Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
street parking) whereas the lower tier had responsibility for development control (hence
provision for parking in new developments), local roads and public off-street parking.
The rationale claimed for the two-tier arrangement was to couple provision for
local representation and accountability on the one hand (at the lower level) with
the need for units which are sufficiently large geographically and in resource terms
to plan strategically and deliver specialised services on the other (at the upper
level). However, as subsequent experience demonstrated, a two-tier system can be
a source of friction, especially where different political parties reign. It can also be
considered unnecessarily costly. This is more pertinent today than when the two-tier
system was established because of the reduced role of local authorities arising from
the privatisation and contracting out of services, 'self-governing' schools etc. pursued
in the interim. In recent decades there has therefore been a general move towards a
leaner arrangement of single-tier 'unitary' councils which have responsibility for all
remaining local government functions.
Unitary local government was first established in London and the provincial
conurbations in 1986 as a product of the abolition of the GLC and metropolitan
counties. Many of their former functions were simply devolved to the London borough
or metropolitan (district) councils respectively although separate arrangements
were made for certain conurbation-wide functions. Of particular importance in the
transport field was the retention of single Passenger Transport Authorities (PTAs) in
the provincial conurbations, returning to their original form as joint boards of the
constituent local councils. PTA functions are carried out by a Passenger Transport
Executive (PTE), commonly known by the brand names they use for promotional
purposes (e.g. Centro in the West Midlands).
Technically London never lost two-tier government (only two-tier elected
representation) since many of the GLC's functions were taken over by Central
Government. This applied to passenger transport (carried out through London
Transport) and to major roads and strategic land use planning. These functions were
returned to local control in 1999 but in a novel form. Statutory responsibilities are vested
in a directly elected Mayor with a relatively small Greater London Authority (GLA)
made up of elected members for local constituencies plus a 'top-up' based on proportional
representation. The GLA only has powers to 'scrutinise' the activities of the Mayor and
to vote on his proposed budget. The Mayor's executive functions in relation to transport
are undertaken by Transport for London (TfL) under his policy control.
In the non-metropolitan areas a move to replace the two-tier system with unitary
councils was initiated by the Conservative Government in the early 1990s. In England
the Local Government Commission was charged with hearing representations from
people in particular areas as to their preferred model - with hindsight a dangerous
hostage to fortune. In practice what began as a move to simplify local government
arrangements became bogged down in controversy. The outcome was for different
'solutions' in different areas - partly reflecting local history, geography and politics but
also the vagaries of the review process itself.
The resulting situation in non-metropolitan areas can be categorised in one of
three ways:
1
Areas where the two-tier county/district arrangement introduced in 1974 has
been retained unaltered (e.g. Oxfordshire, Surrey, Lincolnshire).
2
Areas where the former counties have been abolished and replaced entirely
by a number of unitary councils based on their constituent districts (the 'new'
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