82-422: The South Yorkshire County Council ( SYCC ) — also known as South Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council — was the top-tier local government authority for the metropolitan county of South Yorkshire from 1 April 1974 to 31 March 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services and waste disposal, it was composed of 100 directly elected members drawn from
164-544: A Greater Manchester Combined Authority as an indirectly elected, top tier, strategic authority for Greater Manchester . In 2014 similar indirectly elected combined authorities were established for the metropolitan counties of South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, and two combined authorities were established which each covered a metropolitan county and adjacent non-metropolitan districts: the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority for Merseyside and
246-671: A Lord Lieutenant of South Yorkshire and a High Sheriff . The Sheffield City Region Combined Authority was established on 1 April 2014 as the strategic top-tier authority for South Yorkshire. The combined authority exercises some functions formerly held by SYCC, with powers over transport and economic development. Metropolitan county Metropolitan counties are a subdivision of England which were originally used for local government . There are six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester , Merseyside , South Yorkshire , Tyne and Wear , West Midlands and West Yorkshire . The metropolitan counties were created in 1974 as part of
328-601: A reform of local government in England and Wales. They were the top tier of a two-tier system of counties and metropolitan boroughs , and were created to govern large urban areas. In 1986 their county councils were abolished, and since then the metropolitan counties have had no local government role. The local government functions were largely taken over by the metropolitan boroughs, with joint boards created to co-ordinate some county-wide services. The metropolitan counties are all ceremonial counties which share their borders. All of
410-502: 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
492-572: A 'shadow authority' until the authority was formally established on 1 April 1974. SYCC was abolished on 31 March 1986, just 12 years after it was established, following the Local Government Act 1985 . Its powers were transferred to the four metropolitan borough councils of South Yorkshire (which had shared power with SYCC): Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council , Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council , Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and Sheffield City Council . The first election to
574-660: 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
656-514: 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
738-505: 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
820-603: A decade after they were established, the mostly Labour -controlled metropolitan county councils (MCCs) and the Greater London Council (GLC) had several high-profile clashes with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher about overspending and high rates . Government policy on the issue was considered throughout 1982, and the Conservative Party put a "promise to scrap the metropolitan county councils", and
902-661: 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
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#1733093882216984-610: A hall in Wath, the Royal Ballet in a tent in Norfolk Park, Sheffield), started the planning for Super Tram, and developed, and then opened the huge Rother Valley Country Park. In the Council’s final term of office (after the 1981 Election -- Lab 82% again) it concentrated its energies on innovative forms of job creation to offset the ravages to the industry of the county, caused by the policies of
1066-515: A paper clip”, had no existing County Hall to slot into, unlike West Yorkshire MCC at Wakefield, and to some extent had a clean sheet of paper on which to write its policies. The election in May 1973 produced an overwhelming Labour majority (82 out of 100 Councillors) who, led by Sir Ron Ironmonger, had a radical manifesto ready to go, centred on transport, employment and improving the environment. Specifically they wanted to improve public transport, challenge
1148-516: 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
1230-474: A time of rampant inflation, they soon had the cheapest fares in Britain. Yet there was more to their transport policy than just cheap adult fares. Schoolchildren could travel anywhere for 2p, pensioners travelled free, bus lanes were created, pedestrianisation of shopping precincts completed, but it was cheap fares that was singled out for attention by both supporters and opponents of the policy. The willingness of
1312-402: The Black Country . Most of 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
1394-782: The Borough of Halton unitary authority, and the North East Combined Authority for Tyne and Wear and the unitary authorities of County Durham and Northumberland . In 2017 the West Midlands Combined Authority was established for the West Midlands county. Many of these new combined authorities have elected or are in the process of electing authority-wide regional mayors. Since 1995, the cities of Birmingham, Bristol , Leeds , Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle , Nottingham and Sheffield have assembled together in
1476-678: The Core Cities Group . This organisation accords no distinct legal status on these councils over any other city council in England but appears to be organically moving towards some kind of recognition of their role as regional capitals outside London. Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It
1558-820: The Lieutenancies Act 1997 they remain as ceremonial counties (sometimes called 'geographic counties') which have an appointed Lord Lieutenant . They are also used in certain government statistics, although they no longer appear on Ordnance Survey maps, which show the individual metropolitan boroughs. Some local services are still run on a metropolitan county-wide basis, administered by statutory joint boards and special joint arrangements; these include policing (by joint police authorities ), fire services , public transport (by passenger transport executives ) and waste disposal (in Merseyside and Greater Manchester). These joint boards are made up of councillors appointed by
1640-643: The Local Government Act 1985 ; the MCCs and the GLC were abolished at midnight on 31 March 1986. The last elections to the councils were held in May 1981; elections that would have been held in 1985 were abandoned under the Local Government (Interim Provisions) Act 1984 ; the original plan had been for councillors' terms to expire in April 1985, and for councillors to be replaced by nominees from borough councils until 1986. While
1722-478: 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
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#17330938822161804-638: The North East Combined Authority . The six metropolitan counties and their metropolitan districts are: The idea of creating administrative areas based upon the large conurbations outside London , modelled on the County of London or Greater London , was mooted several times in the 20th century. In 1948, the Local Government Boundary Commission proposed several new counties, including ' South East Lancashire North East Cheshire ' ("Selnec"), and ' South West Lancashire North West Cheshire '. In
