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Flintshire County Council

Flintshire Council

Cyngor Sir y Fflint
Type
Type
Leadership
Mel Buckley,
Labour
since 20 May 2025[1]
Dave Hughes,
Labour
since 24 September 2024
Neal Cockerton
since 2021[2]
Structure
Seats67 councillors
Political groups
Administration (46)
  Labour (29)
  Independent (17)
Other parties (21)
  Flintshire People's Voice (7)
  Liberal Democrat (3)
  Conservative (1)
  Independent (10)
Length of term
5 years
Elections
First-past-the-post
Last election
5 May 2022
Next election
6 May 2027
Meeting place
Tŷ Dewi Sant, St. Davids Park, Ewloe, Deeside, CH5 3FF
Website
www.flintshire.gov.uk

Flintshire County Council is the local authority for the county of Flintshire, one of the principal areas of Wales. It is based at Tŷ Dewi Sant in Ewloe. Elections take place every five years. The last election was on 5 May 2022. The council has been under no overall control since 2008. Since October 2024 the council has been run by a coalition of Labour and some of the independent councillors.

History

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Flintshire County Council was first created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, which established elected county councils to take over the administrative functions of the quarter sessions. That county council and the administrative county of Flintshire were abolished in 1974, when the area merged with neighbouring Denbighshire to become the new county of Clwyd. Flintshire was unusual in retaining exclaves right up until the 1974 reforms. The contiguous part of the county was split to become three of the six districts of Clwyd: Alyn and Deeside, Delyn, and Rhuddlan. The county's exclaves of Maelor Rural District and the parish of Marford and Hoseley both went to the Wrexham Maelor district.[3]

Under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, Clwyd County Council and the county's constituent districts were abolished, being replaced by principal areas, whose councils perform the functions which had previously been divided between the county and district councils. The two districts of Alyn and Deeside and Delyn were merged to become a new county of Flintshire, which came into effect on 1 April 1996. The Flintshire County Council created in 1996 therefore covers a smaller area than the pre-1974 county, omitting the Rhuddlan district, which went to the new Denbighshire county, and omitting the pre-1974 exclaves, which form part of Wrexham County Borough.[4]

Political control

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The council has been under no overall control since 2008. Following the 2022 election Labour formed a minority administration with informal support from the Liberal Democrats.[5] A new coalition administration subsequently formed in October 2024, comprising Labour and the Independent and Eagle groupings of independent councillors, led by Labour councillor Dave Hughes.[6]

The first election to the new council was held in 1995. It initially operated as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities before coming into its powers on 1 April 1996. Political control of the council since 1996 has been as follows:[7]

Party in control Years
Labour 1996–2008
No overall control 2008–present

Leadership

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The leaders of the council since 1996 have been:

Councillor Party From To
Tom Middlehurst[8][9] Labour 1 Apr 1996 May 1999
Alex Aldridge[10][11][12] Labour 18 May 1999 10 Jan 2006
Derek Darlington[12][13] Labour 10 Jan 2006 27 Nov 2006
Aaron Shotton[14] Labour 19 Dec 2006 May 2008
Arnold Woolley[15][16] Independent 13 May 2008 May 2012
Aaron Shotton[17][18][19] Labour 15 May 2012 9 Apr 2019
Ian Roberts[19][20] Labour 9 Apr 2019 30 Jul 2024
Dave Hughes[21] Labour 24 Sep 2024

Composition

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Following the 2022 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to July 2025, the composition of the council was:[22]

Party Councillors
Labour 29
Flintshire People's Voice 7
Liberal Democrats 3
Conservative 1
Independent 27
Total 67

Of the independent councillors, twelve form the "Independent Group", eight form the "True Independent" group, five form the "Eagle" group, and the other two are not aligned to any group.[23] Cabinet positions are shared between Labour, the Independent Group, and Eagle, which therefore form the council's administration.[6] The next election is due in 2027.[24]

Elections

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Since 2012, elections have taken place every five years. The last election was 5 May 2022.

