County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (excluding Scotland), to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland they remain in existence but have been renamed cities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001.^[1] The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 re-introduced the term for certain "principal areas" in Wales. Scotland did not have county boroughs but instead counties of cities. These were abolished on 16 May 1975. All four Scottish cities of the time — Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow — were included in this category. There was an additional category of large burgh in the Scottish system, which were responsible for all services apart from police, education and fire.

England and Wales[link]

History[link]

Initial creation[link]

When county councils were first created in 1889, it was decided that to let them have authority over large towns or cities would be impractical, and so any large incorporated place would have the right to be a county borough, and thus independent from the administrative county it would otherwise come under. Some cities and towns were already independent counties corporate, and most were to become county boroughs. Originally ten county boroughs were proposed; Bristol, Hull, Newcastle upon Tyne and Nottingham, which were already counties, and Birmingham, Bradford, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield, which were not. The Local Government Act 1888 as eventually passed required a population of over 50,000 except in the case of existing counties corporate.^[2] This resulted in 61 county boroughs in England and two in Wales. Several exceptions were allowed, mainly for historic towns: Bath, Dudley and Oxford were all under the 50,000 limit in the 1901 census. Some of the smaller counties corporate—Berwick upon Tweed, Lichfield, Lincoln, Poole, Carmarthen and Haverfordwest—did not become county boroughs, although Canterbury, with a population under 25,000, did.

Growth[link]

Various new county boroughs were constituted in the following decades as more boroughs reached the 50,000 minimum and then promoted Acts to constitute them county boroughs. The granting of county borough status was the subject of much disagreement between the large municipal boroughs and the county councils. The population limit provided county councils with a disincentive to allow mergers or boundary amendments to districts that would create authorities with large populations, as this would allow them to seek county borough status and remove the tax base from the administrative county.

County boroughs to be constituted in this era were a mixed bag, including some towns that would continue to expand such as Bournemouth and Southend-on-Sea. Other towns such as Burton upon Trent and Dewsbury were not to increase in population much past 50,000. 1913 saw the attempts of Luton and Cambridge to gain county borough status defeated in the House of Commons, despite the approval of the Local Government Board — the removal of Cambridge from Cambridgeshire would have reduced the income of Cambridgeshire County Council by over half.

Slowdown[link]

Street nameplate on Rutland Road, Smethwick in April 2007, showing painted out "County Borough" lettering.

Upon recommendation of a commission chaired by the Earl of Onslow, the population threshold was raised to 75,000 in 1926, by the Local Government (County Boroughs and Adjustments) Act 1926, which also made it much harder to expand boundaries. The threshold was raised to 100,000 by the Local Government Act 1958.

The viability of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil came into question in the 1930s. Due to a decline in the heavy industries of the town, by 1932 more than half the male population was unemployed, resulting in very high municipal rates in order to make public assistance payments. At the same time the population of the borough was lower than when it had been created in 1908.^[3] A royal commission was appointed in May 1935 to "investigate whether the existing status of Merthyr Tydfil as a county borough should be continued, and if not, what other arrangements should be made".^[4] The commission reported the following November, and recommended that Merthyr should revert to the status of a non-county borough, and that public assistance should be taken over by central government. In the event county borough status was retained by the town, with the chairman of the Welsh Board of Health appointed as administrative adviser in 1936.^[5]

After the Second World War the creation of new county boroughs in England and Wales was effectively suspended, pending a local government review. A government white paper published in 1945 stated that "it is expected that there will be a number of Bills for extending or creating county boroughs" and proposed the creation of a boundary commission to bring coordination to local government reform. The policy in the paper also ruled out the creation of new county boroughs in Middlesex "owing to its special problems".^[6] The Local Government Boundary Commission was appointed on 26 October 1945, under the chairmanship of Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve,^[7] delivering its report in 1947.^[8] The Commission recommended that towns with a population of 200,000 or more should become one-tier "new counties", with "new county boroughs" having a population of 60,000 - 200,000 being "most-purpose authorities", with the county council of the administrative county providing certain limited services. The report envisaged the creation of 47 two-tiered "new counties", 21 one-tiered "new counties" and 63 "new county boroughs". The recommendations of the Commission extended to a review of the division of functions between different tiers of local government, and thus fell outside its terms of reference, and its report was not acted upon.

