23-507: West Mersea is a town and electoral ward in Essex , England . It is the larger (in terms of population) of two settlements on Mersea Island , south of Colchester . Roman buildings and tesselated pavements close to the quayside have led to suggestions that a small Roman settlement and port existed on the site of the modern town, with a road linking it to the nearby town of Camulodunum (modern Colchester ). The nearby burial mound to
46-729: A county council which also performs the functions of a district council . It is based at County Hall in Newport . The council has been under no overall control since 2021, being led by a coalition of independent, Green, and Our Island councillors called the Alliance Group. Elected county councils were established in England and Wales in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888 , taking over administrative functions previously carried out by unelected magistrates at
69-480: A unitary authority . It was renamed 'Isle of Wight Council' at the same time. It remains legally a county council, but one which also performs district functions. It was the first such unitary authority in England; many more were created from 1996 onwards. The council has been a member of the Islands Forum since 2022. The council performs both district-level and county-level functions. The whole island
92-537: A castle. In Wales, the term electoral ward is used for elections to principal councils ( county councils or county borough councils ). These were formally called electoral divisions . Communities in Wales (the equivalent to the civil parish in England) are sometimes divided into wards for elections to the community council. All of Scotland is divided into over 300 wards for local government elections. Using
115-557: A high proportion of very old people and many of the town's amenities cater for them. As well as West Mersea Yacht Club , it also has an RNLI lifeboat station . The town hosts an annual regatta, usually in August, known as Mersea Week. The North Sea at West Mersea is the inspiration for the memoir Footloose in France , beginning there at the seaside and ending at a fish restaurant on the harbour. Wards and electoral divisions of
138-570: Is also covered by civil parishes , which form a second tier of local government. The council has been under no overall control since the 2021 election , being led by a minority coalition called the Alliance Group, comprising some of the independent councillors, the Green Party and local party Our Island. Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows: Upper-tier authority: Isle of Wight County Council Unitary authority: Isle of Wight Council The leaders of
161-975: Is divided into wards, which are ancient and very long-standing sub-divisions of the city. The Council of the Isles of Scilly is also a sui generis unitary authority, and has five wards, each returning either 1 or (in the case of St Mary's ) 12 councillors to the Council of the Isles of Scilly. Civil parishes in England are sometimes divided into wards for elections to the parish council (or town / city council ). They need not bear any relation to wards or electoral divisions at district level, but often do. The four most northerly ancient counties of England – Cumberland , Westmorland , County Durham and Northumberland – were historically divided into administrative units called wards instead of hundreds or wapentakes , as in other counties. Wards were areas originally organised for military purposes, each centred on
184-616: Is served by a community centre, various shops, restaurants, small hotels, public houses, a petrol station, bank, library, museum, and several churches, including the Norman St Peter and St Paul ( Church of England ), Roman Catholic , Methodist , and West Mersea Free Church, affiliated to the Baptist Union . There are four cemeteries under the care of the Town Council including a woodland burial ground. West Mersea has
207-527: The British Isles . Originally served by a D class lifeboat, this was replaced by a B class, Atlantic 21, lifeboat in 1972. In 1992, a new boathouse and slipway were opened by the Duke of Kent . In 2001, a B class Atlantic 75 lifeboat was stationed at West Mersea, and then in 2015 this was replaced with the current B class Atlantic 85 named Just George , funded by £210,000 of community donations. The town
230-473: The Isle of Wight and Shropshire Councils ) instead use the term electoral division . In non-metropolitan county areas with both wards (used for district council elections) and electoral divisions (used for county council elections), the boundaries of the two types of divisions may sometimes not coincide, but more often the county electoral divisions will be made up of one or more complete wards. In urban areas,
253-465: The Local Government (Boundaries) (NI) Order 1972 (No. 131) and DEAs were first created by the Local Government (District Electoral Areas) Regulations 1973 (No.94) Isle of Wight Council Isle of Wight Council , known between 1890 and 1995 as Isle of Wight County Council , is the local authority for the Isle of Wight in England. Since 1995 it has been a unitary authority , being
