Nick Botterill

Nicholas Byron "Nick" Botterill (born 14 September 1962) is a British businessman, company director, and Conservative politician.

He was Leader of the Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council from 2012 to 2014 and in 2021 was elected as a member of Wiltshire Council.

Early life[edit]

Born in September 1962,[1] Botterill is the son of David Byron Botterill, senior partner of Byron Botterill & Son Limited, a Yorkshire company which made polishing materials.[2] He was brought up in Sheffield and educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained a Master of Science degree in chemistry.[3]

Business career[edit]

Botterill's first job was in the international corporate finance department of the Royal Bank of Canada. After that, he was a founding partner in Teddies Nurseries, a childcare provider which expanded to some forty sites around Britain and in the 1990s was among the ten fastest-growing British companies. In 2000, the business was sold to BUPA and went on to become one of the largest companies in its sector in the world.[3] From 1998 to 2006, Botterill was a director of the Old Oak Housing Association.[1] In 2005, he founded Active Learning, another childcare firm.[3] He has also served on the boards of several other companies and trusts, including Palatinate Schools Ltd.[1]

Councillor[edit]

In 1986, Botterill moved to Hammersmith and soon became a Conservative activist there. From 1990 to 1993 he was chairman of the Hammersmith Conservative Association.[3] In 1996 he was elected as a councillor of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in the Sulivan ward, and said he would fight for better living conditions in his ward.[4] In May 1997, he became the Conservative group's housing spokesman, taking over from Mark Loveday.[5] He remained in this role in 1999, under the new Conservative group leader Greg Hands.[6][7] Following boundary changes, Botterill was re-elected in the Parsons Green and Walham ward.[8] The Conservatives gained control of the council in May 2006.[9] By 2011, Botterill was deputy leader of the council and was serving as its cabinet member for Environment.[10]

Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham[edit]

In May 2012, Botterill succeeded Stephen Greenhalgh as leader of the council, when Greenhalgh moved on to become Deputy Mayor of London for Policing and Crime under Boris Johnson.[3]

In August 2012, Botterill and his cabinet agreed to sell the land on which two housing estates stood, at West Kensington and Gibbs Green, to a subsidiary of the developer Capco for £105m, and permission was also given for the Earls Court Exhibition Centre to be demolished, as part of a project to create a new 77-acre high-rise urban quarter.[11] In 2013, Botterill continued to promote the £8 billion redevelopment of Earl's Court and welcomed the decision of Eric Pickles not to call the plans in for a Planning Inspectorate hearing.[12]

In 2013, Hammersmith and Fulham LBC reduced its council tax charges by 3 per cent, and Botterill published an article in The Municipal Journal called "How to cut council tax and improve services".[13]

Botterill proved to be the last Conservative leader of Hammersmith and Fulham, as his party lost control of the borough at the 2014 elections. He had expected to win narrowly and explained the loss by pointing to the Lib Dem vote collapsing to Labour and the fast-changing demographics of the borough.[14] Botterill held his own seat and continued to serve as a borough councillor until the 2018 elections, when he stood again and lost in the Wormholt and White City ward.[15]

Later life[edit]

By 2019, Botterill was living in Wiltshire, and at the 2019 United Kingdom general election acted as election agent for James Gray, the Conservative member of parliament for North Wiltshire.[16]

In March 2020, Botterill was selected as the Conservative candidate for a by-election in the Wiltshire Council By Brook division, following the resignation of Jane Scott, Baroness Scott of Bybrook, who had been appointed as a government whip in the House of Lords.[17] However, the by-election was cancelled only a month later, due to COVID-19 lockdown guidance.[18] Botterill commented to the Gazette and Herald that this was "completely the right decision under the circumstances".[19]

Botterill was finally elected to Wiltshire Council at the four-yearly elections held on 6 May 2021.[20][21] As of 2024, he serves as its Cabinet Member for Finance, Development Management, and Strategic Planning.[22]

Private life[edit]

In 2000, Botterill married Anna E. Lee in Devon.[23] He currently married with two children, Emma and Luke.[3]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Nicholas Byron Botterill", company-information.service.gov.uk, accessed 25 April 2021
  2. ^ "Byron Botterill & Son Limited", yorkshirecompanies.com, accessed 25 April 2025
  3. ^ a b c d e f Adam Courtney, "Biography: Hammersmith and Fulham Council leader-in-waiting Nick Botterill", mylondon.news, 15 May 2012, accessed 26 April 2021
  4. ^ "Triumphant Tories celebrate victory", Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette, 2 August 1996, p. 2: "Newly elected Nicholas Byron Botterill promised he would fight for better living conditions for the people in his ward. Flushed with victory after winning with 52 per cent of the votes Cllr Botterill said: I feel elated."
  5. ^ "In Brief", Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette, 30 May 1997, p. 3: "TORY councillor Nick Botterill has replaced his colleague Mark Loveday as their group's housing spokesman. Cllr Botterill, who represents Sulivan ward, said: It's a great honour."
  6. ^ "Housing repairs under scrutiny", Hammersmith & Shepherds Bush Gazette, 20 August 1999, p. 10: "Tory housing spokesman Cllr Nick Botterill said: This is yet another impressive sounding target that the council will fail miserably to live up to."
  7. ^ "About Greg", greghands.com, accessed 17 February 2023
  8. ^ The Local Government Companion (2003), p. 424
  9. ^ Stephen Greenhalgh and Nick Botterill, "Under Labour, Hammersmith & Fulham has become a borough of missed opportunity", conservativehome.com, 28 January 2020, accessed 26 April 2021
  10. ^ "Court hits builder with record £120k fine for demolishing house in conservation area", publiclawtoday.co.uk, 14 December 2011, accessed 25 April 2021
  11. ^ Dave Hill, "Boris Johnson allies press ahead with controversial Earls Court redevelopment", The Guardian, 11 September 2012, accessed 25 April 2021
  12. ^ Adam Courtney, "Furious opponents slam 'unlawful' Earls Court project as Secretary of State gives go ahead to £8bn project", mylondon.news, 27 August 2013, accessed 25 April 2021
  13. ^ Nicholas Botterill, "How to cut council tax and improve services", Municipal Journal, 10 December 2013, accessed 27 April 2021
  14. ^ Cllr Nick Botterill, "Conservative loss of Hammersmith & Fulham council – are there wider lessons for London?", conservativehome.com, 17 November 2014, accessed 25 April 2021
  15. ^ "2018 Wormholt & White City ward result", lbhf.gov.uk, accessed 25 April 2021
  16. ^ "An Open Letter to the People of North Wiltshire", jamesgray.org, 31 October 2019, accessed 26 April 2021
  17. ^ Matthew McLaughlin, "By-election: Meet the two By Brook candidates", wiltshiretimes.co.uk, 17 March 2020, accessed 25 April 2020
  18. ^ "SUSPENDED: Unitary council by-election for By Brook Unitary Division on Thursday 2 April 2020", wiltshire.gov.uk, 2 April 2020
  19. ^ Matthew McLaughlin, "By Brook by-election suspended due to Coronavirus", Gazette and Herald, 23 March 2020, accessed 25 April 2021
  20. ^ Elise Britten, Latest news at the Wiltshire Council election counts - live updates, Swindon Advertiser, 8 May 2021, accessed 8 May 2021
  21. ^ By Brook, elections.wiltshire.gov.uk, 8 May 2021, accessed 8 May 2021
  22. ^ "Cllr Nick Botterill", Wiltshire Council profile, accessed 19 January 2024
  23. ^ Nicholas B Botterill in England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916–2005, ancestry.co.uk (subscription required)
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