Somerset Council

Somerset Council, known until 1 April 2023 as Somerset County Council, is the unitary authority that governs the district of Somerset, which occupies the southern part of the ceremonial county of the same name in the South West of England. The council has been controlled by the Liberal Democrats since the 2022 local elections, and its headquarters is County Hall in Taunton.

The council is the successor to the county council of the administrative county of Somerset, which was created on 1 April 1889. The council was abolished and reconstituted in 1974, when local government in England was reformed and a non-metropolitan county of Somerset was created, governed by a county council and five, later four, district councils. The districts were abolished in 2023 and the county council took on their responsibilities, becoming a unitary authority.

The Conservative Party has been the largest or second-largest party on the council since 1973, and since 1981 has competed with the Liberal Democrats for control; each party has formed several majority administrations in the period since.

Administrative counties and elected county councils were established in England from 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions previously carried out by unelected magistrates at the quarter sessions. The administrative county of Somerset excluded the city of Bath, which was a county borough.

The first elections to the new Somerset County Council were held on 23 January 1889 and it formally came into existence on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first official meeting at the Town Hall in Highbridge. The council resolved to hold future meetings at the Shire Hall in Taunton rather than the Town Hall in Wells, where the quarter sessions had been held, as the former was better-served by the railways.

In 1974, as part of wider reforms to local government in England and Wales, administrative counties were abolished and replaced by a two-tier system of non-metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts. Somerset became a non-metropolitan county governed by a new county council and five districts: Sedgemoor, West Somerset, Taunton Deane, South Somerset, and Mendip. At the same time, the north of the administrative county and the county borough of Bath became part of the new non-metropolitan county of Avon; the county was abolished in 1996, and this area is now two unitary authorities within the ceremonial county of Somerset. In 2019, West Somerset and Taunton Deane were merged to form the district of Somerset West and Taunton.

The first proposal to create a Somerset unitary authority was made in 2007, but was rejected in a local referendum.

The idea of a unitary Somerset was revived as part of the 2019–2023 structural changes to local government in England. The county council proposed a single unitary authority and the district councils two unitary authorities called East Somerset and West Somerset. A non-binding local referendum favoured the two-authority proposal, however a single authority was created. This came into being on 1 April 2023, when the districts were abolished and the county council assumed their powers. As part of the changes, the county council was given the option of omitting the word 'county' from its name, which it took.