Chartered Surveyors Sheffield South Yorkshire

Approximate Population: 530,300

Sheffield, South Yorkshire is governed at the local level by Sheffield City Council. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently controlled by the Liberal Democrats who gained the council from NOC at the English Local Election 2008—the Liberal Democrats, taking 45 seats to Labour’s 36. The Green Party took three council seats, whilst the Conservative party lost their single seat. Since the 2008 election the leader of the council has been Paul Scriven. The city also has a Lord Mayor; though now simply a ceremonial position, in the past the office carried considerable authority, with executive powers over the finances and affairs of the city council. The current (2009/10) Lord Mayor is Graham Oxley.

For much of its history the council was controlled by the Labour Party, and was noted for its leftist sympathies; during the 1980s administration under David Blunkett, the area gained the epithet the “Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire”. However, the Liberal Democrats controlled the Council between 1999 and 2001 and took control again in the May 2008 local elections.

The majority of council-owned facilities are now operated by independent charitable trusts. Sheffield International Venues runs many of the city’s sporting and leisure facilities, including Sheffield Arena and Don Valley Stadium. Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust and the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust take care of galleries and museums owned by the council.

The city returns six Members of Parliament to the House of Commons, though this will be reduced to five at the next election as one constituency, Hillsborough, will be abolished and its area redistributed among three other constituencies.