Municipalities in Norway are the basic unit of local government. Norway is divided into 15 administrative regions, called counties . These counties are subdivided into 357 municipalities (as of 2024). The capital city Oslo is both a county and a municipality.
15-545: Vestby is a municipality in Akershus county , Norway. It is part of the Follo traditional region . The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vestby. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Vestby farm ( Old Norse : Vestbýr ), since the first church was built here. The first element is vestr which means "west" and the last element is býr meaning "farm". The neighbouring farms have
30-594: A four-year term . A subdivision of the full council is the executive council ( formannskap ), composed of five members. Historically, the council has been known as a herredstrye , using the old name for a municipality. H Schei Committee The Schei Committee ( Norwegian : Schei-komitéen ) was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post- World War II . It convened in 1946, and its formal name
45-437: Is tjïelte . Each municipality has its own governmental leaders: the mayor ( ordfører ( Bokmål ) or ordførar ( Nynorsk ) ) and the municipal council ( kommunestyre ). The mayor is the executive leader. The municipal council is the deliberative and legislative body of the municipality and it is the highest governing body in the municipality. The members of the municipal council are elected for
60-484: Is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. Law enforcement and church services are provided at a national level in Norway. Municipalities are undergoing continuous change by dividing, consolidating, and adjusting boundaries. In 1930, there were 747 municipalities in Norway. As of 2024, there are 357 municipalities. See the list of former municipalities of Norway for further details about municipal mergers. The consolidation effort has been underway since
75-435: Is twinned with the following municipality: Municipalities of Norway Municipalities are responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services , senior citizen services, welfare and other social services , zoning , economic development , and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor
90-450: Is the same in both Bokmål and Nynorsk). The Norwegian word kommune is loaned from the French word commune , which ultimately derives from Latin word communia , communis ("common"). The Kven equivalent is kommuuni . Historically, the word herred ( Bokmål ) or herad ( Nynorsk ) was used in Norway as the name for municipalities. That word derived from
105-501: The Oslofjord is called Zoon Water . Vestby was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt ). The municipality and lading place of Hølen was merged with Vestby on 1 July 1943. The municipality and lading place of Son was merged with Vestby on 1 January 1964. (The lading place of Hvitsten in Vestby has never been a municipality of its own.) Vestby includes
120-501: The 1840s and later settled in the area of the present city of Westby, Wisconsin (named after general store owner and American Civil War Union soldier Ole T. Westby); a city which still has a mostly Norwegian American population. Hølen became known for the production of timber. It became a lading place in the 17th century. From the Renaissance until the 18th century, Son was an important harbour. On some Dutch maps from that time,
135-509: The municipality: Vestby, Garder , and Såner . At the same time they also represent the three natural harbors in the area: Emmerstad, Kjøvangen, and Sonskilen. Archaeological research in Hølen has confirmed that the area has been populated since about 2400 BC. There are various archeological finds in the area, such as the ones from the Bronze Age . Many Norwegian emigrants went to America during
150-425: The names Østby ("eastern farm"), Sunnby ("southern farm"), and Nordby ("northern farm"); and they must all four be the parts of a bigger and older farm, whose name is now unknown. The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 18 June 1982 and designed by Bjørn Linnestad. The arms show three gold bottony crosses on a red background, two over one. They represent the three original parishes in
165-480: The old hundred that was used all over northern Europe. Since the 1960s, that name has fallen out of use across Norway, although a small group of municipalities in the Hardanger region of Western Norway still use the name herad such as Voss herad , Ulvik herad , and Kvam herad . Ullensvang Municipality used the name herad until 2020. Norway also has some municipalities that are bilingual or trilingual due to
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#1732852281046180-519: The presence of many native Sami people living there. In Northern Sámi , there are two words for a municipality: suohkan and gielda . Both are loan words from Scandinavian languages, the first of which is related to the Norwegian words sokn and sogn (a parish). The second term is related to the Norwegian word gjeld ( prestegjeld ). Lule Sámi likewise has two words for municipalities: suohkan and giellda . The Southern Sámi word
195-436: The villages Vestby, Hølen , Hvitsten , Garder, and Son . Recently urbanized areas are Randem, Pepperstad skog, and Sole skog. Randem is located north of the municipal centre, Vestby, and includes an industrial area. Pepperstad is located southwest of Vestby, by the road 155. Sole skog lies west of the centre. The village of Vestby has 5,424 inhabitants (2006). All the small towns together have over 13,000 inhabitants. Vestby
210-754: The work of the Schei Committee in the 1960s. This work has been complicated by a number of factors. Since block grants are made by the national government to the municipalities based on an assessment of need, there is little incentive for the municipalities to lose local autonomy. The national policy is that municipalities should only merge voluntarily, and studies are underway to identify potential gains. There are two different writing standards in Norway: Bokmål and Nynorsk . Norwegian municipalities are named kommuner ( Bokmål ) or kommunar ( Nynorsk ) (plural) or kommune (the singular form
225-417: Was Kommuneinndelingskomiteen av 1946 (The 1946 Committee on Municipal Division). Its more commonly used name derives from the committee leader, Nikolai Schei , who was County Governor of Sogn og Fjordane at the time. The committee concluded its work in 1962. By that time, it had published an eighteen-volume work called Kommuneinndelingskomitéens endelige tilråding om kommunedelingen . The findings of
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