Londonderry County Council | |
|---|---|
 | |
| History | |
| Founded | 18 April 1899 |
| Disbanded | 1 October 1973 |
| Succeeded by | Coleraine Borough Council Cookstown District Council Derry City Council Limavady Borough Council Magherafelt District Council |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| County Hall, Coleraine | |
Londonderry County Council was the authority responsible for local government in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
Londonderry County Council was formed under orders issued in accordance with the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 which came into effect on 18 April 1899. [1] It was originally based at the Coleraine Courthouse [2] [3] but moved to County Hall in Coleraine in 1970. [4] It was abolished in accordance with the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 on 1 October 1973. [5]
The counties of Ireland are historic administrative divisions of the island, now used in various contexts. They began as Norman structures, and as the powers exercised by the Cambro-Norman barons and the Old English nobility waned over time, new offices of political control came to be established at a county level.
County Londonderry, also known as County Derry, is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. Before the partition of Ireland, it was one of the counties of the Kingdom of Ireland from 1613 onward and then of the United Kingdom after the Acts of Union 1800. Adjoining the north-west shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,074 km2 and today has a population of about 247,132.
NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent company is the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), and is one of Four publicly owned train operators in the United Kingdom, the others being Direct Rail Services, Northern Trains and LNER. It has a common Board of Management with the other two companies in the group, Ulsterbus and Metro. The rail network in Northern Ireland is not part of the National Rail network of Great Britain, nor does it use Standard Gauge, instead using Irish Gauge in common with the rest of Ireland. Also, NIR is the only commercial non-heritage passenger operator in the United Kingdom to operate a vertical integration model, with responsibility of all aspects of the network including running trains, maintaining rolling stock and infrastructure, and pricing. However, since the Single European Railway Directive 2012, the company has allowed open access operations by other rail operators. In 2017, NI Railways carried 15 million passengers.
The Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966.
The names of the city and county of Derry or Londonderry in Northern Ireland are the subject of a naming dispute between Irish nationalists and unionists. Generally, although not always, nationalists favour using the name Derry, and unionists Londonderry. Legally, the city and county are called "Londonderry", while the local government district containing the city is called "Derry City and Strabane". The naming debate became particularly politicised at the outset of the Troubles, with the mention of either name acting as a shibboleth used to associate the speaker with one of Northern Ireland's two main communities. The district of Derry and Strabane was created in 2015, subsuming a district created in 1973 with the name "Londonderry", which changed to "Derry" in 1984.
The Local Government (Boundaries) Act 1971 was an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, passed in 1971 to replace the previous system of local authorities established by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. The system was based on the recommendations of the Macrory Report, of June 1970, which presupposed the continued existence of the Government of Northern Ireland to act as a regional-level authority.
The Local Government Act 1972 was an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland that constituted district councils to administer the twenty-six local government districts created by the Local Government (Boundaries) Act 1971, and abolished the existing local authorities in Northern Ireland.
Borough status is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district. In Scotland, similarly chartered communities were known as royal burghs, although the status is no longer granted.
Northern Ireland is divided into six counties, namely: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. Six largely rural administrative counties based on these were among the eight primary local government areas of Northern Ireland from its 1921 creation until 1973. The other two local government areas were the urban county boroughs of Derry and Belfast.
Vehicle registration plates in Northern Ireland use a modified version of the British national registration plate system that was initiated for the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1903. Originally, all counties in the UK were allocated two identification letters. At that time, the whole of Ireland was in the UK, and the letters I and Z were reserved for the Irish counties. The 'I' series was used first, but by the time it came to using the 'Z' series in 1926, the Irish Free State had already come into existence, and so it was agreed that the Northern Ireland would use the AZ - YZ series, while the Free State would use the ZA - ZZ series. In 1987, the Republic of Ireland broke away from the system altogether. As of 2002 there were reportedly 794,477 recorded registration plates in Northern Ireland, compared to only 50 for the island as a whole when the format was first introduced in 1903.
Causeway Coast and Glens is a local government district covering most of the northern part of Northern Ireland. It was created on 1 April 2015 by merging the Borough of Ballymoney, the Borough of Coleraine, the Borough of Limavady and the District of Moyle. The local authority is Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.
In Ireland, the term city has somewhat differing meanings in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Fermanagh County Council was the authority responsible for local government in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, between 1899 and 1973. It was originally based at the Enniskillen Courthouse, but moved to County Buildings in East Bridge Street, Enniskillen, in 1960.
Antrim County Council was the authority responsible for local government in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Tyrone County Council was the authority responsible for local government in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
Down County Council was the authority responsible for local government in County Down, Northern Ireland.
The Old Courthouse is a former judicial facility on Castlerock Road in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is a Grade B1 listed building.
County Hall is a municipal facility in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It served as the headquarters of Londonderry County Council from 1960 to 1973.
Armagh County Council was the authority responsible for local government in County Armagh, Northern Ireland.