Wolverhampton gained the beginnings of modern local government in 1777, when a body of
improvement commissioners known as the Wolverhampton Town Commissioners was created. The commissioners undertook a variety of local improvement work such as punishing bear baiting, improving drainage and widening streets. By the end of the eighteenth century street lighting had been provided at every street corner and over the doorway of every inn, and water supply had been improved by the sinking of ten new wells and the provision of a great water tank in the market place. Policing had been improved with the appointment of ten watchmen and attempts were also made to regulate the markets and inspect hazardous food. : Council's headquarters 1871–1979 Wolverhampton was incorporated as a
municipal borough in 1848. It was then governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Wolverhampton', generally known as the corporation, town council or borough council. The first meeting of the council, consisting of 12 aldermen and 36 councillors, was held on 22 May 1848. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Wolverhampton was considered large enough for its existing council to provide county-level services, and so it became a
county borough, independent from the new
Staffordshire County Council, whilst remaining part of the
geographical county of
Staffordshire. The borough boundaries were enlarged on several occasions, notably absorbing
Heath Town in 1927, parts of several neighbouring parishes in 1933, and
Bilston,
Tettenhall and
Wednesfield in 1966 (alongside adjustments to the boundaries with several other neighbouring districts). The vast majority of the later additions had previously been part of the
ancient parish of Wolverhampton and the
original parliamentary borough (constituency). Wolverhampton had no further changes made to its boundaries during the
1974 reorganisation of local government, the borough already having a population larger than the 250,000 required for education authorities. This contrasted with both the
Redcliffe-Maud Report, and the initial White Paper for the 1974 reforms which had proposed adding large areas of the present
South Staffordshire district to Wolverhampton. As part of the 1974 the borough was redesignated as a
metropolitan borough rather than a county borough and it was transferred to the new
metropolitan county of the
West Midlands. The reconstituted district retained its
borough status, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor, continuing Wolverhampton's series of mayors dating back to 1848. From 1974 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the
West Midlands County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed to the county's seven borough councils, including Wolverhampton, with some services provided through joint committees. Since 2016 the council has been a member of the
West Midlands Combined Authority, which has been led by the directly elected
Mayor of the West Midlands since 2017. The combined authority provides strategic leadership and co-ordination for certain functions across the county, but City of Wolverhampton Council continues to be responsible for most local government functions. From 1974 until 2001 the council was called 'Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough Council'. Wolverhampton was awarded
city status in 2001, after which the council was called 'Wolverhampton City Council'. In 2015 the council rebranded itself as 'City of Wolverhampton Council'. ==Governance==