Local Government Act 1888

Local Government Act 1888

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to amend the Laws relating to Local Government in England and Wales, and for other purposes connected therewith.
Citation	51 & 52 Vict. c. 41
Introduced by	Charles Ritchie
Territorial extent	England and Wales
Dates
Royal assent	13 August 1888
Commencement	1 April 1889 (1889-04-01)
Other legislation
Amended by	Local Government Act 1933 Public Health Act 1936 Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act 1951 Customs and Excise Act 1952 Local Government Act 1958 Police Act 1964 Theatre Act 1968 Local Government Act 1972
Relates to	Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 Local Government Act 1894 Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898
Status: Partially repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) was an Act of Parliament which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales. It came into effect on 1 April 1889, except for the County of London, which came into existence on 21 March at the request of the London County Council. ^[1]

The Bill

Following the 1886 general election, a Conservative administration headed by Lord Salisbury was formed. However the Conservatives did not have a majority of seats and had to rely on the support of the Liberal Unionist Party. As part of the price for this support the Liberal Unionists demanded that a bill be introduced placing county government under the control of elected councils, modelled on the borough councils introduced by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. ^[2]

Accordingly, the Local Government (England and Wales) Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 19 March 1888, by the President of the Local Government Board, Charles Ritchie. The Bill proposed the creation of elected county councils to take over the administrative functions of the magistrates of the Quarter Sessions courts, that ten large cities should be "counties of themselves" for the purposes of local government and that each county was to be divided into urban and rural districts, based on existing sanitary districts, governed by a district council. The county and district councils were to consist partly of directly elected "elective councillors" and partly of "selected councillors", chosen by the elective councillors in a similar manner to aldermen in municipal boroughs.

The counties to be used for local government were to be the historic counties of England and Wales. A county council was to be formed for each of the ridings of Yorkshire and the three divisions of Lincolnshire (Holland, Kesteven and Lindsey). In addition a new County of London was to be formed from the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works. This would have led to the creation of fifty-seven county councils. The boundaries of the counties were to be those used for parliamentary purposes, adjusted to include urban sanitary districts on county borders within a single county.

The ten cities first identified to be dealt with as separate counties were Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Bradford, Nottingham, Kingston-on-Hull, and Newcastle upon Tyne.

Existing urban and rural sanitary districts, created in 1872, were to be redesignated as urban and rural districts. Urban such districts that straddled counties became destined for the county with the bulk of their population as at the 1881 census, by enlarging the latter. Existing rural sanitary districts so straddling were to split on county lines to form rural districts.

Passage through Parliament

There were a large number of changes to the Bill as it passed through parliament. The terms administrative county and county borough were introduced to designate the new areas of local government, while the "selected councillors" became "county aldermen". The government withdrew the sections relating to the creation of district councils, which were eventually brought into existence by the Local Government Act 1894.

Members of both houses made representations on behalf of counties and boroughs, and this led to an increase in the number of local authorities.

• The eastern and western divisions of Sussex became administrative counties ^[3]
• The Isle of Ely was separated from Cambridgeshire ^[4]
• The eastern and western divisions of Suffolk were divided for local government purposes. ^[5]
• The Soke of Peterborough was separated from the remainder of Northamptonshire. ^[6]

Attempts to create administrative counties for the Cinque Ports and Staffordshire Potteries were not successful.

The normal population threshold for county borough status was lowered twice, firstly to 100,000, then to 50,000. A number of smaller counties corporate were also given county borough status. Mr Ritchie conceded on 8 June:

"Now that they had gone down so far in population as 50,000 there arose a question as to the admission of boroughs which had not so large a population as 50,000, but which had very peculiar claims. He referred to the counties of cities. [...] Two or three of these cities had so small a population that he did not propose to deal with them in this way. The best course was to give the names of the cities which he proposed to include. They were Exeter, Lincoln, Chester, Gloucester, Worcester, and Canterbury."

