Districts of Northern Ireland
Encyclopedia : D : DI : DIS : Districts of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is divided into 26 districts for local government purposes. The councils do not carry out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the United Kingdom, e.g. they have no responsibility for education, for road building or for housing (though they do nominate members to the advisory Northern Ireland Housing Council). Their functions do include waste and recycling services, leisure and community services, building control and local economic and cultural development. They are not planning authorities, but are consulted on some planning applications. Collection of rates is handled by the Rate Collection Agency.
The council of the districts are variously styled 'District Council', 'Borough Council', 'City Council' and 'City and District Council' - see the articles for the full name.
|
|
The current pattern of local government in Northern Ireland, with 26 councils, was established in 1973 by the Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 and the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 to replace the previous system established by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. The system is based on the recommendations of the Macrory Report, of June 1970, which presupposed the continued existence of the Government of Northern Ireland to act as a regional-level authority.
Councillors are elected for a 4-year term of office under the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system. Elections were last held in May 2005. In order to qualify for election, a councillor must be
- at least 21 years old,
- a British, Commonwealth, Irish or European Union citizen; and
- *either be a local elector for the district;
- *or have during the whole of the 12-month period prior to the election either owned or occupied land in the district, or resided or worked in the district.
Combinations
The districts are combined for various purposes. There are five Education and Library Boards in Northern Ireland, as follows
| Name | Area | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Belfast | 
| |
| 2. | North Eastern | Antrim, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Larne, Magherafelt, Moyle and Newtownabbey | |
| 3. | South Eastern | Ards, Castlereagh, Down, Lisburn and North Down | |
| 4. | Southern | Armagh, Banbridge, Cookstown, Craigavon, Dungannon and South Tyrone, Newry and Mourne | |
| 5. | Western | Derry, Fermanagh, Limavady, Omagh, Strabane | |
There are four Health and Social Services Boards
| Name | Area | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Eastern | Ards, Belfast, Castlereagh, Down, Lisburn, North Down | 
|
| 2. | Northern | Antrim, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Cookstown, Larne, Magherafelt, Moyle and Newtownabbey | |
| 3. | Southern | Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon, Dungannon and South Tyrone, Newry and Mourne | |
| 4. | Western | Derry, Fermanagh, Limavady, Omagh, Strabane |
In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), Northern Ireland is divided into five parts at level 3
| Name | Area | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Belfast | 
| |
| 2. | Outer Belfast | Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, North Down | |
| 3. | East of NI | Antrim, Ards, Ballymena, Banbridge, Craigavon, Down, Larne | |
| 4. | North of NI | Ballymoney, Coleraine, Derry, Limavady, Moyle, Strabane | |
| 5. | West and South of NI | Armagh, Cookstown, Dungannon, Fermanagh, Magherafelt, Newry and Mourne, Omagh | |
2005 proposals
Compared to unitary authorities in England, the Northern Ireland districts have small populations (average population of about 65,000).The district structure and the structure of other areas of public services in Northern Ireland were reviewed by the Review of Public Administration. On 22 November Peter Hain, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced proposals to reduce the number of councils to seven []. Although (outside Belfast) this is the same as the number of traditional counties of Northern Ireland, the borders have been set just about as different to those of the counties as Northern Ireland's geography permits in order to ensure a fairer distribution of population.
The new authorities will have a number of new powers in such areas as planning, local roads functions, regeneration, and fostering community relations, which will be transferred from the existing joint boards and other bodies, that are much closer in size to the proposed local authorities. Legislation will be introduced to prevent serving councillors also being Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly (the so-called dual mandate that was also recently abolished in the Republic). Some people feel that the 7 'new' councils should be the original counties (County Antrim, County Armagh, County Derry/Londonderry, County Down, County Fermanagh and County Tyrone) plus Belfast City. This, however, would not allow for the large variations in population between the counties.
The following combinations will be the starting point for a Local Government Boundary Review [link]:
- Belfast
- (North-East) Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine, Larne, Moyle
- (Around Antrim) Antrim, Carrickfergus, Lisburn, Newtownabbey
- (Down) Ards, Castlereagh, Down, North Down
- (South) Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon, Newry and Mourne
- (North-West) Derry, Limavady, Magherafelt, Strabane
- (South-West) Cookstown, Dungannon and South Tyrone, Fermanagh, Omagh
Another issue is where to place the District Headquarters of each district, with many towns hoping to be the headquarters of their districts.
See also
- List of Northern Ireland districts by population
- List of Northern Ireland districts by area
- List of Northern Ireland districts by community make-up
External links
- [OnlineNI - Local Council Websites]
- [NI Local Government Association]
- [Review of Public Administration NI]
- [Macrory Report]
- [Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971]
- [Northern Ireland Councillor's Handbook]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.