1886-508: The Thames Gateway ) was also proposed. The metropolitan counties were created by the Local Government Act 1972 . The county councils were first elected in 1973, and were formally established in April 1974. The metropolitan counties were first created with a two-tier structure of local government. Local government functions were divided between the metropolitan district councils as lower tier authorities and metropolitan county councils as
1968-525: The 1960s the Local Government Commission for England proposed such an arrangement for Tyneside and draft proposals considered it for Selnec. For the West Midlands conurbation , the commission proposed instead a group of contiguous county boroughs with no overall metropolitan authority. The Redcliffe-Maud Report of 1969 proposed the creation of three large "metropolitan areas" based upon
2050-527: 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 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
2132-456: 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
2214-564: 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
2296-414: 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
2378-479: The GLC, in their manifesto for the 1983 general election . The exact details of the reform caused problems. In October 1983, Thatcher's government published a white paper entitled Streamlining the cities which set out detailed plans for the abolition of the MCCs, together with the abolition of the GLC. The bill was announced in the Queen's Speech and was introduced into Parliament soon afterwards. It became
2460-557: 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
2542-619: 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
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2624-532: 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
2706-503: 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
2788-524: The SYCC had achieved. They had encouraged new forms of policing sensitive to communities’ needs and concerns, had become responsible for all of the county’s roads, where they built many much needed by-passes and highway improvements, and successfully competed for a high percentage of the highway contracts against firms from the private sector. SYCC also brought ballet and opera to a county starved of them (the RSC performed in
2870-514: The SYCC to defy not just a Labour Government under Jim Callaghan over cheap fares, but also a much more dangerous opponent in Mrs. Thatcher, earned it the sobriquet “the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire”, a title the Labour members wore with great pride. Although it may not have been the best slogan for attracting inward investment from British and foreign companies. However, for a while the SYCC
2952-618: The Thatcher Government. When Mrs Thatcher defeated the Argentines in the Falklands, enabling her to win the 1983 General Election, it wasn’t just Gen. Galtieri and the Belgrano that were sunk. She now felt confident enough to turn on her “enemies” at home who included Labour local authorities, especially the GLC who she decided to abolish. She also slung the six Met. Counties (all Labour) into
3034-725: The West Riding let alone pine for its return. Then in 2014 the Conservative Government, as part of a wider policy to create big city regions led by an elected mayor, established the Sheffield City Region with strategic planning and transportation powers as the core of its remit. The Sheffield City Region included Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield as well as some adjacent local authorities in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. This continued until 2018 when an elected mayor
3116-542: The abolition of SYCC in 1986, its administrative functions were mostly devolved to the four constituent metropolitan borough councils in South Yorkshire. In practice, many functions continued to be jointly administered by joint authorities supported by the South Yorkshire Joint Secretariat . Although the county council was abolished, South Yorkshire remains a metropolitan and ceremonial county with
3198-496: The abolition of the GLC was highly controversial, the abolition of the MCCs was much less so. The Liberal Party leader David Steel had supported abolition of the MCCs in his 1981 conference speech. The government's stated reasons for the abolition of the MCCs were based on efficiency and their overspending. However the fact that all of the county councils were controlled by the Labour Party led to accusations that their abolition
3280-573: 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
3362-519: 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
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3444-496: The borders had been set before 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
3526-491: 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
3608-454: 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,
3690-473: The boroughs. Since 2000, the metropolitan counties have been used as the areas of joint local transport plans . In 1999, following a successful referendum, the Labour government under Tony Blair legislated to create a strategic authority for London (the Greater London Authority ). Despite some talk of doing so, no bodies were established to replace the MCCs. The Blair government instead pursued
3772-451: 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
3854-587: 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
3936-555: The conurbations surrounding Manchester , Liverpool and Birmingham (Selnec, Merseyside , and West Midlands ), which were to have both metropolitan councils covering the entire areas, and district councils covering parts. Harold Wilson 's government published a white paper broadly accepting these recommendations, and adding South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire as metropolitan areas. The proposals were radically altered when Edward Heath 's Conservative government came to power in 1970. The Conservatives' local government white paper
4018-407: The council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority before coming into its powers on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council from 1973 until its abolition in 1986 was always held by the Labour Party : The first leader of the council , Ron Ironmonger, had been the last leader of the old Sheffield City Council . The leaders of South Yorkshire County Council were: Following
4100-690: 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
4182-502: The county borough of Southport , was added to Merseyside in the bill, at the local council's request. Several other proposals for metropolitan counties were made during the bill's passage, including a revival of the proposal for Hampshire (either the southern part or all of it) and central Lancashire . A Thamesside metropolitan county, covering areas of north Kent and south Essex on the Thames Estuary (and now considered part of
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#17330938822164264-481: 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
4346-443: 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
