Tromsøysund


Tromsøysund is a former municipality in Troms county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. The municipality encompassed most of what is now Tromsø Municipality including areas on the island of Kvaløya and on the mainland. It completely surrounded the city of Tromsø, both on a number of islands as well as on the mainland. The municipality included the villages of Bjerkaker, Tromsdalen, and Movik. The administrative centre was the village of Tromsdalen, just across the strait from the city of Tromsø.

History

The large prestegjeld of Tromsøe existed for hundreds of years. In 1838, the new formannskapsdistrikt law established municipal self-government in Norway. According to the law, each prestegjeld became a municipality, but all cities in Norway had to be separated from their prestegjeld and be their own municipalities. So, on 1 January 1838, the city of Tromsøe became a municipality and the large surrounding district became the municipality of Tromsøe landdistrikt. Initially, the new municipality had a population of 4,286.
In 1860, the southern part of the municipality was split off from Tromsøe landdistrikt to become the new Balsfjord Municipality. This left Tromsøe landdistrikt with 2,632 inhabitants. In November 1860, the name of the municipality was changed to Tromsøsundet. On 1 January 1861, an area of Tromsøysund was transferred to the city of Tromsø. On 1 January 1873, a part of the neighboring municipality of Malangen was merged back into Tromsøysund. This area included the Bakkejord-Kvalnes-Lauksletta-Mjelde area in southern Kvaløya and Brokskar-Bentsjorda area on the mainland. At the same time, an uninhabited part of Tromsøysund was also transferred to Tromsø. On 1 July 1915, another part of Tromsøysund was transferred to the city of Tromsø. Again on 1 July 1955, the Bjerkaker area of Tromsøysund was transferred to the city of Tromsø.
During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, a major municipal merger took place. All of Tromsøysund municipality was merged with the city of Tromsø, the parts of Hillesøy municipality on Kvaløya island, and most of Ullsfjord municipality to form a new, larger Tromsø Municipality.

Government

Municipal council

The municipal council of Tromsøysund was made up of 53 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: