Governance
Portland is an ancient Royal Manor, and until the 19th century remained a separate liberty within Dorset for administration purposes. It was an urban district from 1894 to 1974, until the borough of Weymouth and Portland formed on April 1, 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. This merged the borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis with Portland urban district. For local elections the borough is divided into 15 wards, and three of them cover Portland. Elections take place in a four-year cycle; one third of the councillors in all but three wards retire or seek re-election in years one, two and three, and county council elections are held in year four.
The Mayor of Weymouth and Portland is Paul Kimber (Labour Co-operative), and Graham Winter (Liberal Democrat) is Deputy Mayor. Weymouth, Portland and the Purbeck district are in the South Dorset parliamentary constituency, created in 1885. The constituency elects one Member of Parliament; the current MP is Richard Drax (Conservative). South Dorset, the rest of the South West England, and Gibraltar are in the South West England constituency of the European Parliament.
Weymouth and Portland have been twinned with the town of Holzwickede in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany since 1986, and the French town of Louviers, in the department of Eure in Normandy, since 1959. The borough and nearby Chickerell have been a Fairtrade Zone for three years.
Read more about this topic: Isle Of Portland
Famous quotes containing the word governance:
“He yaf me al the bridel in myn hand,
To han the governance of hous and land,
And of his tonge and his hand also;”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)