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Local Government Act 1958

Encyclopedia : L : LO : LOC : Local Government Act 1958

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The Local Government Act 1958 (6 & 7 Eliz.2 c.55) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom effecting local government in England and Wales outside London. Among its provisions it included the establishment of Local Government Commissions to review the areas and functions of local authorities, and introduced new procedures for carrying these into action.

Contents

Special review areas

The five special review areas consisted of major conurbations outside London: Tyneside, West Yorkshire, South East Lancashire, Merseyside and the West Midlands. A full review was only carried out in the West Midlands when much of the review area was incorporated into five large county boroughs. Later legislation was to reform local government areas and services in these areas. Several police forces in the review areas were combined under the Police Act 1964, the Transport Act 1968 created transport authorities for four of the areas and all of the review areas were eventually to form the nucleus of metropolitan counties in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972.

Tyneside

These areas were all eventually included in the larger metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear (which also included the Sunderland area on Wearside) in 1974

West Yorkshire

In 1974 this area formed the core of the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, which also included some outlying rural areas and towns.

South East Lancashire

Despite the review area's name, much of it was in Cheshire. This was reflected in the area being referred to in later reviews as "south East Lancashire and North East Cheshire" or SELNEC. Although no local government reforms were made under the 1958 Act, a SELNEC passenger transport authority was formed in 1969. A metropolitan county of Greater Manchester was formed in 1974 for a similar area to the SRA, although it excluded Alderley Edge, Disley and Wilmslow.

Merseyside

In 1974 a metropolitan county of Merseyside was formed which had a different area than the 1958 Act SRA. While excluding Ellesmere Port and Neston, which remained in Cheshire, the 1974 boundaries included much more of Lancashire, including Formby, St Helens and Southport.

West Midlands

In 1964 Solihull, with altered boundaries, became a county borough. In 1966 an order altering local government in much of the "Black Country" part of the SRA came into effect creating five large county boroughs of Dudley, Walsall, Warley, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton, which were also to share a police force, the West Midlands Constabulary. A West Midlands passenger transport authority, including Birmingham, was formed in 1969. In 1974 a larger metropolitan county was formed, including Coventry and the intervening countryside.

Metropolitan area

The 1958 Act did not extend to the greater London area where reform of local government was under consideration by the Royal Commission under Sir Edwin Herbert established in the previous year. The area excluded was defined in schedule 5 as:

The commission delivered its report in 1960, and a much modified version of its proposals (excluding outlying districts) was enacted as the London Government Act 1963.

Rural boroughs

A weakness in the county reviews carried out under the earlier Local Government Act 1929 had been that, unlike small urban districts, municipal boroughs of a similar size could not be amalgamated into a surrounding rural district. This was addressed in the 1958 Act, which gave the reviewing county council or local government commission the power to include a non-county borough in a rural district. However, some of the civic dignities of the borough corporation would be retained. The boroughs thus effected would be known as "boroughs included in rural districts", or as rural boroughs.

Rural boroughs were no longer to be governed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, and the corporation was to consist entirely of elected councillors, from whose number a mayor, and deputy mayor were to be chosen annnually. The office of alderman was not to exist in rural boroughs. The council of a rural borough was required to continue to appoint a town clerk, and was permitted to employ such officers and servants as needed to discharge the functions of the borough. All provisions of the borough's charter not inconsistent with its new status were to remain in effect. Rural boroughs were prevented from applying for a new or amended charter, however. If the borough corporation so chose it could surrender its charter, and the borough would be converted into a civil parish governed by a parish council.

Rural boroughs were abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and converted to civil parishes.

Reviews carried out under the Act

Apart from the West Midlands review mentioned above, there were few large-scale changes brought about by the 1958 Act: No changes were made in Wales.

Major changes in Greater London, Huntingdon and Peterborough and Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely that occurred in 1965 were carried out under different legislation.

End of the review process

The Local Government (Termination of Reviews) Act 1967 brought an end to the review process established by the 1958 Act.

The 1967 Act disssolved the two local government commissions, and ended the duty of county councils to review council areas. No report, proposals or notification made by the commissions or councils was to be carried into effect, if submitted after the beginning of 1963 by the Welsh commission, February 10 1966 in the case of the English commission and August 31 1966 by the county councils.

Sources

 

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