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The Local Government Act 1972 (1972 c. 70) is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, that reformed local government in England and Wales, on 1 April 1974. Its pattern of two-tier metropolitan and non-metropolitan county and district councils remains in use today in large parts of England, although the metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1986 and it was replaced with unitary authorities in many areas in the 1990s. In Wales, it established a similar pattern of counties and districts. These have since been entirely replaced with a system of unitary authorities. In Scotland, the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 established a similar system of two-tier regions and districts in 1975 — this was also replaced by a system of unitary council areas in 1996. Elections were held to the new authorities in 1973, and they acted as 'shadow authorities' until the handover date. Elections to county councils were held on April 12, for metropolitan and Welsh districts on May 10 for non-metropolitan district councils on June 7. Background Elected County councils had been established in England and Wales for the first time in 1888, covering areas known as administrative counties. Some large towns, known as county boroughs were politically independent from the counties they were physically situated in. The county areas were two-tier, with many municipal borough, urban district and rural districts within them, each with its own council. Bryne, T., Local Government in Britain (1994) Apart from the creation of new county boroughs, the most significant change since 1899 (and the establishment of metropolitan boroughs in the County of London) had been the establishment in 1965 of Greater London and its thirty-two London boroughs, covering a much larger area than the previous county of London. A Local Government Commission for England was set up in 1958 to review local government arrangements throughout the country, and had some successes, such as merging two pairs of small administrative counties to form Huntingdon and Peterborough and Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, and the creation of several contigous county boroughs in the Black Country. However, the Local Government Commission was routinely having its recommendations ignored in favour of the status quo, such as its proposal to abolish Rutland, or to reorganise Tyneside. It was generally agreed that there were significant problems with the structure of local government. Despite mergers, there was still a proliferation of small district councils in rural areas, and in the major conurbations the borders had been set before the pattern of urban development had become clear. For example, the area that was to become the seven boroughs of the metropolitan county of West Midlands, local government was split between three administrative counties (Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire), and eight county boroughs (Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Solihull, Walsall, Warley, West Bromwich, and Wolverhampton). The Local Government Commission was wound up in 1966, and replaced with a Royal Commission (known as the Redcliffe-Maud commission). In 1969 it recommended a system of single-tier unitary authorities for the whole of England, apart from three metropolitan areas of Merseyside, Selnec (Greater Manchester) and West Midlands (Birmingham and the Black Country), which were to have both a metropolitan council and district councils. This report was accepted by the Labour Party government of the time despite considerable opposition, but the Conservative Party won the June 1970 general election, and on a manifesto that committed them to a two-tier structure. The new government made Peter Walker and Graham Page the ministers, and quickly dropped the Redcliffe-Maud report.Cabinet Drop council house sale curb and Maud proposals. The Times. June 30, 1970. They invited comments from interested parties regarding the previous government's proposals.Adapting the Maud report. Timothy Raison. The Times. January 8, 1971. The Association of Municipal Corporations put forward a scheme with 13 provincial councils and 132 main councils, about twice the number proposed by Redcliffe-Maud. Boroughs to press for new 132-council structure. The Times. November 13, 1970. White Paper and Bill The incoming government's proposals for England were presented in a White Paper published in February 1971. HMSO. Local Government in England: Government Proposals for Reorganisation. Cmnd. 4584. The White Paper substantially trimmed the metropolitan areas, and proposed a two-tier structure for the rest of the country. Many of the new boundaries proposed by the Redcliffe-Maud report were retained in the White Paper. The proposals were in large part based on ideas of the County Councils Association, Urban District Councils Association and the Rural District Councils Association. Wood, Bruce. Process of Local Government Reform: 1966-1974. 1976 The White Paper outlined principles, including an acceptance of the 250,000 minimum limit for education authorities in the Redcliffe-Maud report, and its finding that the division of governance between town and country had been harmful, but that some functions were better performed by smaller units. It gave the division of functions between the districts and the counties, and also suggested a minimum population of 40,000 for districts. The government aimed to introduce the bill in the 1971/1972 session of Parliament for elections in 1973 and the new authorities coming into full power on April 1, 1974. The White Paper held off on making any commitments on regional or provincial government, waiting instead for the Crowther Commission to report back. This was subject to public debate and the proposals were substantially changed with the introduction of the Bill into Parliament in November 1971:Proposed new areas and their composition. The Times. February 17, 1971.DOE Circular 8/71 The Bill as introduced also included two new major changes based around the concept of unifying estuaries - Humberside on the Humber estuary, and the inclusion of Harwich and Colchester in Suffolk to unify the Stour estuary. Local Government Bill, Government Proposals for New Counties in England with the Proposed Names, 4 November, 1971, Map The latter was removed from the Bill before it became law. Proposals from Plymouth for a Tamarside county were rejected. It also provided names for the new counties for the first time. Government rejects plan for Tamar county. The