County borough

County borough was a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom to refer to a borough or a city independent of county administration.

History

When the first county councils were created, it was decided that to let them have authority over the large towns in them would be impractical, and so any large incorporated place would have the right to be a county borough, and thus politically independent from the administrative county it would otherwise come under. Initially, a town had to have a population of over 50,000 to apply for county borough status, but this threshold was raised to 75,000 in 1926, and 100,000 later on.

After the Second World War, the creation of new county boroughs in England and Wales was effectively suspended, pending a local government review. In the 1960s, with no sign of this review being ready - Luton, Torbay and Solihull were allowed to be made county boroughs, Teesside formed from the merger of Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees, and West Hartlepool expanded into Hartlepool, making a total of 80 in England.

The county boroughs of East Ham, West Ham and Croydon were abolished in 1965 with the creation of Greater London. The remaining county boroughs were abolished in 1974, and replaced with non-metropolitan districts and metropolitan districts, all in a two-tier structure with county councils.

This situation did not persist and many of the old county boroughs that were annexed, have now regained independence as unitary authorities - essentially the same as county boroughs, but renamed. In Wales some of the unitary authorities are called county boroughs.

Of the former English county boroughs, most are now either unitary authorities, or in unitary authorities. Barrow-in-Furness, Burnley, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chester, Eastbourne, Exeter, Gloucester, Hastings, Lincoln, Northampton, Oxford, Preston, Worcester and Yarmouth have given their names to local government districts (in some cases coterminous with the old county borough - in other cases much larger). One, Burton-upon-Trent, is now an unparished area in the East Staffordshire borough.

All of the former county boroughs in Wales are now unitary authorities.

In the Republic of Ireland, the relevant legislation remained still in force (although amended), and county boroughs on the original model existed prior to 2001. Under the Local Government Act 2001 (which replaced most existing local government legislation in Ireland), the term "County Borough" was abolished and replaced with "City" (and hence, "Corporation" with "City Council"). However Kilkenny, while a city, is instead regarded as a town (and part of the county council area) for local government purposes. It is allowed to use the title "Borough Council" instead of "Town Council" however.

In Northern Ireland, local government has not used them since 1973, but the county boroughs remain in use for Lieutenancy.

In Scotland, they were not called "county boroughs" but instead "counties of cities". These were abolished in on May 16, 1975. All four Scottish cities of the time were included in this category - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. There was an additional category of "large burgh" in the Scottish system, these covered everything apart from police, education and fire.

Current county boroughs

Republic of Ireland

• Cork - Cork City Council (formerly Corporation)
• Dublin - Dublin City Council (formerly Corporation)
• Galway (since 1986)
• Limerick - Limerick City Council (formerly Limerick Corporation)
• Waterford

Northern Ireland

• Belfast
• Londonderry

Wales

• Merthyr Tydfil
• Caerphilly
• Blaenau Gwent
• Torfaen
• Vale of Glamorgan
• Bridgend
• Rhondda Cynon Taf
• Neath Port Talbot
• Wrexham
• Conwy

(Newport was a made a county borough again in 1996. In 2002 it acquired city status.)

For all practical purposes, county boroughs are exactly the same as the other principal areas of Wales called `counties' or `cities' as all these areas are run by unitary authorities (i.e.: have the functions of both boroughs and counties).

Historical county boroughs

This table shows those county boroughs that existed in England and Wales between the Local Government Acts of 1888 (that created them) and 1974 (that abolished them). It also shows which of those places has become a unitary authority again since, either as-is or as part of a larger unitary authority.