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#1732797798834276-666: The Neo-Georgian style by Gutteridge and Gutteridge, was built on the same site and opened in October 1938. An extension was built on its east side in 1969. Since the last boundary changes in 2021 the island has been divided into 39 electoral divisions , each of which elects one councillors. Elections are held every four years. The coat of arms of the Isle of Wight was granted to the County Council in 1938. The shield shows
299-422: The quarter sessions . As part of the historic county of Hampshire , the Isle of Wight was initially governed by Hampshire County Council . Shortly afterwards it was decided that the island should form its own administrative county , whilst remaining part of Hampshire for judicial and lieutenancy purposes. The Isle of Wight County Council was therefore established with effect from 1 April 1890, on which day
322-653: The single transferable vote , most wards elect either three or four councillors. Starting from the 2022 Scottish local elections , the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 , allows electoral wards to have between one and five councillors. Districts in Northern Ireland are divided into electoral areas, with each electing between five and seven councillors by single transferable vote. These are themselves sub-divided into wards, but these wards have no official function. Post-1973 wards were first created by
345-500: The Green Party and Our Island councillors, which forms the council's administration. Of the other five independent councillors, three sit together as the "Empowering Islanders" group and the other two (one of whom describes themselves as "Independent Labour") do not form part of a group. The next election is due in 2025. The council meets and has its main offices at County Hall on High Street in Newport. The council initially met at
368-674: The Guildhall in Newport. In 1904 it moved its meeting place to the Technical Institute (now the Island Sixth Form) at the southern end of St James Street in Newport. Until the 1930s the council's administrative offices were split between several different buildings. By the 1930s, many of the council's offices were at the former Swan Hotel and adjacent houses in High Street, Newport. A new building, designed in
391-528: The UK. An average area of wards or electoral divisions in the United Kingdom is 28.109 km (10.853 sq mi). The London boroughs , metropolitan boroughs and non-metropolitan districts (including most unitary authorities ) are divided into wards for local elections. However, county council elections (as well as those for several unitary councils which were formerly county councils, such as
414-716: The United Kingdom The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors . The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and district councils, the electoral ward is the unit used by Welsh principal councils , while the electoral division is the unit used by English county councils and some unitary authorities . Each ward/division has an average electorate of about 5,500 people, but ward population counts can vary substantially. As of 2021 there are 8,694 electoral wards/divisions in
437-558: The council since 2007 have been: Following the 2021 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to May 2024, the composition of the council was as follows: Of the independent councillors, ten (two of whom belong to the Island Independent Network, part of the Independent Network , a national umbrella group supporting independent councillors) sit in the "Alliance Group" with
460-493: The council held its first official meeting at the Guildhall in Newport. Somerset Gough-Calthorpe was appointed the first chairman of the council. Until 1974 the lower tier of local government comprised several boroughs , urban districts and a rural district . In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 , the lower tier was reorganised and the island was left with two districts : Medina and South Wight . As part of
483-732: The north of the town is also Roman. Edward the Confessor granted the island to the abbey of St. Ouen in Rouen , France , in 1046, and the Priory of West Mersea was established. West Mersea was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086, at which time it had a population of 84 households. In 1963, the lifeboat station was established next to the West Mersea Yacht Club , one of the first ten inshore lifeboat stations in
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#1732797798834506-524: The same reforms the island was reclassified as a non-metropolitan county and given its own Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff , finally making it separate from Hampshire for ceremonial as well as administrative purposes. On 1 April 1995, following recommendations made by the Local Government Commission for England appointed in 1992, the two district councils were abolished and the county council assumed their functions, making it
529-558: The wards within a local authority area typically each contain roughly the same number of electors, and each elect three councillors. In local authorities with mixed urban and rural areas, the number of councillors may vary from one to three, depending on the size of the electorate. Where civil parishes exist, a ward can be adjacent with a civil parish or consist of groups of civil parishes. Larger civil parishes (such as Shrewsbury ) can be divided into two or more wards. The City of London has its own sui generis form of local government and
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