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54-555: Ploughley was a rural district in Oxfordshire , England , from 1932 to 1974. It entirely surrounded Bicester but did not include it. It was created in 1932 from parts of the abolished Bicester Rural District , Headington Rural District and Woodstock Rural District , along with a couple of non-urban parishes from Bicester urban district. In 1974 it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 and now forms part of

108-502: 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 to 1981). One of the effects of the Act was to confirm the area of Monmouthshire as part of Wales. Ambiguity as to the status of Monmouthshire had been introduced by legislation in the 16th and 17th centuries, and by

162-660: A Consultative Document in February 1971, at the same time as the English White Paper. The proposals were similar to the Labour proposals of 1968, except that the county boroughs were instead two-tier districts, and that Glamorgan was to be subdivided into West Glamorgan and East Glamorgan, making 7 counties and 36 districts. In the Bill as introduced Glamorgan had been split into three authorities: with East Glamorgan further subdivided into

216-514: A Mid Glamorgan covering the valleys and South Glamorgan. The decision to split East Glamorgan further left South Glamorgan with only two districts (one of which was the Conservative-controlled Cardiff , who had requested the split) and Mid Glamorgan one of the poorest areas in the country. The Labour-controlled Glamorgan County Council strongly opposed this move, placing adverts in newspapers calling for Glamorgan to be saved from

270-505: A civil parish council, its 'town council' which could act alone in some matters such as town twinning, whereas Welwyn Garden City did not and therefore had no separate representation. 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

324-661: A division in the Lords on the inclusion of Weston-super-Mare in Avon, by 42 to 41. Two more metropolitan districts were created than were 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

378-477: 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 made some changes, such as merging two pairs of small administrative counties to form Huntingdon and Peterborough and Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely , and creating several contiguous county boroughs in the Black Country . Most of

432-405: A rural district was a doughnut-shaped ring around a town (which would be either an urban district or a municipal borough ). A good example of this is Melton and Belvoir Rural District , which surrounded the town of Melton Mowbray . Some rural districts were fragmented, consisting of a number of detached parts , such as Wigan Rural District . Some rural districts had a more rounded shape and had

486-537: A small town or village as the administrative centre. A few rural districts consisted of only one parish (for example, Tintwistle Rural District , Alston with Garrigill Rural District , South Mimms Rural District , King's Lynn Rural District , Disley Rural District and Crowland Rural District ). In such districts there was no separate parish council, and the rural district council exercised its functions. All rural districts in England and Wales were abolished in 1974 (by

540-461: A system of single-tier unitary authorities for the whole of England, apart from three metropolitan areas of Merseyside , SELNEC (South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire, now known as 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

594-769: Is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Government of 1970–74 . The Act took the total number of councils in England from 1,245 to 412 (excluding parish councils ), and in Wales to 45. Its pattern of two-tier metropolitan and non-metropolitan county and district councils remains in use today in large parts of England, although

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648-464: The Cherwell district . 51°51′N 1°14′W  /  51.850°N 1.233°W  / 51.850; -1.233 This Oxfordshire location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Rural district In England and Wales rural districts were created in 1894 by the Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) along with urban districts . They replaced

702-654: The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 . They were subdivided into district electoral divisions . In 1921, Ireland was partitioned with Northern Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom, and the rest of the country leaving as the Irish Free State in 1922. In the Irish Free State, rural districts outside of County Dublin were abolished in 1925 under the Local Government Act 1925 amid widespread accusations of corruption . Their functions were transferred to

756-517: The Local Government Act 1972 ) and were typically merged with nearby urban districts or boroughs to form " districts ", which included both urban and rural areas. See Rural districts formed in England and Wales 1894–1974 for the districts created in 1894; List of rural and urban districts in England , and List of rural and urban districts in Wales for a list of rural districts at abolition in 1974. Rural districts were created in Ireland in 1899 under

810-478: The Mole Valley district and Horley part of Reigate and Banstead . Gatwick Airport was still transferred. Although willing to compromise on 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

864-456: The 250,000 minimum for education authorities. 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". Protests from Rutland and Herefordshire failed, although Rutland

918-564: 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 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

