Evils to be remedied. Boundary Commission of 1887. CHAPTER XI. Areas and Boundaries-Boundary Commissions- BOUNDARY COMMISSIONS. DIFFICULTIES arising from the confused overlapping of areas of administration formed for different purposes, have always been the great stumbling block in the way of local government reform. Several Commissions have inquired into local boundaries during the past sixty years, but the practical result of their labours has not been great. Some useful work in the adjustment of inconvenient parochial boundaries has been done under the Divided Parishes Acts, and the more glaring anomalies rectified; but these Acts were not adapted for the purpose of remedying a system under which areas for highway, sanitary, and municipal administration had been formed with little regard to parochial boundaries. In the case of counties, the many instances where the county boundary intersected parishes and other areas of local government caused an ever increasing inconvenience, as the powers of county authorities were widened and increased under numerous Acts of Parliament; but, the sentiment in favour of the ancient boundaries of counties has always been strong and the first serious attempt to grapple with the subject was made in connection with the legislation of 1888. Prior to the reform of county government effected in that year, a Boundary Commission were appointed under the Local Government (Boundaries) Act, 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 61), to inquire with respect to each county in England and Wales (a) As to the best mode of so adjusting the boundaries of the county and of other areas of local government as to arrange that no union, borough, sanitary district, or parish should be situate in more than one county; and (b) As to the best mode of dealing with parts of the county which were wholly or nearly detached from the county; and (c) As to the best mode of dealing with the cases where a borough was not an urban sanitary district, and was wholly or partly Boundary Comcomprised in a sanitary district; and (d) As to any alteration of boundaries, combination of areas, or administrative arrangements incidental to or consequential on any alteration which they might recommend in the boundaries of any county, union, borough, sanitary district, or parish. In making their recommendations the Boundary Commissioners were to have due regard to financial and administrative considerations. mission of 1887. Commissioners. The report of the Commissioners, which was made to Mr. Ritchie, Report of the President of the Local Government Board, on the 5th of July, 1888, contains numerous detailed schemes suggesting the mode in which the various counties, unions, and urban and rural sanitary districts and parishes requiring adjustment should be dealt with. Section 53 of the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), required every report of the Commissioners to be laid before the Council of any administrative county or county borough affected by that report, and made it the duty of the Council to take into consideration such report, and to make such representations to the Local Government Board as they should think expedient for adjusting the boundaries of their county, and of other areas of local government partly situate in their county, with a view of securing that no such area should be situate in more than one county. So far as urban sanitary districts were concerned, the Act itself provided, by section. 50 (1), that any such district situate in more than one county should be deemed to be within that county which contained the largest portion of the population of the district according to the census of 1881. The automatic alteration of the boundaries of counties for the purpose of preventing urban sanitary districts being in more than one county was to a certain extent a step in the right direction; but where parishes were partly comprised in urban districts it had, in many instances, the effect of placing a parish, which was formerly in one county, into two counties. Other important provisions of the Act conferred powers which, where advantage has been taken of them, have furnished an economical means of adjusting areas and boundaries. The difficulty in the way of a more general rectification of boundaries does not spring so much from defects in the machinery of the Act of 1888, as from local indifference or opposition to setting it in motion. With some modifications made for the purpose of expediting its operation and of making it more generally effective, this machinery is accordingly rendered applicable to the adjustment of areas and boundaries under the Local Government Act, 1894. The objects which County Councils are to have in view are set out in some detail in the new Act. DUTIES AND POWERS OF COUNTY COUNCIL. Cases to be For the purpose of carrying the Local Government Act, 1894, considered. into effect in the case of― Cases to be considered by County Council. Obligation of County Council to proceed. (a) Every parish and rural sanitary district which at the passing of the Act was situate partly within and partly without an administrative county; and (b) Every parish which at the passing of the Act was situate partly within and partly without a sanitary district; and (c) Every rural parish which had a population of less than 200 (d) Every rural sanitary district which at the passing of the Act had every County Council is required to forthwith take into consideration (i.) The whole of each parish, and, unless the County Council for special reasons otherwise direct, the whole of each rural district is to be within the same administrative county; (ii.) The whole of each parish is, unless the County Council for special reasons otherwise direct, to be within the same county district; and (iii.) Every rural district which will have less than five elected councillors is, unless for special reasons the County Council otherwise direct, to be united to some neighbouring district or districts (s. 36 (1)). The full significance of the task which is thus set before County Councils will be better understood when the machinery placed at their disposal has been explained. I. THE POWERS AND PROCEDURE OF COUNTY COUNCILS WITH The County Council must proceed under section 36 (1) of the Local Government Act, 1894, although no such proposal as is mentioned in section 57 of the Act of 1888 has been made. This is an important