Principal area

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In England and Wales local government legislation, a principal area is one of the sub-national areas established for control by a principal council. They include most of the areas governed by the lowest level of local government above that of Parish or Community council.

Contents

England

In England the principal areas are defined by the Local Government Act 1992 as,

Note that while the local authority bodies of the City of London, Inner Temple, Middle Temple, civil parishes and the Isles of Scilly are not included within this definition, they otherwise remain defined as "local government areas".

While the phrase exists as a specific term in legislation such as the 1992 Act to refer to the geographical area governed by a principal council [1] the usual descriptive title otherwise used for such an area is one of County, Borough, District, City.

Wales

A principal area in Wales is any one of the areas governed by a unit of local government created by the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 that amended the Local Government Act 1972. [2] The first-named Act allocated the English-language descriptive titles of,

Not all councils include their description as a County or Borough within the name used for normal public presentation, an example being Gwynedd which uses the simple Gwynedd Council and/or Cyngor Gwynedd, typically combined in logos and headings as the bilingual Cyngor Gwynedd Council (with Gwynedd emphasised) until 2022, when it dropped the English name to only use Cyngor Gwynedd universally.

The plural Welsh translation as used in legislation such as Reg. 2 The Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (Wales) Regulations 2004 is Prif Ardaloedd.

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The History of local government districts in Buckinghamshire began in 1835 with the formation of poor law unions. This was followed by the creation of various forms of local government body. In 1894 the existing arrangements were replaced with a system of municipal boroughs, urban and rural districts, which remained in place until 1974. Between 1974 and 2020 there were five non-metropolitan districts in the county, one of which became a unitary authority in 1997. The other four districts were abolished in 2020 when the rest of the county was placed under the Buckinghamshire Council unitary authority.

A principal council is a local government authority carrying out statutory duties in a principal area in England and Wales.

References

  1. Local Government Act 1992 Section 28
  2. Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 s.1, amending Local Government Act 1972 s.20