972-414: 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 thirteen historic counties of Wales were abandoned entirely for administrative purposes and eight new ones instituted. The Act substituted the new counties "for counties of any other description" for purposes of law. This realigned

1026-557: The Leeds or Wakefield districts. (Rothwell had been planned for Wakefield, but an amendment at report stage was proposed by local MP Albert Roberts and accepted by the government, then overturned by the Lords.) Instead, the Wakefield district gained the town of Ossett , which was originally placed in the Kirklees district, following an appeal by Ossett Labour Party. The government barely won

1080-619: 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 it in 51 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

1134-588: The Middle Ages or even earlier; industrialisation had created new and very large urban areas like the West Midlands, Liverpool and Manchester which spanned traditional county boundaries and were now often bigger than and far from their traditional county towns. 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

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1188-503: The Redcliffe-Maud report, and its findings that the division of functions between town and country had been harmful, but that some functions were better performed by smaller units. The White Paper set out the proposed division of functions between districts and counties, and also suggested a minimum population of 40,000 for districts. The government aimed to introduce a Bill in the 1971/72 session of Parliament for elections in 1973, so that

1242-594: The act was substantially different in Wales. 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

1296-519: 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

1350-491: 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 45 counties and 332 districts (excluding Greater London and the Isles of Scilly), in Wales there were 8 and 37. Six of

1404-454: The boroughs, responded to Redcliffe-Maud by putting forward a scheme where England outside London would be divided into 13 provinces, with 132 main authorities below that. The AMC argued that the Redcliffe-Maud units would be too far removed from the people they served, and suggested units that in some places were much smaller in size. The Times gave the example of Kent, which under Redcliffe-Maud would have consisted of two unitary authorities,

1458-451: The boundaries of ceremonial and judicial counties used for lieutenancy , custodes rotulorum , shrievalty , commissions of the peace and magistrates' courts to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. The Act also extended the rights of the Duchy of Lancaster to appoint Lord-Lieutenants for the shrunken Lancashire along with all of Greater Manchester and Merseyside . Before

1512-405: The commission's recommendations, such as its proposals to abolish Rutland or to reorganise Tyneside , were ignored in favour of the status quo. 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

1566-587: The concept of unifying estuaries, through the creation of the county of Humberside on the Humber Estuary , and the inclusion of Harwich and Colchester in Suffolk to unify the Stour Estuary . The latter was removed from the Bill before it became law. Proposals from Plymouth for a Tamarside county were rejected. The Bill also provided names for the new counties for the first time. The main amendments made to

1620-505: The counties in which they were physically situated. The county areas were two-tier, with many municipal boroughs , urban districts and rural districts within them, each with its own council. 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 32 London boroughs , covering

1674-690: 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, the Urban District Councils Association and the Rural District Councils Association. The White Paper outlined principles, including an acceptance of the minimum population of 250,000 for education authorities in

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1728-481: 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) The new district in Suffolk was necessitated by the decision to keep Newmarket in Suffolk; which would otherwise have become part of

1782-538: The county councils The remaining rural districts in County Dublin were similarly abolished in 1930 by the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1930 . The former boundaries of the rural districts in the Republic of Ireland continue to be used for statistical purposes and defining constituencies. In Northern Ireland, rural districts continued to exist until 1973 when they were abolished (along with all other local government of

1836-443: 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 . The office previously known as sheriff was retitled high sheriff. 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

1890-409: The earlier system of sanitary districts (themselves based on poor law unions , but not replacing them). Each rural district had an elected rural district council (RDC), which inherited the functions of the earlier sanitary districts, but also had wider authority over matters such as local planning, council housing , and playgrounds and cemeteries. Matters such as education and major roads were

1944-555: The exception of Clwyd (which was named after the River Clwyd ) the names of the counties 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. After much comment, the proposals were introduced as

1998-463: The following decades led to some rural districts being redefined as urban districts or merging with existing urban districts or boroughs. Other rural districts proved to be too small or poor to be viable, and under the Local Government Act 1929 , 236 rural districts were abolished and merged or amalgamated into larger units. Further mergers took place over following decades and by 1965 the number of districts had been reduced to 473. The typical shape of

