Local Government Boundary Commission (1945–1949)
The Local Government Boundary Commission was established in 1945 to review the boundaries of local authority areas in England and Wales outside the Counties of London and Middlesex. The Commission produced its report in 1948 which proposed large changes to county-level areas of local government and changes in the structure and division of powers between tiers of administration. The Commission's proposals were not acted on, and it was disbanded in 1949. Background. Alterations to local government boundaries had been suspended with the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Previously they had  been carried out by a number of processes: county boroughs could be constituted or extended by private act of parliament, while county councils were to carry out reviews of county districts (non-county boroughs, urban and rural districts) on a ten yearly cycle. There was no general procedure for adjusting boundaries between administrative counties, or for amalgamating them. The different procedures were not coordinated. The wartime coalition government published a white paper in January 1945, entitled "Local government in England and Wales during the period of reconstruction". The document proposed the establishment of a Local Government Boundary Commission with executive  powers to alter council areas, taking over the powers of the county councils and Minister of Health to change areas. In future all proposed changes by local authorities were to be submitted to the Commission. The Commission was to consider administration in each geographical county (the administrative county plus associated county boroughs) and see if there was a "prima facie" case for a review. If it felt a review was warranted the commission was to notify the Minister and the relevant county council, who could then require the holding of an inquiry into local government in the county. The problem  of local government in the County of London and Middlesex were deemed to be a special case, with the extension of the County of London, the probable disappearance of Middlesex and annexing of parts of the surrounding counties envisaged. The Commission was not to be allowed to consider these issues, which were to be considered by an "authoritative body" at a later stage. It was recognised that Middlesex contained a number of towns "large enough on any standard for county borough status" but the commissioners were not given the power to "entertain applications for county borough status in the county . The Commission was to have the power to: The decisions of the commission were to be subject to parliamentary review. The proposals in the white paper were enacted as the Local Government (Boundary Commission) Act 1945 (1945 c.38). It received the royal assent on the last day in office of the caretaker government that had taken over from the coalition in May. Outside observers considered that the establishment of the Commission meant that the Government did not intend to make any changes in the basic structure of local government, and noted that the Commission lacked the power to recommend radical 	Local Government Boundary Commission (1945–1949)
3354212	changes such as the establishment of regional councils. Appointment of commissioners. Following the 1945 general election, Aneurin Bevan was appointed the Secretary of State for Health in the new Labour government, and took over responsibility for the appointment of the Commission. The five commissioners were appointed by Royal Warrant on 25 October 1945. The chairman was Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve and the deputy chairman Sir John Evelyn Maude. The three other members were Sir George Hammond Etherton, Sir Frederick Rees and Bill Holmes. The Minister of Health made regulations governing the work of the commission. Any alterations in the status 	Local Government Boundary Commission (1945–1949)
3354213	or boundaries of local government areas were to create "individually and collectively effective and convenient units of local government administration." The commission was given nine main factors which were to govern their decisions: Work of the Commission. In April 1946 the Commission wrote to county and county borough councils, asking for information on any boundary proposals they were considering. By August they had received replies from 80 of 83 county boroughs and 42 of 61 county councils, stating they were seeking boundary reviews. Acting on the information they had received, the Commission prioritised the review of areas into two categories	Local Government Boundary Commission (1945–1949)
3354214	, A" and "B". Reviews of areas in category A were to proceed as soon as possible, while the review of category B areas would be held back until July, 1947 (except where they would affect the boundaries of areas in category A). The first reviews concerned the claims of Dagenham, Ilford, Leyton, Luton, Rochester-Chatham-Gillingham, and Walthamstow for county borough status. Among the category A reviews were the boundaries of Bedfordshire, the areas of Surrey within the Greater London area, and a request by the municipal boroughs of Beckenham and Bromley to form a joint county borough. First report . On 22 April 1947, the Commission presented its first report to parliament, covering its work in 1946. The following investigations had been begun: In addition, the report recommended the ending of the distinction between (non-county) boroughs, rural districts, and urban districts, with all to become known as "county districts". The privileges granted to boroughs under municipal charters were to be preserved, however. The Commission also sought an amendment of its powers, to extend its power to divide districts to municipal boroughs as well. It was announced that decisions in the "urgent" category A areas would be given the following  month. First recommendations. Decisions on the category A areas were announced 1 May 1947: Two