Ripon - Governance

Governance

During the Middle Ages, Ripon was governed by a wakeman and aldermen; known as the twelve keepers they oversaw the general running of the town and the maintenance of law and order. The title of wakeman was changed to mayor in 1604, and 24 common councilmen were appointed to assist the aldermen in the running of the city. The borough corporation was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and became a municipal borough of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. In 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, the former area of Ripon borough was merged with Harrogate borough and several rural districts of the West Riding to form an enlarged Harrogate borough in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. Although it is now governed by Harrogate Borough Council, Ripon also became a successor parish with a parish council of its own called Ripon City Council.

Ripon was represented in the Houses of Parliament with its own Member of Parliament (MP) as far back as the Model Parliament of 1295. Although Ripon also sent representatives in 1307 and 1337, it did not have permanent representation. Instead it was represented by the Member of Parliament for Yorkshire until it had its own parliamentary borough established on a permanent basis in 1553. Ripon was able to elect two MPs to represent its parliamentary borough; the right of election was vested not in the population as a whole, but in the burgesses (originally meaning freemen of the borough or freeholders) until the Great Reform Act of 1832. The next Reform Act which came into force at the 1868 election, reduced Ripon's representation from two MPs to one. Some of the more notable MPs of Ripon were John Aislabie, Frederick John Robinson and George Cockburn. The Reform Act of 1885 abolished the borough of Ripon, but the county constituency in which the town was placed as a result was named Ripon, and this continued as a single member constituency, albeit with some boundary changes, until it was abolished before the 1983 general election. Since 1983, Ripon has been part of the Skipton and Ripon constituency, a Conservative Party stronghold. The city council itself has 15 members, all of whom are currently independents.