THE COUNTY COUNCIL
County councils cover most of England outside London it has powers of general supervision over the other local authorities in its district. For example, it can alter boundaries, delegate responsibility, and, most importantly, if one of the minor authorities does not do its job properly, the county council can undertake the work and charge for the costs. Each county is divided into electoral areas, known as electoral districts, each of which provides one councillor for the council. Elections take place every 4 years. and all the councillors are elected at the same time. They all retire together after the 4 year term. A county council must hold an annual meeting and elect a chairman and vice-chairman from its members. They hold office for 1 year and retire at the next annual meeting and continue as ordinary councillors.
The council holds as many subsequent meetings as it thinks are necessary during a year, although a county council usually meets every 6 weeks.
Many county councillors are members of the district councils in the area, but any person is entitled to stand for election to a county council, provided that he is over 21, a British citizen, and not disqualified from election for any reason.
On the whole, the county council has greater powers of supervision over parish and rural district councils than
over municipal borough or urban councils; but, so long as the councils perform the duties which are allotted to
them and do not attempt to exceed their powers, the county has little power to interfere.
HOW TOWNS BECOME COUNTY BOROUGHS
The only type of local authority over which the county council has no powers of supervision is the county borough, which is responsible only to central government and has all the powers of a county council within its area. Many pre-1972 councils were granted the status of a borough by a Royal Charter, which entitled them to have a mayor and deputy mayor instead of a council chairman and vice-chairman. Some larger areas were granted the title of ' city ' with a lord mayor instead of a mayor. Such authorities were also entitled to grant the title of freeman of the borough or city to a person who was entitled by birth or marriage to the title and ' honorary freeman ' to a person who had served the area well.
All large cities, such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, are county boroughs and many smaller towns, in 1926 there was a general rule that no borough could claim this privilege until it had a population of at least seventy-five thousand .
A district council created since 1974 is entitled to apply for borough status to do so, a council must convene a special meeting and pass a resolution by a majority of two-thirds of the whole council to petition the Crown to grant a Royal Charter. A committee of the Privy Council considers the petition and advises the Queen whether to grant a charter. If the committee requests it, the Ministry of Health may hold a local inquiry, at which those who are in favour and those who oppose the scheme are given the opportunity to give evidence.
An announcement of the petition is made in the press, if there is no opposition within a month, an Order in Council
is made establishing the borough and laying down its boundaries, and also the number of councillors who are to
be elected to the new borough council. If, however, there is opposition to the charter by any public body affected
thereby, or by not less than one-twentieth of the local government electors, an Act of Parliament must be passed
to sanction the creation of the borough.
If a district receives borough status, its powers and services are not altered, but its chairman and vice-chairman become mayor and deputy mayor and there may be certain ceremonial privileges - for example, the mayor may be preceded by a mace - bearer. The municipal borough may have its own bench of justices, quarter sessions and coroner's court, and it becomes the local authority for elementary education.
The municipal borough council is elected in the same way as a county borough council. It has a mayor, aldermen and councillors who are elected for three-year periods, a third retiring every year (except in the London metropolitan boroughs where the whole council is elected and retires at the end of the third year) The county borough council is elected in much the same way as a county council except that its members are elected from wards within the borough instead of divisions within the county. Every year the council elects a mayor to be chairman of the council and , official representative on all public occasions. Certain important cities, call their mayor a lord mayor, but this is only a title of honour. With the exception of the City of London, which has a specialized position, he has no greater powers than an ordinary mayor. The mayor can be a member of the council or a person outside it who is qualified for election as a councillor.
The municipal borough council is to a certain degree under the ultimate authority of the county council, but it performs different services. Many county boroughs co-operate with the county council in the provision of services, in short, all activities that are not performed by the county council. Chief among these activities are the public health services, sanitation, the provision of housing and open spaces, the establishment of hospitals, the regulation and inspection of food, weights and measures, and workshops, and the provision and repair of roads and streets, with the exception of the main traffic roads controlled by the Ministry of Transport.
There are nearly 300 district councils in England forming the second tier below the county council.They have very similar, though less extensive, powers than the municipal borough. .Each district is divided into areas called wards.The title of alderman, given to senior counciliors, was abolished when local government reorganised, and all elected me are known as councillors, who stand for 4 years,. metropolitan district councils elect a number of councillors for each ward that is divisible by 3. Every year, third of the council retires and has to stand for re-election. There are no district elections in the fourth year when county council elections take place instead.
The non-metropolitan district councils choose their system of representation when they were reorganised. They could either choose the same system as the metropolitan councils and re-elect one-third of their members every year or elect all the councillors at the same time and have them retire together after their 4 year term. About two-thirds of the councils chose to elect all their councillors at the same time.
