at County Hall in the centre of Chelmsford.

Elected county councils were created under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over many administrative functions that had previously been performed by magistrates at the Quarter Sessions. The first elections were held in January 1889, and the council formally came into being on 1 April 1889. The council held its first official meeting on 2 April 1889 at the Shire Hall in Chelmsford. The first chairman of the council was Andrew Johnston of Woodford, a Liberal, who held the post for 27 years until he stood down in 1916.

The area governed by the county council (called the "administrative county" until 1974) excluded county boroughs, which were towns considered large enough to provide their own county-level services. When the county council was established in 1889 there was one county borough within the wider county of Essex, at West Ham. Other county boroughs were subsequently created, removing them from the administrative county, being Southend-on-Sea in 1914 and East Ham in 1915. The administrative county was further reduced in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963 which transferred Barking, Chingford, Dagenham, Hornchurch, Ilford, Leyton, Romford, Walthamstow, and Wanstead and Woodford to Greater London.

The county was reconstituted in 1974 as a non-metropolitan county under the Local Government Act 1972, which reformed the council's powers and responsibilities and saw it regain jurisdiction over Southend-on-Sea. The county was divided into 14 non-metropolitan districts at the same time, forming a lower tier of local government. In 1998 two of the districts, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were made unitary authorities, removing them from the area controlled by Essex County Council and transferring county-level services to those councils. For certain services, Essex, Southend and Thurrock co-operate through joint arrangements, such as the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.

At the 2011 census Essex County Council served a population of 1,393,600, making it one of the largest local authorities in England. County council functions include social care, transport, education and many others.

As part of proposed structural changes to local government in England that were set out in the English devolution white paper of December 2024, it was proposed that the Essex, including the unitary authority areas of Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea, be re-organised into two or three local authorities. Essex County Council leader Kevin Bentley confirmed that his council would ask the government to postpone local elections for the unitary and two-tier authorities of Essex to prepare for the county's reorganisation. Essex was accepted on to the priority programme in February 2025.

The council has had a Conservative majority since 2001.

Political control of the county council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows: