Craigavon Borough Council

Craigavon Borough Council is a local council in counties Armagh, Down and Antrim, in Northern Ireland. The headquarters of the council is in Craigavon, on the shores of Lough Neagh, a new town built between Lurgan and Portadown. The council area includes the large towns of Lurgan and Portadown, as well as smaller ones including Waringstown and Donaghcloney. The council budget of £15.5 million provides a wide range of services to over 84,000 people living in the area.

The council area consists of four electoral areas - Central, Loughside, Lurgan and Portadown - in which 26 councillors are elected every four years. The council holds an annual meeting in June, at which a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor are elected. Parties elected in 2005 were Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) nine seats, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) six, Sinn Féin six, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) four, and Independent one. The current Mayor is DUP Councilor Robert Smyth, and his Deputy is Ken Twyble of the UUP.

Together with part of the district of Banbridge, it forms the Upper Bann constituency for elections to the Westminster Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly.

Summary of seats won 1973-2005

	1973	1977	1981	1985	1989	1993	1997	2001	2005
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP)	11	10	9	11	12	10	11	8	6
Alliance (APNI)	4	3	1		2	2	1
Vanguard (VUPP)	4
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)	3	4	7	6	4	4	3	6	9
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)	2	6	5	5	6	6	7	7	4
Independent Nationalist (IN)	1						2
United Ulster Unionist Party (UUUP)		1	1
Workers Party (WP)		1	2	2	1	1
Sinn Féin (SF)				2	1	2	2	4	6
Independent Unionist (IU)						1		1	1

Note: The Workers Party were known as The Republican Clubs in 1977 and Workers Party Republican Clubs in 1981.

Source:

Mayor of Craigavon

Year	Name	Political affiliation		Deputy	Deputy's affiliation
1973 - 75	J. A. Johnston	James McCammick
1975 - 76	James McCammick	T. Creith
1976 - 77	T. Creith	Herbert Whitten
1977 - 78	Sydney Cairns	B. T. English
1978 - 79	Herbert Whitten	David Calvert
1979 - 80	A. Locke	J. McDonald
1980 - 81	F. Dale	P. J. Hagan
1981 - 82	M. Simpson	David Calvert
1982 - 83	Sam Gardiner	James Gillespie
1983 - 84	James Gillespie	Frederick Baird
1984 - 85	Arnold Hatch	P. J. Crilly
1985 - 87	George Savage	James Gillespie
1987 - 88	Sydney Cairns	Arnold Hatch
1988 - 89	Sam Gardiner	James McCammick
1989 - 91	James McCammick	Joy Savage, then Joe Trueman
1991 - 92	Joe Trueman	Fred Crowe
1992 - 93	Fred Crowe	Sam Lutton
1993 - 94	Audrey Savage	Ruth Allen
1994 - 95	Brian Maguinness	Sean McKavanagh
1995 - 96	Meta Crozier			Hugh Casey
1996 - Dec 96	Hugh Casey	Sam Lutton
Dec 1996 - 97	Sam Lutton	Hugh Casey
1998 - 99	Mervyn Carrick	Dolores Kelly
1999 - 00	Dolores Kelly	Fred Crowe
2000 - 01	Fred Crowe	Mark Neale
2001 - 02	Sam Gardiner	Jonathan Bell
2002 - 03	Jonathan Bell			Sydney Anderson
2003 - 04	Ignatius Fox	David Simpson
2004 - 05	David Simpson	Ignatius Fox
2005 - 06	George Savage	Robert Smith
2006 - 07	Kenneth Twyble	Mary McAlinden
2007 - 08	Robert Smith	Kenneth Twyble

Source: Freedom of Information request to Craigavon Borough Council

Review of Public Administration

Under the Review of Public Administration (RPA) the Council is due to merge with Banbridge District Council and Armagh City and District Council in 2011 to form a single council for the enlarged area totalling 1502 km² and a population of 176,326. The next election was due to take place in May 2009, but on April 25, 2008, Shaun Woodward, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced that the scheduled 2009 district council elections were to be postponed until the introduction of the eleven new councils in 2011.

See also

• Local Councils in Northern Ireland

References