Partial reform[link]

The next attempt at reform was by the Local Government Act 1958, which established the Local Government Commission for England and the Local Government Commission for Wales to carry out reviews of existing local government structures and recommend reforms. Although the Commissions did not complete their work before being dissolved, a handful of new county boroughs were constituted between 1964 and 1968. Luton, Torbay, and Solihull gained county borough status. Additionally, Teesside county borough was formed from the merger of the existing county borough of Middlesbrough, and the non-county boroughs of Stockton-on-Tees and Redcar; Warley was formed from the county borough of Smethwick and the non-county boroughs of Oldbury and Rowley Regis; and West Hartlepool was merged with Hartlepool. Following these changes, there was a total of 79 county boroughs in England. The Commission also recommended the downgrading of Barnsley to be a non-county borough, but this was not carried out.

Abolition[link]

The county boroughs of East Ham, West Ham and Croydon were abolished in 1965 with the creation of Greater London and went on to form parts of London boroughs. The remaining county boroughs were abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, and replaced with non-metropolitan districts and metropolitan districts, all beneath county councils in a two-tier structure. In Greater London and the metropolitan counties the lower tier districts retained a wider range of powers than in the non-metropolitan counties.

Revival[link]

This situation did not persist long. In 1986 the metropolitan county councils and the GLC were abolished, returning the boroughs to a county borough status, sharing some powers (police and transport for example). In the 1990s most of the old county boroughs were reformed again as unitary authorities — essentially the same as a county borough. In England, most of those former county boroughs that did not gain unitary authority status—Barrow-in-Furness, Burnley, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chester, Eastbourne, Exeter, Gloucester, Great Yarmouth, Hastings, Ipswich, Lincoln, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Preston, and Worcester—have given their names to non-unitary local government districts (in some cases coterminous with the old county borough, in other cases much larger). Burton upon Trent became an unparished area in the East Staffordshire borough, and has now been divided into several parishes.

In Wales, several principal areas are county boroughs:^[9]

• Newport (acquired city status in 2002)
• Merthyr Tydfil
• Caerphilly
• Blaenau Gwent
• Torfaen
• Vale of Glamorgan
• Bridgend
• Rhondda Cynon Taf
• Neath Port Talbot
• Wrexham
• Conwy

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

County boroughs in 1973[link]

The map depicts the county boroughs in England (excluding Monmouthshire) immediately prior to their abolition in 1974. County boroughs in Wales and Northern Ireland are not shown.

This table shows those county boroughs that existed in England and Wales between the Local Government Acts of 1888 (that created them) and 1972 (that abolished them from 1974).

† had Charter Trustees

Only four districts with more than one county borough were formed: Wirral, Sandwell, Sefton and Kirklees. Elsewhere, county boroughs usually formed the core or all of a district named after the county borough - with the exceptions of Halifax, whose metropolitan district was named Calderdale, Burton upon Trent, which became part of the East Staffordshire district, and Teesside, which was split up between three non-metropolitan districts.

Previous county boroughs[link]

County boroughs to be abolished prior to 1974 were:

Northern Ireland[link]

The county boroughs of Belfast and Londonderry were created by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.

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

For administrative purposes the two county boroughs in Northern Ireland were replaced with two larger districts (Belfast and Derry).

Republic of Ireland[link]

The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created county boroughs in Ireland. Under the Act, four former counties corporate (Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford) became county boroughs.

Galway became a county borough in 1986.

In the Republic of Ireland, the relevant legislation remained in force (although amended), and county boroughs on the original model existed until 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 administered 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.

References[link]

1. ^ Local Government Act, 2001, with particular reference to section 10 (2) and 10 (4) (b). http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovernment/LocalGovernmentAdministration/RHLegislation/FileDownLoad,1963,en.pdf
2. ^ Local Government Act 1888, s.31
3. ^ Census data on population of Merthyr Tydfil
4. ^ London Gazette, 1 May 1935
5. ^ Report of the Royal Commission on the status of the County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil (Cmd.5039)
6. ^ Local government in England and Wales during the period of reconstruction (Cmd.6579)
7. ^ London Gazette, 26 October 1945
8. ^ Report of the Local Government Boundary Commission for the year 1947
9. ^ Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, Schedule 1

See also[link]

• Municipal borough
• Metropolitan borough
• London borough
• County corporate
• List of administrative counties and county boroughs of England by population in 1971

Alex Miller (born 4 July 1949) is a Scottish football manager and former player. As a player, he had a 15 year career with Rangers. As a manager, he won the 1991 Scottish League Cup with Hibernian. He subsequently worked for Premier League club Liverpool for nine years,^[1] assisting Gérard Houllier and Rafael Benítez.

