Barrow-in-Furness (borough)

Infobox UK District
name = Borough of Barrow-in-Furness


status = Borough
region = North West England
admincounty = Cumbria
area = Ranked 272nd
77.87 km²
adminhq = Barrow-in-Furness
onscode = 16UC
population = Ranked English district rank|ONS=16UC
English district population|ONS=16UC
English district density|ONS=16UC / km²
ethnicity = 94.3% White British
2.90% White Other
1.00% S.Asian
0.6% Mixed Race
0.5% Other
0.5% Afro-Carib.
0.2% Chinese
politics =
Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council
http://www.barrowbc.gov.uk/
leadership = Alternative - Sec.31
executive = English district control|ONS=16UC
mp = John Hutton
year = 2005

Barrow-in-Furness is a local government district with borough status in Cumbria, England. It is named after its main town, Barrow-in-Furness. Other settlements include Dalton-in-Furness, Roose and Askam-in-Furness. It is the smallest borough in the county, but is the most densely populated, with 924 people per square kilometre. The population was 71,980 in 2001 [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/16uc.asp]

The area covered by the district is at the edge of the Furness peninsula. It jolts into the Irish Sea, being north of Morecambe Bay and south of the Duddon Estuary. This area is still part of the historic County Palatine of Lancashire but is no longer governed by Lancashire County Council.

The current borough was formed on April 1, 1974 by the merger of the former county borough of Barrow-in-Furness and the Dalton-in-Furness urban district from the administrative county of Lancashire.

Council

Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council sits at the Town Hall in Barrow. It is lead by a mayor, who is elected by council members. In 2006, the Council was fined £125,000 for violation of health and safety laws that lead to the deaths of seven people in the United Kingdom's worst outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. The council also became the UK's first public body to be charged with corporate manslaughter, but was found not guilty. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4250401.stm]

Following boundary changes in 2008, [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/uksi_20080427_en_1] the council is composed of 36 seats, elected across 13 wards. All seats will be re-elected in 2008; following this, the council has provisions to either continue with full council ections every four years, or to revert to the previous system of elections occurring over a four year cycle, with a third of seats elected each year and one 'fallow' year.

Since its inception in 1973, the council has had 22 years of Labour control (most recently from 2003-2006), 3 years of Conservative control (1976-1979) and 8 years of no overall control (current since 2006).

Current Composition
"As of May 2 2008"

Religion

Place of Birth