Unitary authority
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A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national government.
Typically unitary authorities cover towns or cities which are large enough to function independently of county or other regional administration. Sometimes they consist of national sub-divisions which are distinguished from others in the same country by having no lower level of administration.
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[edit] Canada
More commonly referred to as single-tier municipalities, they exist as a single level of government in a province that otherwise has two levels of local government. One should not confuse municipalities in provinces with no upper-level of local government as single-tier municipalities, as these are the only level of local government in that province.
Structure of a single-tier municipality varies, and while most function as cities with no upper level of government, some function as counties or regional municipalities with no lower municipal subdivisions below them. The vast majority of Canadian single-tier municipalities are located in Ontario, where they exist as individual census divisions, as well as separated municipalities.
[edit] Germany
In Germany, kreisfreie Stadt is the equivalent term for a city which is responsible for the local and the Kreis (district) administrative level (the British counties having no directly corresponding counterpart in Germany).
[edit] New Zealand
In New Zealand a unitary authority is a territorial authority (district or city) which also performs the functions of a regional council. New Zealand has four unitary authorities: Gisborne District, Nelson City, Tasman District and Marlborough District. The Chatham Islands Council is not usually considered a unitary authority, although it acts as a regional council for the purposes of the Resource Management Act 1991.
[edit] Poland
In Poland a miasto na prawach powiatu or powiat grodzki (city with powiat rights or urban county) is a city which is also responsible for district (powiat) administrative level, being part of no other powiat (eg. Poznań, Kraków, Łódź). In total 65 cities in Poland have this status.
[edit] United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, "unitary authorities" are English or Welsh local authorities set up by the Local Government Act 1992 which form a single tier of local government, and are responsible for almost all local government functions within their areas.
This is opposed to the two-tier system of local government, which still exists in most of England, where local government functions are divided between county councils (the upper tier) and district councils. Until 1996 similar two-tier systems existed in Scotland and Wales, but these have now been replaced by fully unitary systems. A unitary system has existed in Northern Ireland since 1973.
[edit] England
Although most (by measure of geographical area covered) of England is still two-tier, during the 1990s, some cities, large towns and groups of neighbouring towns became unitary authorities and thus independent from county councils, with the local council taking over both county and district functions.
In some English counties with small populations, such as Rutland, Herefordshire and the Isle of Wight, the entire county is a unitary authority. The non-metropolitan counties of Cornwall, Wiltshire, Shropshire, County Durham and Northumberland also became unitary authorities in April 2009, (some of the largest towns in the corresponding ceremonial counties already having unitary status, e.g. Swindon in Wiltshire and Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire) and the non-metropolitan counties of Cheshire and Bedfordshire were each replaced by two unitary authorities after legislation was passed in December 2007 (Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester; Bedford and Central Bedfordshire). In Kent, the City of Rochester upon Medway and the Borough of Gillingham and Chatham merged to become the unitary Medway Council.
In practice, most unitary authorities in England are not entirely unitary, as they often run some services on a joint basis with other authorities; these typically include policing, fire services, and sometimes waste disposal and public transport. In addition, some unitary authorities contain civil parishes, which effectively form another limited tier of local government.
[edit] Current list
Note: Berkshire's unitary authorities are marked with asterisks (*).
[edit] History
When county councils were first established in 1889, a type of unitary authority was created called a County Borough which was independent of county council administration. County boroughs typically covered large towns and cities. However, in 1974 county boroughs were abolished and a two-tier system was put in place everywhere. Since the mid-1990s, however, many large urban councils have regained their unitary status, effectively returning to the pre-1974 system, although without using the term "county borough".
The creation of each unitary authority has been subject to public consultation. The concept has not always been widely accepted and often has not gained the support of district councils, county councils or sections of the local public.
The term "unitary authority" itself first surfaced in the Redcliffe-Maud Report, to describe the sort of authority the report recommended should cover most of England.