weeks later the Commission issued a statement on further proposed changes: Second report. The Commission's second report was issued in April 1948. It contained a notably strong section outlining the deficiencies with the existing system of local government, and therefore the report made comprehensive proposals for local government areas throughout England, and suggestions for Wales. It was later to be argued that in producing this report, the Commission had significantly exceeded its brief. The commission recommended the creation of: One-tier counties. The proposed  one-tier counties were based on twenty large county boroughs, which were to continue to manage all local government services in the area. Two of these counties were to be formed from the amalgamation of a number of existing councils. Two-tier counties. The two-tier counties were based on the existing administrative counties. The commission felt that in order to provide effective local government a county must have a population of more than 200,000 and less than a million. From this it followed that a number of small counties would need to be merged, and large ones divided. The  small counties requiring union were: Cambridgeshire, Herefordshire, Huntingdonshire, Isle of Ely, Lincolnshire (Parts of Holland), Lincolnshire (Parts of Kesteven), Rutland, East Suffolk, West Suffolk, Soke of Peterborough, Westmorland and Worcestershire. Although the Isle of Wight was below the population limit it was to be preserved because it was "an island and cannot conveniently be united with the mainland."" The large counties needing division were Cheshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. The proposed two-tier counties were as follows: Most-purpose county boroughs. The county boroughs proposed by the Commission were to be responsible for most local  government in their area, only looking to the county councils for large area services. They were a mixture of existing county boroughs and larger non-county boroughs. †large enough to be a one-tier county, but to be centre of gravity for new county of South West Lancashire and North West Cheshire ‡large enough to be a one-tier county, but to be centre of gravity for new county of South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire Wales. The Commission did not have detailed proposals for Wales. Glamorgan was to remain two-tier, with Merthyr Tydfil as a county borough  within it, while Cardiff was to be a one-tier county. No decision had been made on Swansea. The remaining eleven administrative counties were to be grouped as either two, three, four, or five new counties. Third report and abolition. On 25 March 1949, the Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan replied to a written question in the House of Commons stating that "it will not be practicable to introduce comprehensive legislation on local government reconstruction in the near future". This meant that the proposals in their previous report would not be carried out, and the Commission's annual report for  1948 which followed in April 1949 was therefore reduced to recommending orders under existing legislation. The report also noted that the four proposals for combinations of Welsh counties had been unanimously rejected by the county councils. On 27 June 1949 a decision to abolish the commission was announced in parliament. The Minister praised the work done by the Commission, but noted that it did not have the power under the 1945 Act to alter the structure or vary the functions of local government. The Government recognised that it was difficult for the Commission to continue with its work without considering  these factors. It was therefore repealing the Act creating the body, restoring the situation for local boundary reviews to that pertaining in 1945. The Government was to carry out a review of the structures and functions of local administration, including London, although the Minister was unable to give a date for its commencement. Local government academic Bruce Wood, reviewing the history of the Commission nearly 30 years later, remarked that its refusal to be constrained in its 1947 report meant the Commission had "committed suicide". The winding-up of the Commission was enacted by the Local Government Boundary Commission (Dissolution ) Act 1949 (12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6 c.83). The planned review never took place. Following the 1950 general election, the Labour government was returned with a small majority. In a debate on local government in the Commons on 17 July 1951, George Lindgren, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government and Planning stated that the Government was waiting for the results of negotiations between the local authority associations. In the absence of such agreement, no legislation could be introduced due to the state of the parties in the House. The Minister of Local Government and Planning Hugh Dalton, added that ""the reform  of local government was the type of question regarding which, in a parliament like the present, with the Government having a narrow majority, comprehensive legislation was not realistic."" The statement effectively delayed reform until the next parliament, a fact not lost on the commission's former chairman who wrote to "The Times" bemoaning the fact that ""The Government's review of local government structure, which was stated in 1949 to be already in being, appears to have led nowhere. This lack of decision is bad enough for local government, but surely the reconstitution of district authorities, without previous consideration of  any of the functions or boundaries of the existing counties and county boroughs, or even any power to consider them simultaneously, would be a farce."" The Labour party lost power to the Conservatives in the general election of 25 October 1951, and no further review of local government was put forward until the publication of the white papers leading to the Local Government Act 1958.