Tyldesley - Governance

Governance

Tyldesley is an electoral ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan electing three councillors to the 75-member metropolitan borough council, Wigan's local authority. As of 2011, two ward councillors are members of the Liberal Democrats and one represents the Labour Party. They form part of the opposition Democratic Alliance grouping on the Labour controlled council.

Historically, Tyldesley formed part of the Hundred of West Derby, a judicial division of southwest Lancashire. Tyldesley cum Shakerley was one of the six townships or vills that made up and predated the ancient parish of Leigh. It was the largest of the townships at 2,610 acres (10.6 km2): Tyldesley having an area of 1,970 acres (8.0 km2) and Shakerley 520 acres (2.1 km2).

Under the terms of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 the townships formed part of the Leigh Poor Law Union comprising an area covering the whole of the ancient parish of Leigh and part of Winwick, established on 26 January 1837. There was a workhouse in Tyldesley but Leigh Union workhouse at Atherleigh replaced it in the 1850s. Tyldesley was constituted a civil parish in 1866. In 1863 the Local Government Act 1858 was adopted and the township was governed by a local board of health. The first Tyldesley Local Board was formed after elections on 24 October 1863. Of those elected were mill owners, Caleb Wright and Oliver Burton, and colliery owners, William Ramsden and George Green, a mixture of Tories and Liberals. The Local Board took over the gas works in 1865, built the first swimming baths and opened Tyldesley Cemetery in 1876 and built sewage works at Morleys Hall in Astley in 1884. The local board offices were in Lower Elliot Street, where it had a fire station and depot. Under the Public Health Act 1875 the local board gained additional powers as an urban sanitary district and under the Local Government Act 1894 Tyldesley-with-Shakerley became an urban district with an elected council. Tyldesley Town Hall, originally the township's Liberal Club, opened in 1881, and was taken over by Tyldesley Urban District Council as its headquarters in 1924. Tyldesley UDC opened Tyldesley Park in 1902, the Carnegie Library officially opened in 1909, and after World War I council housing was built at Sale Lane and Mosley Common and after World War II in Shakerley.

In 1933, Lancashire County Council reorganised districts in the county, with reference to the Local Government Act 1929. A new Tyldesley Urban District was formed by amalgamating Tyldesley with Shakerley Urban District and the civil parish of Astley from the abolished Leigh Rural District. The urban district was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, when the area became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, a local government district of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.

The Boundary Commission recommended Tyldesley should be part of the Leigh constituency at the 2010 general election. At the 2010 General Election Andy Burnham retained the Leigh seat for the Labour partywith 24,295 votes and a majority of 15,011, representing 51.3% of the vote. The Conservatives took 19.6% of the vote, the Liberal Democrats 17.0%, the UKIP 3.2%, the BNP 5.8%, the Christian Party 0.3% and Independents 2.8%.