Northamptonshire County Council

Northamptonshire County Council
Coat of arms or logo
Logo
Type
Type
History
Founded1 April 1889; 135 years ago (1889-04-01)
Disbanded31 March 2021; 3 years ago (2021-03-31)
Elections
Last election
4 May 2017
Meeting place
County Hall
County Hall, Northampton

Northamptonshire County Council was the county council that governed the non-metropolitan county of Northamptonshire in England. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888, recreated in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 and abolished in 2021. The headquarters of the council was County Hall in Northampton.

As a non-metropolitan county council, the council was responsible for education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport policy and fire services, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning.

In early 2018, the Council announced it was effectively insolvent. Subsequently, a report by Government Inspectors concluded that problems at the council were so deep-rooted that it should be abolished and replaced by two smaller authorities.

In February 2020, the Northamptonshire (Structural Changes) Order 2020 was enacted,[1] which on 1 April 2021 abolished Northamptonshire County Council and the district councils and created two unitary authorities, known as North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council respectively.