distinction, for, under that section, which is printed at page 363 of the Appendix, the County Council were to be satisfied that a prima facie case was made out as respects any county district not a borough, or as respects any parish for a proposal for all or any of certain specified things before they proceeded to make any order; whilst, under subsection (1) of section 36 of the new Act, it is, without exception, obligatory upon the County Council, although no proposal has been made, to take every such case, as is mentioned in the subsection, into consideration, and cause inquiries and notices to be given with a view to making such orders under the Act as they think most suitable. The initiative is conferred on the County Council alone, and they must proceed as directed by the Act. It is only for the special cases mentioned in section 36 (1) of the Local Government Act, 1894, that the proposal referred to in section 57 of the Act of 1888 is dispensed with, and in other cases to which section 57 applies a primâ facie case to the satisfaction of the County Council must be made out. Any of the following proposals may be made as respects any urban sanitary district not a borough, any rural sanitary district, or any parish under section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888: (a) The alteration or definition of its boundary; (b) Its division or union with any other such district or districts, parish or parishes, or the transfer of part of a parish to another parish; (c) The conversion of the district or part of the district, if it is a rural district, into an urban district, and if it is an urban district, into a rural district, or the transfer of the whole or any part of the district from one district to another, and the formation of new urban or rural districts; (d) The division of an urban district into wards; and (e) The alteration of the number of wards, or of the boundaries of any ward, or of the number of members of any District Council, or of the apportionment of such members among the wards. Proposals under Local Government Act, 1888, s. 57. Even after being satisfied that a primâ facie case has been made out, the County Council are not obliged, under section 57 of the Act of 1888, to proceed any further, but they may, if they please, cause such inquiry to be made in the locality, and such notice to be given, both Inquiries, in the locality, and to the Local Government Board, Education Department, or other Government Department as may be prescribed by the Local Government Board, and such other inquiry and notices (if any) as they think fit, and if satisfied that such proposal is desirable, may make an order for the same accordingly. With the principal and important exception that the County Council are, under section 36 (1) of the new Act, required to take action, and must therefore cause inquiries to be made and notices to be given, and make any orders that may be necessary for the purposes of the subsection, the procedure to be followed is that generally laid down by section 57 of the Act of 1888. The other modifications in procedure will be mentioned in their proper place. Section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888, enabled a County Areas in two or more counties, Council to deal with the matters mentioned therein, but the application of the section was subject to the serious defect that it made no express provision to meet cases where an area of local government was situated in more than one county. As any one County Council Areas in two or more counties. had no jurisdiction where a parish or other area was not wholly in their county to deal with that area, it was considered that two or more County Councils interested could not confer, by delegation, on any joint committee of the respective Councils any authority under the section. This defect has been remedied by the new Act, which Joint committee provides that where any of the areas referred to in section 57 of the Local Government Act, 1888, is situate in two or more counties, or the alteration of any such area would alter the boundaries of a poor law union situate in two or more counties, a joint committee appointed by the Councils of those counties' shall, subject to the terms of delegation, be deemed to have and to have always had power to make orders under that section with respect to that area; and where at the passing of this Act a rural sanitary district or parish is situate in more than one county, a joint committee of the Councils of those counties shall act under section 36 of the Local Government Act, 1894, and if any of those Councils do not, within two months after request from any other of them, appoint members of such joint committee, the members of the committee actually appointed are to act as the joint committee. Any question arising as to the constitution or procedure of any such joint committee is, if the County Councils concerned fail to agree, to be determined by the Local Government Board (s. 36 (11)). Terms of delegation. County boroughs. Report of Division and The County Councils appointing a joint committee may regulate the terms of the delegation of their powers to that committee, as for instance, by directing that the acts of the committee should require their approval. In a county borough the jurisdiction conferred on County Councils as to areas and boundaries will, so far as is applicable, be exercised by the Town Council, and that Council may join with the Council of an administrative county in forming a joint committee where any area to be taken into consideration is situated partly in a county borough and partly in an administrative county. For the purpose of assisting County Councils and joint committees in their labours every report made by the Boundary Commissioners under the Local Government Boundaries Act, 1887, is to be laid before the Council of any administrative county or borough affected by that report, and before any joint committee of County Councils, and it is made the duty of the Councils and joint committees to take the reports into consideration before framing any order under the powers conferred on them under the Local Government Act, 1894. Where the alteration of the boundary of any parish, or the division other alterations of a parish, or the union of the whole or of part of a parish with of parishes. 1 A joint committee of County Councils is appointed under section 81 of the Local Government Act, 1888. |