Ilkley - Governance

Governance

The lowest unit of local government is Ilkley Parish Council. The parish consists of four wards and 14 councillors: Ilkley North (3 councillors), Ilkley South (3), Ilkley West (4) and Ben Rhydding (4). The council raises a precept which is collected with the annual Council Tax to fund its running and to aid the development of local projects. The parish is a ward within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford and is represented by three Conservative councillors.

Ilkley is part of the Keighley UK Parliament constituency whose seat is held by Kris Hopkins, Conservative MP, who replaced Ann Cryer and was elected in the 2010 general election. Ann Cryer was first elected in the General Election of 1997, and her late husband Bob Cryer held the seat between 1974 and 1983. Ilkley is in the Yorkshire and the Humber European constituency.

Before 1974 Ilkley was an urban district, a type of local government district. Ilkley Urban District Council shared local government responsibilities with the West Riding County Council. The Local Government Act 1972 dissolved urban districts and in 1974 Ilkley adopted its current status as a ward of the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford. Services provided by the urban district council are now run centrally by the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

Until 2006 Ilkley civil parish consisted of Ilkley ward, which includes Ben Rhydding, and the north half of Rombalds ward. The latter ward housed the villages of Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston. The population of the parish in 2001 was therefore considerably higher than it is today, consisting of 24,954 residents. In 2006 Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston established their own parishes and today Ilkley consists only of Ilkley ward (13,828 residents).