Councillors

Councillors are the elected members of Southampton City Council, as opposed to employees or officers of the council. You can contact councillors if you need help with a local issue.

About the council, the Cabinet and the Leader

We have 51 democratically elected councillors. Southampton is divided into 17 wards. Three councillors represent each ward.

One councillor is elected as Leader at our annual general meeting (AGM) each May. The Leader then appoints a Cabinet of between two and nine members.

The Leader and Cabinet supervise the work of the council and make major decisions.

Political composition of the council

Councillors are usually associated with a political party. If a councillor is not associated with a political party they are said to be 'independent'.

The current political composition of elected councillors in Southampton is:

• Labour - 32
• Conservative - 10
• Liberal Democrat - 7
• Green - 2

What do councillors do?

Councillors:

• Are members of the council
• Represent their ward
• Take part in decision making
• Review and develop both policies and strategies
• Attend overview and scrutiny meetings and inquiries
• Are members of regulatory panels, including planning and licensing
• Engage with and provide leadership to their communities
• Represent the city on over 100 boards, partnerships, and outside bodies

See a map of wards and councillors in Southampton.

I want to contact a councillor

Contacting a councillor may not be the quickest way of resolving the issue. Before contacting a councillor, have you tried:

• Browsing or searching our website for information about the issue?
• Checking if there is an online form you can use?
• Contacting the relevant service?

If something has gone wrong, you may wish to make a complaint.

You should also check if a councillor is the right person to contact.

Contact a councillor

There are several ways to find the councillor you need. Usually, this will be one or all of the councillors for your ward. The following options will allow you to view a councillor's details, including their contact information.

Use find a councillor to search for councillors by:

• Name or part of a name
• Political party
• Ward

Visit find a councillor.

You can also view all councillors:

• Alphabetically
• By political party
• By ward

What ward do I live in?

Find my address tells you what ward your address is in. Just enter your street name or postcode. Visit find my address.

You can also view the wards on our interactive map.

Other contacts and further information

Find out more about the Cabinet.

The Lord Mayor and Sheriff are both elected members of the council. Find out more about the Lord Mayor and Sheriff.

If you have other questions about the elected members of the council, you can email Member Services with these.

You can also find out about Southampton City Council in general.