The effect of these changes was to increase the number of county boroughs from ten to fifty-nine. With a population of around 50,000 at the 1881 census, the City of London was initially proposed for county borough status. ^[7]

County councils

These were subject to triennial elections, ^[8] the first taking place in January 1889. Those elected in 1889 were known as "provisional" councils until coming into their powers on 1 April. The divisions of the county for the purpose of the election of county councillors became fixed, under a key definition of the Act, "as electoral divisions and not wards", ^[9] and "one county councillor only shall be elected for each". ^[9] Following the election, the county councillors then elected county aldermen, there being one alderman for every three councillors. The London County Council had its own section of the Act, prescribing two councillors to be elected for each Commons constituency, and a ratio of "not more than" one alderman to six councillors. ^[10] The councillors appointed the council's "Chairman instead of mayor" ^[11] and Vice Chairman, who had a one-year term of office and could be reappointed. As to natural persons section 1 of the Act states every such council shall "consist of the chairman, aldermen, and councillors". ^[12] The Chairman would upon (this ex officio, by virtue of office) the selecting of that person (co-option) be entitled to be a Justice of the Peace but needed take the oaths of that office "before acting as such justice", ^[13] aside from the oath as to having local real estate as they had already met the equivalent requirement to become a councillor or alderman. ^[14]

Powers

The powers and responsibilities transferred from the quarter sessions to the councils were enumerated in the Act. These included:

• Making and levying of rates
• Borrowing of money
• Passing of county accounts
• Maintenance and construction of county buildings such as shire halls, county halls, court houses and police stations
• Licensing of places of entertainment and of race courses
• Provisions of asylums for pauper lunatics
• Establishment and maintenance of reformatory and industrial schools
• Repair of county roads and bridges ^{[lower-alpha 1]}
• Appointment, dismissal and setting of salaries for county officers
• Division of the county into polling places for parliamentary elections, and the provision of polling stations
• Control of contagious diseases in animals, and of destructive insects
• Fish conservancy and control of wild birds
• Weights and measures

County borough corporations also exercised these powers, in addition to those of a municipal borough.

1. The council could also declare a road a "main road" and take over its maintenance, and purchase existing bridges or build new ones.

Standing joint committees

Control of the county police was to be exercised jointly by the quarter sessions and the county council through a standing joint committee. The committees were replaced by police authorities by the Police Act 1964.

Counties for other purposes

The Act ensured that the boundaries used for what it self-defined as "non-administrative purposes" would match the borders set between the administrative counties. These purposes were stated to be "sheriff, lieutenant, custos rotulorum, justices, militia, coroner, or other", ^[15] thus approximating to the functions of modern ceremonial counties.

The counties of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Suffolk, Sussex and Yorkshire were undivided so far as they were one county at the passing of the Act. ^[16] The three ridings of Yorkshire and the three parts of Lincolnshire therefore retained their status.

County boroughs were to be administrative counties of themselves. ^[17] The Act provided that each county borough that had previously been part of a county (i.e., was not a county corporate) should continue to be part of that county for non-administrative purposes. ^[17] If a county borough did not have a separate commission of assize, oyer and terminer and jury service, or gaol delivery, it was deemed to be part of one or more adjoining counties for those purposes. ^[17] The Act also provided for certain financial adjustments between county boroughs and adjoining counties. ^[18]

The Act did not in terms affect the status of cities and towns which were counties corporate. Most of the counties corporate became county boroughs and therefore administrative counties of themselves, but while other county boroughs continued to be part of their existing counties for all other purposes, that did not apply to existing counties corporate. ^[17] Those that did not become county boroughs became part of adjacent administrative counties but retained their existing lieutenancies and shrievalties. ^[19]

Other provisions

Under section 48 of the Act all liberties and franchises, with the exception of those that became separate administrative counties, merged with the county they formed part of for parliamentary elections. The Cinque Ports, together with "the two ancient towns and their members" (which for some purposes, such as lieutenancy, were considered a distinct county), were to become part of the county where they were situated. Section 49 allowed for the creation by provisional order of a Council for the Scilly Islands to be established as a unitary authority outside the administrative county of Cornwall. This was duly formed in 1890 as the Isles of Scilly Rural District.

