Brownhills - Governance

Governance

Brownhills is represented by three tiers of government, Walsall Borough Council ("local"), UK Parliament ("national"), and European Parliament ("Europe").

The Brownhills District established in 1877 remained in existence until 1894 when it was superseded by Brownhills Urban District. In 1966 the Urban District merged with that of Aldridge to form the Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District, in accordance with a recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England. This in turn was amalgamated in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, into the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, under whose jurisdiction the area remains to this day. As a result of this amalgamation Brownhills also became part of the West Midlands county, having previously been part of Staffordshire. Today Brownhills constitutes a ward within the Borough of Walsall and has three seats on the Borough Council. As at the 2008 local elections two of these seats were held by the Conservative Party and one by Labour.

Richard Shepherd, representing the Conservative Party, has been the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Aldridge-Brownhills since 1979, when he won the seat from Labour's Geoffrey Edge, who had held the seat since its creation in 1974. Before the creation of the Aldridge-Brownhills seat in 1974, the town had been part of the Walsall North constituency since 1955, when it had been transferred from the now-defunct Cannock constituency. At the 2010 general election the Conservative Party won a majority of 15,256 and 59.3% of the vote in Aldridge-Brownhills. Labour won 19.8% of the vote and the Liberal Democrats 17.7% and the swing to the Conservatives was 12%.

Brownhills is part of the Walsall council counting area of the West Midlands European Parliament constituency, which elects six MEPs. In the 2009 election the Conservatives gained 26.8% of the vote in this counting area, ahead of UKIP 24.5% and Labour with 18.9%.