Year Seats Labour Independent Liberal Democrats Conservative Plaid Cymru Green Notes
1995[25] 72 46 17 5 3 1 0 Labour majority controlled
1999 70 42 17 7 1 2 1 Labour majority control. New ward boundaries.[26]
2004 70 37 18 10 4 1 0 Labour majority control
2008 70 22 27 11 9 1 0
2012 70 30 24 7 8 1 0
2017[27][28] 70 34 25 5 6 0 0 Fourteen (13 Lab & 1 Ind) of the seventy seats were elected unopposed.[29]
2022[27] 67 31 30 4 2 0 0 New ward boundaries.[30]

Party with the most elected councillors in bold.

Premises

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The council is based at Tŷ Dewi Sant (St David's House) in Ewloe, which forms part of the community of Hawarden and comes under the post town of Deeside.[31][32]

County Hall, Mold: Council's headquarters until 2025

The modern council was previously based at County Hall on Raikes Lane in Mold, which was built in 1967 for the original Flintshire County Council.[33] Between 1974 and 1996, County Hall had been the headquarters of Clwyd County Council. When Flintshire was re-established as an administrative area in 1996, the new council inherited County Hall and the relatively new offices (built 1992) of Alyn and Deeside Borough Council at St David's Park in Ewloe. The building at Ewloe was leased to Unilever for some years and was renamed "Unity House". By 2018, County Hall was proving very costly to maintain, while Unilever's lease of Unity House had ended and the council had tried to sell it without success. The council therefore decided to move several departments to Unity House, which it renamed Tŷ Dewi Sant. The rear wings of County Hall were then demolished in 2020, retaining only the front part of the building which included the council chamber and some office space.[34][35] A new council chamber was subsequently created at Tŷ Dewi Sant in 2025, allowing that building to also become the council's meeting place.[36] The council then fully vacated County Hall in March 2025.[31]

The council also has an area office at Chapel Street in Flint called County Offices (formerly Delyn House) which it inherited from Delyn Borough Council.[37]

Electoral divisions

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Electoral divisions of Flintshire

Since the 2022 elections, the county has been divided into 45 wards, returning 67 councillors.[30]

Few communities in Flintshire are coterminous with electoral wards. The following table lists the wards as existed prior to 2022 along with the communities and associated geographical areas. Communities with a community council are indicated by *:

Ward Communities Other geographic areas
Argoed Argoed* (East and South wards)
Aston Hawarden* (Aston ward)
Bagillt East Bagillt* (East and Merllyn wards)
Bagillt West Bagillt* (Central and West wards)
Broughton North East Broughton and Bretton* (East and North wards)
Broughton South Broughton and Bretton* (South ward)
Brynford
  • Brynford*
  • Halkyn* (Pentre Halkyn ward)
Buckley Bistre East Buckley (town)* (Bistre East ward)
Buckley Bistre West Buckley (town)* (Bistre West ward)
Buckley Mountain Buckley (town)* (Mountain ward)
Buckley Pentrobin Buckley (town)* (Pentrobin ward)
Caergwrle Hope* (Caergwrle ward)
Caerwys
Cilcain
Connah's Quay Central Connah's Quay (town)* (Central ward)
Connah's Quay Golftyn Connah's Quay (town)* (Golftyn ward)
Connah's Quay South Connah's Quay (town)* (South ward)
Connah's Quay Wepre Connah's Quay (town)* (Wepre ward)
Ewloe Hawarden* (Ewloe ward)
Ffynnongroyw Llanasa* (Ffynnongroyw ward)
Flint Castle Flint (town)* (Castle ward)
Flint Coleshill Flint (town)* (Coleshill ward)
Flint Oakenholt Flint (town)* (Oakenholt ward)
Flint Trelawny Flint (town)* (Trelawny ward)
Greenfield Holywell (town)* (Greenfield ward)
Gronant Llanasa* (Gronant ward)
Gwernaffield Gwernaffield*
Gwernymynydd
Halkyn Halkyn* (Halkyn, Rhesycae and Rhosesmor wards)
Hawarden Hawarden* (Hawarden ward)
Higher Kinnerton Higher Kinnerton*
Holywell Central Holywell (town)* (Central ward)
Holywell East Holywell (town)* (East ward)
Holywell West Holywell (town)* (West ward)
Hope Hope* (Hope ward)
Leeswood Leeswood*
Llanfynydd Llanfynydd*
Mancot Hawarden* (Mancot ward)
Mold Broncoed Mold (town)* (Broncoed ward)
Mold East Mold (town)* (East ward)
Mold South Mold (town)* (South ward)
Mold West Mold (town)* (West ward)
Mostyn Mostyn*
New Brighton Argoed* (New Brighton and West wards)
Northop Northop*
Northop Hall Northop Hall*
Penyffordd Penyffordd*
Queensferry Queensferry*
Saltney Mold Junction Saltney* (Mold Junction ward)
Saltney Stonebridge Saltney* (Stonebridge ward)
Sealand Sealand*
Shotton East Shotton (town)* (East ward)
Shotton Higher Shotton (town)* (Higher ward)
Shotton West Shotton (town)* (West ward)
Trelawnyd and Gwaenysgor
  • Trelawnyd and Gwaenysgor*
  • Llanasa* (Axton ward)
Treuddyn Treuddyn*
Whitford Whitford*