List of administrative counties and county boroughs created in 1889

England

Geographical county	Administrative county	County boroughs
Bedfordshire	Bedfordshire
Berkshire	Berkshire	Reading
Buckinghamshire	Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire	Cambridgeshire
	Isle of Ely
Cheshire	Cheshire	Birkenhead, Chester, Stockport (part)
Cornwall	Cornwall
	Isles of Scilly [lower-alpha 1]
Cumberland	Cumberland	Carlisle
Derbyshire	Derbyshire	Derby
Devon	Devon	Devonport, Exeter, Plymouth
Dorset	Dorset
Durham	Durham	Gateshead, South Shields, Sunderland
Essex	Essex	West Ham
Gloucestershire	Gloucestershire	Bristol (part), Gloucester
Hampshire	Hampshire	Portsmouth, Southampton
	Isle of Wight [lower-alpha 2]
Herefordshire	Herefordshire
Hertfordshire	Hertfordshire
Huntingdonshire	Huntingdonshire
Kent	Kent	Canterbury
Lancashire	Lancashire	Barrow, Blackburn, Bolton, Bootle cum Linacre, Burnley, Bury, Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale, St Helens, Salford, Stockport (part), Wigan
Leicestershire	Leicestershire	Leicester
Lincolnshire	Lincolnshire, Parts of Holland
	Lincolnshire, Parts of Kesteven
	Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey	Lincoln
London	London	City of London: remained a separate county, but returned members to the London County Council, which exercised some powers within the City.
Middlesex	Middlesex
Monmouthshire	Monmouthshire	Newport [lower-alpha 3]
Norfolk	Norfolk	Norwich, Great Yarmouth (part)
Northamptonshire	Northamptonshire	Northampton
	Soke of Peterborough
Northumberland	Northumberland	Newcastle upon Tyne
Nottinghamshire	Nottinghamshire	Nottingham
Oxfordshire	Oxfordshire	Oxford [lower-alpha 4]
Rutland	Rutland
Shropshire	Shropshire
Somerset	Somerset	Bath, Bristol (part)
Staffordshire	Staffordshire	Hanley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton
Suffolk	East Suffolk	Ipswich, Great Yarmouth (part)
	West Suffolk
Surrey	Surrey	Croydon
Sussex	East Sussex	Brighton, Hastings
	West Sussex
Warwickshire	Warwickshire	Birmingham, Coventry
Westmorland	Westmorland
Wiltshire	Wiltshire
Worcestershire	Worcestershire	Dudley, Worcester
Yorkshire	Yorkshire, East Riding	Kingston-upon-Hull, York (part)
	Yorkshire, North Riding	Middlesbrough, York (part)
	Yorkshire, West Riding	Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Sheffield, York (part)

1. From 1890 the Scilly Isles were separated from the County of Cornwall for administrative purposes.
2. From 1 April 1890 the Isle of Wight was separated from the County of Hampshire to form an administrative county. ^[20]
3. Newport became a county borough in 1891.
4. Oxford was not made a county borough directly by the 1888 Act, and so was included in the administrative county of Oxfordshire at first, but it was elevated to county borough status seven months later in November 1889. ^[21]

Wales

Geographic county	Administrative county	County boroughs
Anglesey	Anglesey
Brecknockshire	Brecknockshire
Carnarvonshire	Carnarvonshire
Cardiganshire	Cardiganshire
Carmarthenshire	Carmarthenshire
Denbighshire	Denbighshire
Flintshire	Flintshire
Glamorgan	Glamorgan	Cardiff	Swansea
Merioneth	Merioneth
Montgomeryshire	Montgomeryshire
Pembrokeshire	Pembrokeshire
Radnorshire	Radnorshire

Towns on county boundaries

Thirty-five urban sanitary districts straddled counties. County boundaries were thus changed as set out in Bill, above. ^{[22] [23] [24]}