Times. January 26, 1972 The main amendments made to the areas during the Bill's passage through Parliament were In the Bill as published, the Dorset/Hampshire border was between Christchurch and Lymington. On 6 July 1972, a government amendment added Lymington to Dorset, which would have had the effect of having the entire Bournemouth conurbation in one county (although the town in Lymington itself does not form part of the built-up area, the borough was large and contained villages which do). The House of Lords reversed this amendment in September, with the government losing the division 81 to 65.Lymington stays in Hampshire. The Times. September 12, 1972. In October, the government brought up this issue again, proposing an amendment to put the western part of Lymington borough. The amendment was withdrawn.Peers renew fight to keep Lymington undivided. The Times. October 17, 1972.Lymington to remain undivided. The Times. October 18, 1972. The government lost divisions in the House of Lords at Report Stage on the exclusion of Wilmslow and Poynton from Greater Manchester and their retention in Cheshire, and also on whether Rothwell should form part of the Leeds or Wakefield districts.Triple Lords defeat for Government on boundaries Bill. The Times. October 17, 1972. (Rothwell had been planned for Wakefield, but an amendment at report stage was proposed by local MP Albert Roberts and accepted by the government. This was overturned by the Lords.) It barely won a division in the Lords on the inclusion of Weston-super-Mare in Avon, by 42 to 41.Somerset loses its battle to remain intact. The Times. October 17, 1972. Two more metropolitan districts were created than originally in the Bill: As passed, the Act would have included Charlwood and Horley in West Sussex, along with Gatwick Airport. This was reversed by the Charlwood and Horley Act 1974, passed just before the Act came into force. Charlwood was made part of the Mole Valley district and Horley part of Reigate and Banstead. Gatwick Airport was still transferred. Although willing to compromise about exact boundaries, the government stood firm on the existence or abolition of county councils. The Isle of Wight (originally scheduled to be merged back into Hampshire as a district) was the only local campaign to succeed, and also the only county council in England to violate the 250,000 limit for education authorities. Redcliffe-Maud & Wood, B., English Local Government Reformed, (1974) The government bowed to local demand for the island to retain its status in October 1972, moving an amendment in the Lords to remove it from Hampshire. Lord Sanford noting that "nowhere else is faced with problems of communication with its neighbours which are in any way comparable." . Isle of Wight retains its county council. The Times. October 18, 1972. Protests from Rutland and Herefordshire failed, although Rutland was able to secure its treatment as a single district despite not even managing to meet the stated minimum population of 40,000 for districts. Several metropolitan boroughs fell under the 250,000 limit, including three of Tyne and Wear's five boroughs (North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Gateshead), and the four metropolitan boroughs that had resulted from the splitting of the proposed Bury/Rochdale and Knowsley/St Helens boroughs. Wales In Wales, the background was substantially different. The Redcliffe-Maud Commission had not considered Wales, which had been the subject of the Welsh Office proposals in the 1960s. A White Paper was published in 1967 on the subject of Wales, based on the findings of the 1962 report of the Local Government Commission for Wales. The White Paper proposed five counties, and thirty-six districts. The county boroughs of Swansea, Cardiff and Newport would be retained, but the small county borough of Merthyr Tydfil would become a district. The proposed counties were as follows Implementation of reform in Wales was not immediate, pending decisions on the situation in England, and a new Secretary of State, George Thomas, announced changes to the proposals in November 1968. The large northern county of Gwynedd was to be split to form two counties, with various alterations to the districts. The Redcliffe-Maud report led to a reconsideration of the plans, especially with respect to Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, and a March 1970 White Paper proposed three unitary authorities for south Wales, based on Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. The Labour-controlled Glamorgan County Council strongly opposed this move, placing adverts in newspapers calling for Glamorgan to be saved from a "carve up", and demanding that the East/West split be retained. The resulting South Glamorgan was the only Welsh county council the Conservatives ever controlled (from 1977-1981). Apart from the new Glamorgan authorities, all the names of the new Welsh counties were in the Welsh language, with no English equivalent. The names were taken from ancient British kingdoms. Welsh names were also used for many of the Welsh districts. There were no metropolitan counties and, unlike in England, the Secretary of State could not create future metropolitan counties there under the Act. The Act After much comment, the proposals were introduced as the Local Government Bill into Parliament soon after the start of the 1971/1972 session. In the Commons it passed through Standing Committee D, who debated the Bill in fifty-one sittings from 25 November 1971, to 20 March 1972. The Act abolished previous existing local government structures, and created a two-tier system of counties and districts everywhere. Some of the new counties were designated metropolitan counties, containing metropolitan boroughs instead. The allocation of functions differed between the metropolitan and the non-metropolitan areas (the so-called 'shire counties') — for example, education and social services were the responsibility of the shire counties, but in metropolitan areas was given to the districts. The distribution of powers was slightly different in Wales than in England, with libraries being a county responsibility in England — but in Wales districts could opt to become library authorities themselves. One key principle was that education authorities (non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan districts), were deemed to need a population base of 250,000 in order to be viable. Although called two-tier, the system was really three-tier, as it retained civil parish councils, although in Wales they were renamed community councils. The Act