Every district council must, by law, hold an annual meeting and elect a chairman and vice-chairman from among its members. They retire at the next annual meeting and become ordinary councillors. The council can hold as many meetings as it thinks are necessary to carry out business, although most districts meet once a month or every 6 weeks. The work of the district council, covers housing, swimming pools and parks, car parks town planning, cemeteries and crematoria, environmental health, refuse colllection and licensing of pubs and entertainment.
Local government in rural areas is the its responsibility of parish meetings or parish councils. ( In Wales Community councils and community meetingsfollow the same rules although a community council is required to hold only one meeting in a year at which a chairman is to be elected. ). After the reorganisation of local government between 1972 and 1974, some of the smaller urban and rural districts, with a population of under 20,000, became parish councils. If they had a mayor before reorganisation, they could retain the post and the title of ' town council ' although their powers became those of a parish council. Any parish council in England or community council in Wales is entitled to resolve that the parish has the status of a ' town '.
A rural district is divided into parishes, and although the rural district council is responsible for most of the administration, these parishes exercise certain limited powers through their own councils or parish meetings.
A district council must, by law, periodical review its parish, or community electoral areas, It may decide that a new parish Or community council should be set up in an area to make services more efficient.Whether a parish elects a council or is governed by a meeting depends upon its size. If a parish has more than 200 electors in its area the district council must, by law, establish a formal parish council . Parish councillors are elected for 4 years. They are elected at the same time and retire together and elections take place at the same time as district council elections. Most parish councils have a staff of, at least, a secretary or clerk and a treasurer. The district council must seek the permission of the Secretary of State before the status of a parish can be altered. The chairman and vice-chairman are then known as the town mayor and deputy town mayor and the council meeting is known as the town meeting However, there is no added power involved, and no charter is granted.
The number of representatives of the parish council varies from five to fifteen. They are elected for a term of three years by a show of hands at a parish meeting. When a parish council is appointed, it takes over all the powers and responsibilities of the parish meeting, and has in addition the power to purchase land and buildings for the establishment of public offices, fire stations, libraries, recreation grounds and cemeteries.
A parish or community council must hold an annual meeting
and elect a chairman and hold at least three other meetings in a year. The chairman can be re-elected for another
year at the next annual meeting. He is also entitled to call an extraordinary meeting of the council at any time,
but at least three other councillors must attend before the meeting is legally constituted. At least 3 days' notice
to members of the council and to the public is required before any meeting of the council can be held.
Any person who is entitled to vote and lives in a parish, may attend a parish meeting. At least one parish meeting
must be held each year, by law, and if the parish has a council, the council chairman is chairman of the parish
meeting. Otherwise, the meeting elects its own chairman. At least 7 days' notice of a parish meeting is required.
However, if the parish meeting has been called to establish a parish council then at least 14 days' notice of the
meeting must be given to members of the parish. Members of the Press are entitled to attend councils and meetings.
In all rural parishes there also is a parish meeting consisting of registered electors, and the meeting exercises a general control over the parish, and decides whether certain acts regarding public improvements, are to be adopted.
A parish meeting is entitled to request its district council to establish a parish council, provided that there are at least 150 electors in its area. Alternatively, if there are two or more small parishes in an area with less than 150 electors in each, their district council is entitled to group them together under a group parish council, provided that each parish meeting agrees to join a group. At a parish meeting, anyone within the parish who has a vote in the rural district and county council elections is entitled to speak and to vote. The meeting appoints a chairman each year, and he and the councillors representing the parish on the rural district council are the administrators.At least two parish meetings must be held every year, and the chairman or any six electors may call additional meetings. Meetings must not begin earlier than 6 p.m., and decisions are taken by putting any matter under consideration to the vote of those electors present.
The parish meeting has few responsibilities. Its main purpose is to advise the senior authorities on any matters concerning its well being. Both types of meeting or council share their services and duties with their council, They are responsible, along with district councils, for any planning decisions that may affect its area. It may also institute bye-laws through its district council who must seek the consent of the Secretary of State concerned before the bye-law can be enforced .
There are 32 London boroughs responsible for all the services within their area.
CITY OF LONDON
The services provided by the City of London are the same as those of a London borough. However, there are certain special responsibilities - for example, the markets of Billingsgate, Leadenhall, Smithfields and Spitalflelds, the maintenance of its own City of London Police Force - separate from the Metropolitan Police Force and New Scotland Yard which come under the supervision of the Home Secretary - and various open spaces outside London which it owns and maintains - Epping Forest and Coulsdon Commons, for example.
The City is the only local authority to retain the title of aldermen for its senior councillors. It is governed by the Court of Common Council which consists of a lord mayor, 26 aldermen and 156 common councillors.The City is divided into wards and common councillors are elected annually, not only by the 5,000 residents, but also by the City's property owners. Aldermen are elected for life and make up the Court of Aldermen which elects the lord mayor, who holds office for 1 year only.