References

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  1. ^ "Council minutes, 20 May 2025". Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  2. ^ "Appointment of new Chief Executive announced". Flintshire County Council. 3 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Local Government Act 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1972 c. 70, retrieved 6 November 2022
  4. ^ "Local Government (Wales) Act 1994", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1994 c. 19, retrieved 30 October 2022
  5. ^ Pennar, Sion (18 May 2022). "Welsh local elections: Labour regain Flintshire council". BBC News. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  6. ^ a b Randall, Liam (October 2024). "Labour leader unites independent factions in new Flintshire Council coalition". Flintshire Herald. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  7. ^ "Compositions Calculator". The Elections Centre. University of Exeter. Retrieved 21 May 2025. (Put "Flintshire" in search box to see specific results.)
  8. ^ "Council minutes, 30 May 1995". Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  9. ^ "Aldridge is ready for leadership challenge". Flint and Holywell Chronicle. 14 May 1999. p. 14. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  10. ^ "Council minutes, 18 May 1999". Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  11. ^ "Council leader quits over health". BBC News. 5 October 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  12. ^ a b "Council minutes, 10 January 2006". Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  13. ^ "'Distinguished and wise' councillor dies". Daily Post. 28 November 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  14. ^ "Council minutes, 19 December 2006". Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  15. ^ "Council minutes, 13 May 2008" (PDF). Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  16. ^ "North Wales Elections 2012 - A guide to Flintshire". North Wales Live. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  17. ^ "Council minutes, 15 May 2012". Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  18. ^ "Aaron Shotton quits as Flintshire council leader in sacking row". BBC News. 3 April 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  19. ^ a b "Council minutes, 9 April 2019" (PDF). Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  20. ^ Randall, Liam (31 July 2024). "Council leader quits amid bins controversy". BBC News. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  21. ^ Randall, Liam (24 September 2024). "New Flintshire council leader issues bankruptcy warning". Flintshire Herald. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  22. ^ Randall, Liam (14 May 2024). "Flintshire: Shock as five councillors quit Labour group". The Leader. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  23. ^ "Your councillors by political grouping". Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
  24. ^ "Flintshire". Local Councils. Thorncliffe. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  25. ^ "Flintshire". The Elections Centre. 2 June 2015.
  26. ^ "The County of Flintshire (Electoral Arrangements) Order 1998", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1998/3140, retrieved 6 November 2022
  27. ^ a b "Flintshire County Council - BBC News". Bbc.co.uk. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  28. ^ Rory Sheehan (5 May 2017). "Local Elections 2017: Labour keep tight grip on Flintshire County Council". The Leader. Flintshire. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  29. ^ Local Elections Archive Project - 2017 - Flintshire
  30. ^ a b "The County of Flintshire (Electoral Arrangements) (No. 2) Order 2021", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 2021/1228, retrieved 6 November 2022
  31. ^ a b "End of an era as Flintshire Council moves out of Shire Hall". The Leader. 4 March 2025. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
  32. ^ "Find an address". Royal Mail. Retrieved 12 August 2025. Search postcode CH5 3FF to see the official postal address.
  33. ^ "Mold's modernist masterpiece Shire Hall marks 50 years of civic service". Leader Live. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  34. ^ "Council staff set to move into Ewloe office complex in October". Deeside.com. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  35. ^ Evans, Owen (21 May 2020). "Work to demolish part of County Hall in Mold gets underway". Daily Post. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
  36. ^ Doyle, Alec (4 July 2025). "Lord Barry Jones praises Flintshire as 'finest council in Wales'". Deeside.com. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  37. ^ "Council office addresses". Flintshire County Council. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
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