introduced 'agency', where one local authority (usually a district) could act as an agent for another authority. For example, since road maintenance was split depending upon the type of road, both types of council had to retain engineering departments. A county council could delegate its road maintenance to the district council if it was confident that the district was competent. Some powers were specifically excluded from agency, such as education. The Act abolished various historic relics such as aldermen. Many existing boroughs that were too small to constitute a district, but too large to constitute a civil parish, were given Charter Trustees. Most provisions of the Act came into force at midnight on 1 April 1974. Elections to the new councils had already been held, in 1973, and the new authorities were already up and running as 'shadow authorities', following the example set by the London Government Act 1963. The new local government areas The Act specified the composition and names of the English and Welsh counties, and the composition of the metropolitan and Welsh districts. It did not specify any names of districts, nor indeed the borders of the non-metropolitan districts in England — these were specified by Statutory Instrument after the passing of the Act. A Boundary Commission, provided for in the Act, had already begun work on dividing England into districts whilst the Bill was still going through Parliament. In England there were 46 counties and 296 districts, in Wales there were 8 and 37. Six of the English counties were designated as metropolitan counties. The new English counties were based clearly on the traditional ones, albeit with several substantial changes. The 13 historic counties of Wales, however, were abandoned entirely for administrative purposes, and 8 new ones instituted. In England prior to the passing of the Act there had been 1086 urban and rural districts and 79 county boroughs. The number of districts was reduced about fourfold. Metropolitan counties Metropolitan districts Non-metropolitan counties Non-metropolitan districts A list of non-metropolitan districts can be found at at List of English districts. The Local Government Boundary Commission originally proposed 278 non-metropolitan districts in April 1972 (still working with the county boundaries found in the Bill). A further eighteen districts were added in the final proposals of November 1972, which were then ordered. The splits were as follows (in most cases the splits were not exact, and many other changes to the borders of the districts took place at this time) Wear Valley/Teesdale Hereford/South Herefordshire/Leominster Rutland/Melton, Harborough/Oadby and Wigston Berwick-upon-Tweed/Alnwick Oswestry/North Shropshire, Bridgnorth/South Shropshire The new district in Suffolk was necessitated by the decision to keep Newmarket in Suffolk; which would otherwise have become part of the South Cambridgeshire district. Wales Map Elections Elections were held to the new authorities on three different Thursdays in 1973. Each new county and district was divided into electoral divisions, known as wards in the districts. For county councils, each electoral division elected one member; for metropolitan district councils, each ward elected three members; and wards in non-metropolitan districts could elect a varying number of members. There was not sufficient time to conduct a full warding arrangement so a temporary system was used: in some county councils electoral divisions elected multiple councillors. County councils were set on a four-year cycle of elections of all members, and the next elections were in 1977. Metropolitan district councils elected one councillor for each seat in the three other years, starting in 1975. Non-metropolitan districts had a general election again in 1976, and could either conduct elections by-thirds afterwards. Schedule 3 provided that for each metropolitan ward, the councillor for who obtained the least votes in the 1973 election would retire in 1975, the next least in 1976, and the others in 1978, setting up the cycle. If equal numbers of votes were obtained, or ward elections in 1973 had been uncontested, the decision would be made by lot. Division of functions Functions previously exercisable by local authorities were distributed broadly as so: In many areas both authorities had some powers. For some powers, certain Welsh districts were allowed greater powers by the Secretary of State. Reaction and aftermath Despite assurances that the Act was not attempting to amend loyalties, it nonetheless used the term 'county' instead of 'administrative county' and redefined the boundaries of ceremonial counties used for purposes such as Lieutenancy to these. Both of these decisions have been criticised strongly by groups seeking to preserve awareness of traditional counties. The Act allowed the Duchy of Lancaster to appoint Lord-Lieutenants for the shrunken Lancashire along with all of Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Other causes of outrage were the adoption of the new counties by the makers of atlases, and the Royal Mail in many cases adopting the changes. Whilst previous changes had been localised and so caused localised annoyance only, the 1974 reforms led to a wider movement (see Association of British Counties). Some of the reaction against the Act came not from people concerned with the preservation of traditional counties, but instead was motivated solely by opposition to change. The Isle of Wight, for example, is historically part of Hampshire, yet resisted efforts to reintegrate it administratively — the county borough councils regretted the loss of their status. Especially stung was the City and County of Bristol, which had had its own Lord Lieutenant for centuries. The system established, however, was not to last. In England, the county councils of the metropolitan counties (and the Greater London Council) were abolished in 1986 by Margaret Thatcher's government, effectively re-establishing county borough status for the metropolitan boroughs. A further local government reform in the 1990s led to the creation of many new unitary authorities, and the complete abolition of Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester and Humberside. In Wales the two-tier system was abolished entirely in 1996, and replaced with the current principal areas of Wales. The 1974 administrative counties have been retained as preserved counties for various purposes, notably as ceremonial counties, albeit with substantive border revisions. | |||||||
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