Sunderland City Council

Sunderland City Council
Type
Type	Metropolitan borough council
Leadership
Mayor	Allison Chisnall, Labour since 15 May 2024[1]
Leader	Michael Mordey, Labour since 20 May 2024[2]
Chief Executive	Patrick Melia since August 2018[3]
Structure
Seats	75 councillors[4]
Political groups	Administration (53)   Labour (53) Other parties (22)   Liberal Democrats (12)   Conservative (10)
Joint committees	North East Mayoral Combined Authority
Elections
Voting system	First past the post
Last election	2 May 2024
Next election	7 May 2026
Motto
Nil desperandum auspice deo
Meeting place
City Hall, Plater Way, Sunderland, SR1 3AA
Website
www.sunderland.gov.uk

Sunderland City Council is the local authority of Sunderland, a metropolitan borough with city status in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in North East England. It is one of five such councils in Tyne and Wear and one of 36 in England. It provides the majority of local government services in Sunderland.

The council has been under Labour majority control since the formation of the metropolitan borough in 1974. It is based at City Hall on Plater Way. The council is a member of the North East Combined Authority.

The town of Sunderland was an ancient borough, having been given its first charter (as 'Wearmouth') in 1179.^[5] A subsequent charter of 1634 incorporated the town under the name of Sunderland, which had become the more commonly used name.^[6]

Sunderland was reformed to become a municipal borough in 1836 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. It was then governed by a body formally called the "mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Sunderland", generally known as the corporation or town council.^[7] When elected county councils were established in 1889, Sunderland was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it was made a county borough, independent from the new Durham County Council.^[8] The borough boundaries were enlarged on several occasions.^[9]

In 1974 the county borough was replaced by a larger metropolitan borough within the new county of Tyne and Wear. From 1974 until 1986 the borough council was a lower-tier district authority, with Tyne and Wear County Council providing county-level services.^[10][11] The county council was abolished in 1986, since when the borough council has again provided both district-level and county-level services, as it had done when it was a county borough prior to 1974. Some functions are provided across Tyne and Wear by joint committees with the other districts.^[12] The borough was awarded city status in 1992, allowing the council to change its name to Sunderland City Council.^[13]

Since 1986 the council has provided both district-level and county-level functions, with some services being provided through joint arrangements with the other Tyne and Wear councils. In 2024 a combined authority was established covering Sunderland, County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland and South Tyneside, called the North East Combined Authority. It is chaired by the directly elected Mayor of the North East and oversees the delivery of certain strategic functions across the area.^{[14] [15]}

There are civil parishes at Hetton, Burdon and Warden Law, which form an additional tier of local government for their areas; the rest of the borough is unparished.^[16]

The council has been under Labour majority control since the reforms of 1974.^[17][18][19]

The role of Mayor of Sunderland is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 2002 have been:^[20]

Following the 2024 election ^[23] and the subsequent defection of a councillor from Labour to Independent in June 2024,^[24] the composition of the council was:

The next election is due in May 2026.

Since the last boundary changes in 2004, the council has comprised 75 councillors, representing 25 wards, with each ward electing three councillors. Elections are held three years out of every four, with a third of the council (one councillor for each ward) elected each time for a four-year term of office.^[25] New ward boundaries are being drawn up with the aim that they will be ready for the 2026 elections.^[26]

Sunderland's 25 Council wards are each represented by three elected councillors.^[27]

The council is based at City Hall on Plater Way (formerly the site of the Vaux Brewery), which was purpose-built for the council and opened in 2021.^[28]

Prior to that the council was based at the Civic Centre on Burdon Road, which had been built in 1970.^[29] The Civic Centre was demolished in 2022.^[30]

The Civic Centre in turn had replaced the old borough council's headquarters at the Town Hall on Fawcett Street which had been built in 1890 and was demolished shortly after the council moved to the Civic Centre.^[31]