Counties until 1889	Urban sanitary district	Administrative county or county borough from 1889
Berkshire and Oxfordshire	Oxford	County Borough of Oxford
Breconshire and Glamorgan	Merthyr Tydfil	Glamorgan
Breconshire and Monmouthshire	Ebbw Vale	Monmouthshire
	Tredegar	Monmouthshire
Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire	Cardigan	Cardiganshire
Cambridgeshire and Suffolk	Newmarket	West Suffolk
Cheshire and Derbyshire	New Mills	Derbyshire
Cheshire and Lancashire	Hyde	Cheshire
	Stalybridge	Cheshire
	Stockport	County Borough of Stockport
	Warrington	Lancashire
Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire, West Riding	Mossley	Lancashire
Derbyshire and Staffordshire	Burton upon Trent	Staffordshire
Durham and Yorkshire, North Riding	Barnard Castle	Durham
	South Stockton	Yorkshire, North Riding
	Stockton-on-Tees	Durham
Essex and Suffolk	Sudbury	West Suffolk
Gloucestershire and Somerset	Bristol	County Borough of Bristol
Hertfordshire and Middlesex	East Barnet Valley	Hertfordshire
	Barnet	Hertfordshire
Kent and Sussex	Tunbridge Wells	Kent
Lancashire and Yorkshire, West Riding	Todmorden	Yorkshire, West Riding
Leicestershire and Northamptonshire	Market Harborough	Leicestershire
Leicestershire and Warwickshire	Hinckley	Leicestershire
Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire	Stamford	Lincolnshire, Parts of Kesteven
Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, West Riding	Crowle	Lincolnshire, Parts of Lindsey
	Goole	Yorkshire, West Riding
Norfolk and Suffolk	Great Yarmouth	County Borough of Great Yarmouth
	Thetford	Norfolk
Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire	Banbury	Oxfordshire
Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire	Peterborough	Soke of Peterborough
Staffordshire and Warwickshire	Tamworth	Staffordshire
Warwickshire and Worcestershire	Redditch	Worcestershire
Yorkshire, East Riding and Yorkshire, North Riding	Filey	Yorkshire, East Riding
	Malton	North Riding initially, but Norton removed from district and returned to East Riding later in 1889 and made its own district in 1890, leaving the reduced Malton in North Riding

See also

• History of local government in England
• History of local government in Wales

References

1. "Order of the President of the Local Government Board", 19 March 1889 (Printed in The Times, 21 March 1889)
2. B. Keith-Lucas, Government of the County in England, The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 1. (March 1956), pp. 44-55.
3. Amendment by Walter Barttelot, MP for Horsham, 13 July 1888 (The Times, 14 July 1888)
4. Amendment by Captain Selwyn, 13 July 1888 (The Times, 14 July 1888)
5. Amendment by Lord Bristol, 6 August 1888 (The Times, 7 August 1888)
6. Amendment by Lord Exeter, 6 August 1888 (The Times, 7 August 1888)
7. Davis, J., Reforming London, (1988)
8. Local Government Act 1888, s.2(2)(d)
9. Local Government Act 1888, s.2(2)(e)
10. Local Government Act 1888, s.40
11. Local Government Act 1888, s.2(2)(e)
12. Local Government Act 1888, s.1 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/51-52/41/contents/enacted
13. Local Government Act 1888, s.2(5)
14. Local Government Act 1888, s.2(5)(b)
15. Section 59
16. Section 59(a)
17. Section 31
18. Section 32
19. Section 59(b)
20. Local Government Board's Provisional Order Confirmation (No.2) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. C.clxxvii)
21. Annual Report of the Local Government Board. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1890. p. 324. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
22. "Urban Sanitary Authorities". The County Companion Diary, Statistical Chronicle and Magisterial and Official Directory. London: Waterlow & Sons Ltd. 1882. p. vii.
23. Youngs, Frederic A Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. pp. 556–707. ISBN   0-901050-67-9.
24. Youngs, Frederic A Jr. (1991). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.2: Northern England. London: Royal Historical Society. pp. 635–794. ISBN   0-86193-127-0.