Britain: An official handbook > 1956

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BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
Northern Ireland
county councils (6)
county borough councils (2)
borough councils (9)
urban district councils (24)
town commissioners (3)
rural district councils (32).
There are, in addition, the local authorities for London, which are unlike those
in the rest of the United Kingdom. They are:
the London County Council
the Corporation of the City of London
the metropolitan borough councils (28).
Scotland
The local authorities in Scotland are:
county councils (33, of which two pairs are combined for certain purposes)
town councils (197, consisting of: the authorities for counties of cities, 4; other
large burghs, 20; and small burghs, 173)
district councils (199; two counties are not divided into districts).
Functions and Services
It is the primary duty of every local authority to provide and administer such
environmental and social services as it may be required to provide and administer
by an Act of Parliament. It may provide additional services under the permissive
powers of a general Act or under powers granted to it by Private Bill legislation.
The responsibilities of local authorities depend upon the type of council. In
England and Wales and Northern Ireland, for example, county borough councils
are all-purpose authorities, while the county councils and county district councils,
i.e. the councils of non-county boroughs and of urban and rural districts, each
have particular functions allotted to them, which they exercise independently to a
considerable extent, although there is a certain degree of delegation from county
councils to county district councils especially in the fields of education and planning.
In Scotland, the town councils of the counties of cities are all-purpose authorities;
elsewhere the county councils exercise very many local government functions. In
large burghs, they administer education and in some cases the police service, all
other functions being exercised by the town councils. In small burghs, county
councils undertake a number of important functions, but housing and some other
services are administered by the town councils. The smallest authorities (the parish
councils or parish meetings in England and Wales and the district councils in
Scotland) have a few functions which they may exercise of right.
The services provided by the councils, which are described more fully in later
chapters, may be considered under three heads:
1. Environmental Services, which are services designed to secure and improve the
citizens’ surroundings. The majority are public health and sanitary services
administered in England and Wales either by county, county district or parish
councils (in London by the metropolitan borough councils, in Northern Ireland
by the county district councils and in Scotland by the county and town councils),
e.g., the inspection and abatement of nuisances, drainage, sewerage, street cleansing,
refuse collection and disposal, the supervision of water supplies, measures for
ensuring food hygiene (including inspection of premises where food is prepared,
sold or served, and the analysis of food samples), rodent control and the provision of
baths and washhouses. There are also the services for street lighting, public safety
on the highways, and the provision of amenities such as parks and recreation