4428-452: The efficacy of urban motorways, clear slag heaps and rectify the disastrous environmental detritus of two centuries of heavy industry and mining. They also decided to base themselves in Barnsley, and set up their “County Hall” in newly built offices in the centre of town. The SYCC became closely identified with a cheap bus fares policy, where, by the simple expedient of not raising bus fares at
4510-494: The elected Mayor of Doncaster. In 2021 the authority was renamed the South Yorkshire Combined Mayoral Authority and former SYCC members and staff felt that the legitimacy of their work and achievements had finally been recognised and they were no longer just a footnote in history. SYCC was constituted by the Local Government Act 1972 and elections in 1973 resulted in the county council acting as
4592-555: 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
4674-400: The first time in 1888, covering areas known as administrative counties. Some large towns, known as county boroughs , were politically independent from 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,
4756-517: The four metropolitan boroughs of South Yorkshire: Barnsley , Doncaster , Rotherham and Sheffield . The short life of the South Yorkshire County Council was a busy, productive one as well as seeing its fair share of controversy. The SYCC (it never used the title Met.) was first elected in 1973 and given a year to play itself in, while establishing its staff, buildings and equipment. It boasted that, “it started life without even
4838-449: 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
4920-622: The idea of elected regional assemblies , although after an unsuccessful referendum in the most positive region, the North East, this idea now has few proponents. The idea of city regions has been proposed subsequently, although the 2006 local government white paper had no firm proposals for formal recognition of this concept. This changed in 2010 when the Government accepted a proposal from the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities to establish
5002-511: 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
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#17330938822165084-447: The metropolitan boroughs belong to combined authorities , which are statutory bodies introduced in 2011 that allow local authorities to voluntarily pool responsibilities and collaborate. The combined authorities for Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire cover the same areas as the metropolitan counties; the boroughs of Merseyside are part of the Liverpool City Region , and those of Tyne and Wear are part of
5166-420: The metropolitan county councils was as follows: The metropolitan counties are sometimes referred to as "former metropolitan counties", although this description is not entirely correct. The county councils were abolished, but under the Local Government Act 1972, the counties themselves remain in existence, although they no longer exist in ISO 3166-2:GB as extant administrative subdivisions. By virtue of
5248-603: 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 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
5330-422: 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
5412-427: 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
5494-409: The sacrificial pot as well. SYCC put up a three year fight to survive but in the end the Council went out of existence on 31st March 1986. However, there still is a South Yorkshire County; it has a Lord Lieutenant but not a county council. As a geographical concept South Yorkshire is well established, unlike the now defunct Humberside or Avon, that were also new counties in 1974, while few now remember
5576-406: 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
5658-408: 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
5740-457: 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
5822-673: The upper tier. The structure differed from the non-metropolitan counties in the allocation of powers between the county and district councils. The metropolitan districts had more powers than non-metropolitan districts , in that they were additionally responsible for education and social services, responsibilities allocated to county councils elsewhere. The metropolitan county councils were intended to be strategic authorities that ran regional services such as main roads, public transport, emergency services, civil protection, waste disposal, and strategic town and country planning . The metropolitan county councils functioned between 1974 and 1986. Just
5904-399: 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
5986-763: 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
6068-456: 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
6150-537: Was finally chosen, but only by the electorate of the four South Yorkshire Districts. Dan Jarvis, the Labour MP for Barnsley, won that contest and the new arrangements looked even more like the return of the old County Council except that there was no council of democratically elected councillors. Instead there was an authority whose members were just the new Mayor, plus the Leaders of Barnsley, Rotherham and Sheffield councils and
6232-741: 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
6314-474: Was motivated by party politics: the general secretary of the National and Local Government Officers' Association described it as a "completely cynical manoeuvre". Merseyside in particular put up a struggle against abolition. Most of the functions of the MCCs passed either to the metropolitan borough councils, or to joint boards. Some assets were given to residuary bodies for disposal. The split of functions from
6396-593: 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 the metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1986, and both county and district councils have been replaced with unitary authorities in many areas since
6478-475: Was practicable, and the new white paper proposals generally reduced the metropolitan counties to the continuously built up area. Many areas on the edges were excluded from the metropolitan counties when the bill was passed: Easington , Harrogate , Knaresborough , Ellesmere Port , Neston , New Mills , Whaley Bridge and Glossop ; other areas were excluded during the bill's passage, such as Seaham , Skelmersdale and Holland , Poynton and Wilmslow . One area,
6560-602: Was published in February 1971, naming the metropolitan areas "metropolitan counties", and giving them as "Merseyside, south-east Lancashire and north-east Cheshire, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and the Tyne and Wear area". The proposed counties were also far smaller than in the original proposals; they were trimmed at each successive stage. The Redcliffe-Maud Report had included Chester in Merseyside and Redditch and Stafford in West Midlands. The Conservative policy favoured retaining historic boundaries as far as
6642-626: 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
6724-416: Was the toast of Labour local authorities, and many, like Ken Livingstone’s GLC, saw it as a model when considering their own urban traffic and transport problems. In the 1977 English County Council elections, SYCC was one of only three English counties to remain Labour controlled (62% of the council) and it was seen as endorsement by the public of the cheap fares policy, as well as the other improvements
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