Editing Local Government Act 1972 (section)

==Act==

After much comment, the proposals were introduced as 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 county|metropolitan counties]], containing [[metropolitan borough]]s instead. The allocation of functions differed between the metropolitan and the non-metropolitan areas (the so-called "[[shire county|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 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 council]]s. Within districts some inconsistency prevailed.  For example, in Welwyn Hatfield District in Hertfordshire, which comprised Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield and Old Welwyn, Hatfield retained 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 (law)|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 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 [[alderman|aldermen]].  The office previously known as sheriff was retitled high sheriff.<ref>"Sheriffs appointed for a county or Greater London shall be known as high sheriffs, and any reference in any enactment or instrument to a sheriff shall be construed accordingly in relation to sheriffs for a county or Greater London." ({{cite web|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/70/section/219Local |title=Government Act 1972: Section 219 }}{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }})</ref> 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 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]].