The
Local Government Act 1972 created a two-tier system of metropolitan counties and districts covering
Greater Manchester,
Merseyside,
South Yorkshire,
Tyne and Wear, the
West Midlands, and
West Yorkshire starting in 1974. Trafford was a district of the Greater Manchester metropolitan county. The
Local Government Act 1985 abolished the metropolitan counties, with metropolitan districts taking on most of their powers as
metropolitan boroughs. The
Greater Manchester Combined Authority was created in 2011 and began electing the
mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017, which was given strategic powers covering a region coterminous with the former Greater Manchester metropolitan county. Since its creation in 1974, the council has predominantly been controlled by the
Conservative Party, with the Conservatives in power between 1973–85, 1988–94, and 2004–2018. The
Labour Party was in control from 1996–2002, and from 2018 to the present. The rest of the time were periods of no overall control. In December 2022, the leader of the council
Andrew Western was elected as
Member of Parliament for
Stretford and Urmston. Western stood down as council leader in January 2023, with
Tom Ross subsequently being elected as leader. In June 2022, the
Local Government Boundary Commission for England made The Trafford (Electoral Changes) Order 2022, which officially abolished the existing 21 wards and created 21 new wards with different boundaries. Because of this change, all 63 seats on the council, three per ward, were contested. == Electoral process ==