The first elections were held in January 1889, and the council formally came into being on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first meeting at Shire Hall, Hertford, the courthouse (built 1771) which had served as the meeting place of the quarter sessions which preceded the county council.[5] The first chairman of the council was Francis Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper, who was also a Liberal member of the House of Lords.[6]
Local government across England and Wales was reformed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, establishing a system of upper-tier county councils and lower-tier district councils. The 1972 Act classed Hertfordshire as a non-metropolitan county, which determined the division of responsibilities between the county council and the ten district councils which were created in Hertfordshire.[7]
Governance
The council provides county-level services. District-level services are provided by the county's ten district councils. Much of the county is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government for their areas.[8]
Political control
The council has been under Conservative majority control since 1999.
Political control of the county council since 1974 has been as follows:[9]
The independent and Green councillors sit together as a group.[12] The next election is due in 2025.
Premises
The council is based at County Hall on Pegs Lane in Hertford, lying to the south-west of the town centre. The building was completed in 1939; there was no opening ceremony due to the outbreak of the Second World War.[13]
Elections are held every four years, interspersed by three years of elections to the ten district councils in the county. Since the last boundary changes in 2017, there have been 78 electoral divisions electing one councillor each.[14]
