Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over the administrative functions of the quarter sessions.The whole county is also covered by civil parishes, which form a lower tier of local government.[6] Political control of the council since 1998 has been as follows:[12] The leaders of the council since 1998 have been:[13] Following the 2023 election and a subsequent by-election in October 2023, the composition of the council was:[15][16] Of the eight independent councillors, four sit with local party It's our County as the "Independents for Herefordshire" group, three form the "True Independents" group, and the other does not belong to any group.Since the last full review of boundaries in 2015 Herefordshire has comprised 53 wards, each of which elects one councillor.Council meetings were generally held at the Shirehall in Hereford between 2014 and 2020, when the ceiling there collapsed.