Editing Local Government Act 1972 (section)

===Background===
Elected [[county council]]s 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 borough]]s, were politically independent from the counties in which they were physically situated. The county areas were two-tier, with many [[municipal borough]]s, [[Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)|urban districts]] and [[rural district]]s within them, each with its own council.<ref name=bryne>{{cite book|last=Bryne|first=T.|title=Local Government in Britain|year=1994}}</ref>

Apart from the creation of new county boroughs, the most significant change since 1899 (and the establishment of [[metropolitan borough]]s in the [[County of London]]) had been the establishment in 1965 of [[Greater London]] and its 32 [[London borough]]s, covering a much larger area than the previous [[county of London]].  A [[Local Government Commission for England (1958 – 1967)|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 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.<ref name=bryne /> 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 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 (county)|West Midlands]], local government was split between three administrative counties ([[Staffordshire]], [[Warwickshire]], and [[Worcestershire]]), and eight county boroughs ([[Birmingham]], [[Coventry]], [[Dudley]], [[Solihull]], [[Walsall]], [[County Borough of Warley|Warley]], [[West Bromwich]], and [[Wolverhampton]]). Many county boundaries reflected traditions of 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 Report|Redcliffe-Maud commission]]). In 1969 it recommended a system of single-tier [[unitary authorities]] for the whole of England, apart from three metropolitan areas of [[Merseyside]], [[Greater Manchester|SELNEC]] (South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire, now known as Greater Manchester) and [[West Midlands (county)|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 (UK)|Labour Party]] government of the time despite considerable opposition,<ref name=bryne /> but the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] won the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|June 1970 general election]] on a manifesto that committed it to a two-tier structure.<ref>{{Cite web|title=1970 Conservative Party Manifesto|url=http://www.conservativemanifesto.com/1970/1970-conservative-manifesto.shtml|access-date=2020-10-18|website=conservativemanifesto.com}}</ref> The new government made [[Peter Walker, Baron Walker of Worcester|Peter Walker]] and [[Graham Page]] the ministers, and quickly dropped the Redcliffe-Maud report.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cabinet drop council house sale curb and Maud proposals|work=The Times|date=30 June 1970}}</ref> They invited comments from interested parties regarding the previous government's proposals.<ref>{{cite news|title=Adapting the Maud report|first=Timothy|last=Raison|work=The Times|date=8 January 1971}}</ref>

The Association of Municipal Corporations, an advocacy group representing 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, 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.<ref>{{cite news|date=9 November 1970|title=Twice as many town-and-country councils proposed in boroughs' response to Maud|url=https://www.thetimes.com/archive/article/1970-11-09/3/1.html?region=global#start%3D1970-11-01%26end%3D1970-11-15%26terms%3D132%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/132/w:1970-11-01%7E1970-11-15/1%26prev%3D/tto/archive/frame/goto/132/w:1970-11-01%7E1970-11-15/4%26next%3D/tto/archive/frame/goto/132/w:1970-11-01%7E1970-11-15/6|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=12 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=13 November 1970|title=Boroughs to press for new 132-council structure|url=https://www.thetimes.com/archive/article/1970-11-13/6/11.html?region=global#start%3D1785-01-01%26end%3D1985-12-31%26terms%3DBoroughs%20132%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/Boroughs+132/w:1785-01-01%7E1985-12-31/1%26next%3D/tto/archive/frame/goto/Boroughs+132/w:1785-01-01%7E1985-12-31/2|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=12 June 2020}}</ref>