Hackney Council is made up of the Mayor and 57 locally elected councillors who make decisions on how to provide council services on behalf of residents.

Hackney is split into 19 areas called wards, and each ward has three elected representatives. In this way residents can speak to their ward councillor who represents them on any local issues. The Mayor is elected by residents from all 19 wards, and has overall responsibility for council services.

Council elections are held every four years; the most recent elections were held in May 2006. The current political make up of the Council is illustrated in the map below. 45 councillors are Labour, 9 Conservative, 2 Liberal Democrat, and 1 Green. The Mayor is also Labour. A list of all councilors is given at the end of this document.