Playing career[link]

As a player Miller started out his career with Clydebank Strollers before he made the move to Rangers. Miller played for Rangers from 1967 until 1982 before finishing his playing career in Hong Kong. He made 306 appearances during his spell at Rangers and scored 30 goals. After being coached by David White he was promoted to the first team. In the summer of 1970 he won his first title with the team, the 1970 Scottish League Cup Final. Under coach William Waddell, he was mostly just a second choice player. Therefore, in one of the biggest successes of the club's history, the triumph in the 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, Miller was not on the pitch. It was only after Jock Wallace took over as coach, Miller became increasingly used. As a regular player after the mid-1970s, he won multiple titles. He was something of a legend at Ibrox having played in a Scottish Cup Final despite having a broken jaw.^{[citation needed]}

Coaching career[link]

Early Coaching Career[link]

Miller was appointed as player-manager when he played briefly for South China in Hong Kong in 1983, but was unable to save the club from relegation.^[2] He was then briefly manager of Greenock Morton in 1983 before contentiously joining their rivals from Paisley, St. Mirren, who were at that time in a higher division.

St. Mirren[link]

Miller managed St. Mirren from 1983 until 1986. He moulded a side that would win the 1987 Scottish Cup Final, later in the season that he left the club. Miller guided St. Mirren to qualification for European competition. One of Saints all time great nights came in a European campaign when in 1985, Slavia Prague were knocked out after a 3–0 Saints win at Love Street.

Hibernian[link]

He was then manager of Hibernian from 1986 to 1996, through a "difficult" period in the clubs history, as the club came through financial problems.^[1][3] He led Hibs to victory in the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup,^[1] beating Rangers in the semi finals (1–0) and Dunfermline Athletic in the final (2–0). Hibs qualified for the UEFA Cup, losing on the away goals rule to RSC Anderlecht. Hibs reached the 1993 Scottish League Cup Final, but this time lost out to Rangers (1–2). Hibs finished the 1994–95 season in third place in the league. Miller was sacked by Hibs in 1996, with some observers accusing him of having betrayed Hibs' "cavalier ideals".^[1]

Coventry and Aberdeen[link]

He then moved to Coventry City as assistant manager after took an offer of his Scottish compatriot Gordon Strachan. A year later, unable to resist the challenge of being his own man again, he moved to Aberdeen taking over the manager's post from Roy Aitken. However this stint was not a successful one and he was replaced in 1998 by Paul Hegarty.

Liverpool[link]

Miller joined English Premiership side Liverpool as Director of Scouting under Gérard Houllier in 1999. However, when Rafael Benítez was appointed manager of Liverpool in 2004, he overhauled the scouting system. Miller then subsequently worked as first team coach, helping the club win the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup in 2006. Miller left Liverpool in May 2008 to manage Japanese side JEF United Chiba.^[4][5]

JEF United Chiba[link]

Despite taking over the club when they had taken just two points from eleven games, Miller managed to guide the team to safety from relegation.^[6] However, following a string of poor results in the next season which the club was in the relegation zone, Miller's contract was terminated by the club in July 2009.^[7]

AIK[link]

After a year left without commitment, Miller was appointed manager of Swedish team AIK in June 2010 as the successor of Mikael Stahre and the interim solution Björn Wesström.^[8] He left in November 2010, after less than five months in charge.^[9][10] AIK had been in some danger of relegation when Miller was appointed, but they eventually finished 11th in the 16-team division.^[10]

Sibir Novosibirsk[link]

Miller was appointed head coach of Russian First Division club Sibir Novosibirsk in January 2012.^[11] Miller became the first British head coach in Russian football.^[11] Miller left the club after just nine matches in charge.^[12]

Managerial record[link]

Personal life[link]

Two of Miller's sons, Graeme and Greg, both played for Hibs while Miller was manager there. Miller also employed Greg as a coach while he was manager of JEF United Chiba.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Newcastle Fans profile
• Alex Miller management career stats at Soccerbase