Low Felling and Felling Shore were independent villages in the Chapelry of Heworth, along with High and Nether Heworth, Bill Quay, Windy Nook, Carr Hill, Wardley and Follingsby. In 1894 the first Felling Urban District Council sat at Felling. The council "was the offspring of that ancient township and inherited its customs, its local government, its land and its people", so that all of those villages combined to become the town of Felling. In 1902, the council moved to new administrative buildings at Sunderland Road, known thereafter as Felling Town Hall. The urban council administered the Felling District until its final meeting, concluded with a rendition of the Hokey cokey, on 28 March 1974, when Felling was incorporated into the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead by the Local Government Act 1972. Immediately prior the creation of the metropolitan borough, Felling was an independent town but improved housing elsewhere and better transport links have seen the area decline in stature so that, today, Felling is simply a council ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. It is approximately in area and has a population of 8,202. It is represented by three councillors. In June 2012, they were Bill Dick, Paul McNally and Sonja Dickie. All three councillors are members of the Labour Party, and despite some UKIP support in the mid-2010s, the area is nearly monolithic in its support of Labour. Felling is part of the Westminster parliamentary constituency of Gateshead. It was previously in the Gateshead East and Washington West constituency which was abolished by boundary changes before the 2010 UK General Election. For many years the MP was Joyce Quin, who retired on 11 April 2005 and was awarded a life peerage into the House of Lords on 13 June 2006 and is now Baroness Quin. The present MP Ian Mearns, is a member of the Labour party and his office is in Gateshead. He replaced Sharon Hodgson who successfully campaigned in the newly formed constituency of Washington and Sunderland West. In the 2010 UK General Election, Mearns was elected with a majority of 12,549 over Frank Hindle. The swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats was 3.9%. Felling is in a safe Labour seat. Mearns' success in 2010 followed of Sharon Hodgson, who in the 2005 UK General Election polled over 60% of the votes cast while in 2001, Joyce Quin was returned with a majority of 53.3%. Demography