Mayor of Wigan
Mayor of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in the United Kingdom
The Mayor of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is the first citizen, chairperson of the Wigan Council and elected representative of the Wigan Borough and the Council.
Duties of the mayor and its origins
The mayoralty of Wigan goes back to its first creation in 1246 AD, when Henry III granted the town its first royal charter; however, since 1974 the office of the mayor has been created by legislative statute of the Constitution of Wigan Council (Article 5, Section 1). The mayor of Wigan as the 'First Citizen' has highest precedence unless a member of the royal family is present. As the elected representative of the borough, the mayor acts as focal point for the community as well as promoting the borough and forging national and international links, which includes continuing links with the Mayor of Angers in Western France as the twinned city. The official position of the mayor and the council includes presiding over the meetings of the council, of which, if the mayor is unable to preside at the time, it is the duty of the elected deputy mayor to temporarily take his place. Wigan Town Hall in the centre of Wigan serves as the official location where the office of the mayor is located and also serves as the location for meetings of the council in the main chamber. The Town Hall of Leigh is often used by the mayor and other councillors as a second headquarters.
The position of the mayor is politically neutral and so even though the mayor remains chairman of the council, the council assembly elects itself a leader of the council who will also chair the Wigan Cabinet. The Office of the Mayor is located in the Wigan Town Hall were the Council Chamber is also located.
When in office, other duties include receiving members of the Royal Family and other state visitors, attending ceremonies and engagements of charities as representative that take place within or out of the borough.
The public source identifies “Mayor of Wigan” as mayor of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in the United Kingdom. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mayor, Wigan and Metropolitan.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6797842. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1246 and 1974.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mayor of Wigan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.