SANITARY AUTHORITIES AND SANITARY DISTRICTS. With the exception of the metropolis, the whole of England and Ireland is divided into urban and rural sanitary districts, which are respectively governed by urban and rural authorities.
The Public Health Act (sec. 6) thus defines an urban district, and an urban authority in England:
—
| Urban Districts. | Urban Authority. |
| Borough, constituted such either before or after the passing of this Act. | The mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, acting by the council. |
| Improvement act district, constituted such before the passing of the Public Health Act, 1872, and having no part of its area situated within a borough or local government district. | The improvement commissioners. |
| Local government district constituted such either before or after the passing of this Act, having no part of its area situated within a borough, and not coincident in area with a borough or improvement act district. | The local board. |
Provided that—
1. Any borough the whole of which is included in and forms part of a local government district or improvement act district, and any improvement act district which is included in and forms part of a local government district, and any local government district which is included in and forms part of an improvement act district, shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be absorbed in the larger district in which it is included, or of which it forms part; and the Improvement commissioners, or local board, as the case may be, of such larger district, shall be the urban authority therein; and
2. Where an improvement act district is coincident in area with a local government district, the improvement commissioners, and not a local board, shall be the urban authority there; and
3. Where any part of an improvement act district is situated within a borough or local act district, or where any part of a local government district is situated within a borough, the remaining part of such improvement act district or of such local government district so partly situated within a borough, shall for the purposes of this Act continue subject to the like jurisdiction as it would have been subject to if this Act had not been passed, unless and until the Local Government Board by provisional order otherwise directs.
For the purposes of the Public Health Act, the boroughs of Oxford, Cambridge, Blandford, Calne, Wenlock, Folkestone, and Newport, Isle of Wight, are not to be deemed boroughs.
The borough of Cambridge is to be deemed an improvement act district, the borough of Oxford is to be included in the local government district of Oxford, and there is a special provision in the case of the borough of Folkestone.