2052-449: The gradual cultural anglicisation of some eastern parts of the county. By the late 19th century the area was often treated in legislation as one with Wales, using the terminology "Wales and Monmouthshire", although it remained legally part of England. Apart from the new Glamorgan authorities, all the names of the new Welsh counties were in the Welsh language , with no English equivalent. With

2106-400: The handover date. Elections to county councils were held on 12 April, for metropolitan and Welsh districts on 10 May, and for non-metropolitan district councils on 7 June. 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

2160-511: 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

2214-440: The metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1986, and both county and district councils have been replaced with unitary authorities in many areas since the 1990s. In Wales, too, the Act established a similar pattern of counties and districts , but these have since been entirely replaced with a system of unitary authorities . Elections were held to the new authorities in 1973, and they acted as "shadow authorities" until

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2268-589: The new authorities could start exercising full powers on 1 April 1974. The White Paper made no commitments on regional or provincial government, since the Conservative government preferred to wait for the Crowther Commission to report. The proposals were substantially changed with the introduction of the Bill into Parliament in November 1971: The Bill as introduced also included two new major changes based on

2322-615: The old pattern) and replaced with a system of unitary districts . Rural districts also existed in the Canadian province of Newfoundland to govern certain rural communities. Under Newfoundland's Local Government Act , rural districts and towns together formed the province's municipalities. Under the Municipalities Act , effective April 1, 1980, rural districts where abolished and automatically turned into towns. Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70)

2376-427: The passing of the Act, there were a total of 1,210 councils in England (excluding Greater London councils and the Isles of Scilly). This was made up of 1,086 rural and urban districts (including non-county boroughs), 79 county boroughs and 45 counties. The Act reduced the total number of councils outside Greater London and the Isles of Scilly to 377 (45 counties and 332 districts). Most of the new districts were groups of

2430-464: The pattern of urban development had become clear. For example, in 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 ). Many county boundaries reflected traditions of

2484-410: The responsibility of county councils . Until 1930 the rural district councillors were also poor law guardians for the unions of which they formed part. Each parish was represented by one or more councillors. Originally there were 787 rural districts in England and Wales, as they were based directly upon the sanitary districts and poor law unions which had preceded them. Gradual urbanisation over

2538-406: 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 (creating Gwynedd in

2592-454: The smaller having a population of 499,000 (as of 1968), while the AMC proposal would divide the same area into seven local authorities, ranging in population from 161,000 to 306,000. The incoming government's proposals for England were presented in a White Paper published in February 1971. The White Paper substantially trimmed the metropolitan areas, and proposed a two-tier structure for the rest of

2646-563: The time despite considerable opposition, but the Conservative Party won the June 1970 general election on a manifesto that committed it to a two-tier structure. The new government made Peter Walker and Graham Page the ministers, and quickly dropped the Redcliffe-Maud report. They invited comments from interested parties regarding the previous government's proposals. The Association of Municipal Corporations, an advocacy group representing

2700-399: The west and Clwyd in the east) 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. After the 1970 general election , the new Conservative government published

2754-811: The whole areas of former districts, although 64 rural districts were split between new districts, and there were eleven urban districts or boroughs which saw their territory split between new districts: Teesside County Borough , Whitley Bay Municipal Borough, Ashton-in-Makerfield Urban District, Billinge and Winstanley Urban District , Golborne Urban District, Lakes Urban District , Queensbury and Shelf Urban District , Ramsbottom Urban District , Seaton Valley Urban District , Thurrock Urban District , and Turton Urban District . A list of non-metropolitan districts can be found at List of English districts . The Local Government Boundary Commission originally proposed 278 non-metropolitan districts in April 1972 (still working with

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2808-456: Was able to secure its treatment as a single district despite not meeting 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. The background of

2862-741: 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. In October, the government brought up this issue again, proposing an amendment to put the western part of Lymington borough in Dorset. The amendment was withdrawn. 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

2916-626: 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 . Within districts some inconsistency prevailed. For example, in Welwyn Hatfield District in Hertfordshire, which comprised Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield and Old Welwyn, Hatfield retained

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