What is the structure of UK Local Government?
The set-up of UK Local Government is extremely confusing even to those of us who live here. This is the result of a complete re-organisation in 1973 and further partial re-organisations in 1986 and the 1990s. I will try to explain. Up until the last set of changes made in 1995-1998 there were two models of service provision: • A) Outside the major urban areas, services were provided by two tiers of councils in England: COUNTY COUNCILS each covering a population in a rough range 500,000 – 1,500,000: and DISTRICT COUNCILS, between 4-14 within each County Council area, each covering a population about 100,000. Local District functions were divided between the two tiers as follows: County CouncilsDistrict CouncilsDivided Education Social services Transport Strategic planning Fire services Consumer protection Refuse disposal Smallholdings Libraries Local planning Housing Local highways Building regulation Environmental health Refuse collection Recreation Cultural matters (Scotland and Wales
