Complex sentence: From the end of the seventeenth century, improvement commissioners were established in a number of towns by local act of parliament, with responsibility for duties such as paving or lighting in a specified district, and with authority to collect rates to fund their work.
Split into simpler sentences: From the end of the seventeenth century, improvement commissioners were established in a number of towns by local act of parliament. The commissioners had responsibility for duties such as paving or lighting in a specified district defined in the Act, and were authorised to collect rates to fund their work.