[edit] Creation of unitary authorities
Under the Local Government Act 1992, unitary authorities can be created in England by statutory instrument and do not require separate legislation. Typically a district of a non-metropolitan county is designated as a new non-metropolitan de jure county, but without a county council. The borders of the original county are adjusted to exclude the unitary authority area. In common usage unitary authority areas are not usually referred to as counties (since they are not ceremonial counties), although there are exceptions such as Herefordshire and Rutland, which are reinstatements of administrative counties lost in the 1974 reorganisation (and are historic and ceremonial counties); and the Isle of Wight, (the first unitary authority created after the 1992 Act, and arguably one of the simplest and least controversial to create) which was, and remains, a separate county, but now with only a single council (its district councils having been abolished).
In some cases, such as the boroughs of the six metropolitan counties and the county of Berkshire, a different process was followed, where the county council was abolished and its functions were merely transferred to the districts (the counties legally continue to exist however). The unitary councils of Cornwall, County Durham, Shropshire, Northumberland and Wiltshire, which were established in 2009, are successors of the county councils of those non-metropolitan counties; the district councils within those counties were abolished and a new, single district coextensive with the non-metropolitan county was created in each instance. In each of these counties, the functions of the district councils were transferred to the county council (which was the "continuing authority"), which also became the sole district council for the county and therefore became the sole local authority. Three of the five councils dropped the term "county" from their names, reflecting their change to a unitary authority, with Durham County Council and Northumberland County Council retaining their county council names.
In the Greater London administrative area, the 32 London Boroughs and the City of London are also counted as unitary authorities for most purposes. The Isles of Scilly have a special council, established in 1889, that is neither a district nor a county, but is in practice a sui generis unitary authority.
[edit] Legal definition
Unitary authorities in England are typically defined in current legislation as "any authority which is the sole principal council for its local government area".[1]
While some legislation includes London boroughs as "unitary authorities" for the purposes of those individual pieces of legislation, they do not fit the above description, as for various purposes they are subsidiary to the Greater London Authority. They are commonly listed separately along with the City of London and the Inner and Middle Temples, the two latter being within the boundary of the City of London but remaining as self-governing liberties.
Every location in England is part of a ceremonial county - for example the Isles of Scilly are part of Cornwall. The ceremonial counties are defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 and have gained increasing prominence in defining the counties of England in a geographical (as opposed to administrative) sense, in a large part due to the gradual local government restructuring and creation of unitary authorities.
For listings of unitary authorities in England, see Regions of England or Subdivisions of England.
[edit] Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is divided into 26 single tier local government districts. The councils do not carry out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the United Kingdom, e.g. they have no responsibility for education, for road building or for housing. The districts are often combined for various purposes including Education Boards, Health Boards and Eurostat statistical units. Districts are variously styled 'District Council', 'Borough Council', 'City Council' and 'City and District Council'.
- Category: Subdivisions of Northern Ireland
Under the Review of Public Administration (RPA) the number of councils is due to be reduced to 11 in 2011.
- Category: Proposed districts of Northern Ireland
[edit] Scotland
Local authorities in Scotland are unitary in nature but not in name. The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 created a single tier of local government throughout Scotland. On 1 April 1996, 32 local government areas, each with a council, replaced the previous two-tier structure, which had regional, islands and district councils. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (formerly the Western Isles Council) uses the alternative Gaelic designation Comhairle. The phrase "unitary authority" is not used in Scottish legislation (whether from the Scottish Parliament or the UK Parliament), although the term is commonly used in publications,[2] and by United Kingdom government departments.[3]
[edit] Wales
Local authorities in Wales are unitary in nature and are described by the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 as "principal councils". Various other legislation includes the counties and county boroughs of Wales within their individual interpretations of the phrase "unitary authority". In s.2 of the Act each council formed for a county is allocated the respective English and Welsh descriptions of "County Council" or "Cyngor Sir", each council formed for a County Borough is allocated the respective descriptions of "County Borough Council" or "Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol"; in all cases the shorter alternative forms "Council" or "Cyngor" can be used.
Similar to the civil parishes in England, the lowest tier of local government in Wales are the communities. Most of the unitary principal councils have community councils set up within their areas.
[edit] References
- ^ Local Government Changes for England Regulations 1994
- ^ "About Falkirk Council". Falkirk Council. http://www.falkirk.gov.uk/services/law_admin/legal_services/publication_scheme/about_publication_scheme.aspx. Retrieved on 22 February 2009.
- ^ "Local Councils in Scotland". DirectGov. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/DevolvedAdministrations/DG_4003604. Retrieved on 22 February 2009.
