In 1769, an Act of Parliament was obtained, constituting a body of Commissioners for the purposes of maintaining, improving, and lighting the town, and invested with general powers affecting the health and safety of the inhabitants, and the common welfare. By subsequent Acts—five in number, the last of these being passed in 1828—the powers of the Street Commissioners were extended, and they were authorised by the last named Act to build a Town Hall. Their authority was confined to what was then known as “the town of Birmingham,” the boundaries of which were co-extensive with the parish of Birmingham. The first Commissioners were named in the Act constituting them, and vacancies were thereafter filled up by the Commissioners themselves, without reference to the inhabitants. The system of local government thus instituted continued unchanged until the year 1838. In 1832, Birmingham was, for the first time, under the provisions of the Reform Act, constituted a Parliamentary borough, with the right of returning two members to the House of Commons. The boundaries of the Borough were so arranged as to include the parish of Birmingham, the parish of Edgbaston, and the hamlets of Deritend and Bordesley, and Duddeston and Nechells, in the parish of Aston, the area thus formed being 8,240 acres. The Parliamentary Reform Act was followed by the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, in 1835. For a considerable time there had been a strong feeling in favour of some completer form of local government than that afforded by the Commissioners Acts, and especially for government founded upon the representative principle. In 1837, steps were taken to obtain a charter of incorporation for the town, under the authority of the Municipal Corporations Act; and in October, 1838, after much opposition, both locally and in Parliament, a charter was granted, and the Corporation of Birmingham came into existence.
The boundaries of the new Municipal Borough were fixed so as to correspond with those of the Parliamentary Borough, above described. The area was divided into thirteen wards (extended in 1873 to sixteen wards), and the Council was constituted of 16 aldermen and 48 councillors. The first elections of councillors took place on the 26th of December, 1838, and on the day following the Council met, and elected the aldermen, the governing body being then fully constituted. Mr. William Scholefield was elected the first Mayor.
Although Birmingham had now obtained a system of representative government, the state of affairs was by no means satisfactory. In the parish of Birmingham the self-elected Commissioners of the Street Act retained their full authority, and in the district of Deritend and Bordesley local government was for certain purposes still exercised by a body of Commissioners constituted by an Act passed in 1791, while Duddeston and Nechells were governed by Commissioners appointed under an Act of 1829. There were consequently four governing bodies within the borough, and the powers of the new Corporation were consequently seriously limited and its action impeded. Other difficulties of a peculiarly embarrassing character speedily developed themselves. The validity of the Charter was contested both in the Law Courts and in Parliament; disputes arose between the Borough Magistracy and the County Bench; hindrances were put in the way of the Court of Quarter Sessions granted for the Borough. In addition to these causes of disquiet the occurrence of the Chartist riots of 1839 furnished a pretext for withdrawing from the Corporation the right of establishing a constabulary or police force for the town, and a special Police Act was passed by which, while paid for by the ratepayers, the police force was placed under the absolute control of a Government Commissioner. In 1842 this perplexing condition of affairs was, however, brought to an end, by the passing of an Act of Parliament confirming the Charters of Birmingham and Manchester, and an Act was also passed transferring to the Corporation of Birmingham the control of the local police force. The powers of the Town Council, however, were still very limited, owing to the conflicting local authorities existing in the Borough, and it became evident in the course of time that, in the public interests, the representative body must finally be made supreme. The minor bodies did not yield without a contest, but in the end the pressure of opinion overcame their resistance, and in 1851 the passing of the Birmingham Improvement Act put an end to all the bodies of Commissioners, and transferred their powers, with others provided by the Act, to the Town Council, as the representative of the ratepayers of the borough, and the Town Council became thenceforward the sole governing authority for all municipal purposes. The Act mentioned further authorised the borrowing of loans for purposes of town improvements and for a system of sewerage, and empowered the Council to levy a special rate for such purposes, in addition to the ordinary municipal rate levied under the Municipal Corporations Act. Ten years later, in 1861, a second Improvement Act invested the Corporation with further powers of administration and of borrowing; and numerous other Acts were subsequently obtained for specific purposes. Among these were the Parks Act, 1854; an order (1873) extending to sixteen the number of Wards in the Borough;—an Act giving the Council power to acquire closed burial grounds and to lay them out as places of public recreation, passed in 1878; Acts for the purchase of the Gas and Water undertakings in 1875; an Act for a Sanitary Improvement Scheme under the provisions of the Artisans’ Dwellings Act, 1876; for the constitution of a Drainage Board, in 1878; and for the issue of Corporation Stock in 1880. The powers of most of these enactments, with additional powers, were embodied in the Birmingham Corporation Consolidation Act of 1883, which, amongst other provisions, abolished the restriction to one penny in the pound previously imposed upon the Free Libraries Rate (under the General Libraries Act) and authorised the Council to conduct a Municipal School of Art.
The Consolidation Act, therefore, now constitutes the authority under which (in addition to the powers conferred by general municipal law) the government of the borough is now administered. The following statement, extracted from the “History of the Corporation of Birmingham,” explains the scope and working of the system:—
“The municipal government, under the Charter of Incorporation and the Acts of Parliament relating to municipal corporations, is conducted by a council, consisting of forty-eight councillors and sixteen aldermen.
“Three councillors are allotted to and elected by each of the sixteen wards into which the borough is divided, and each councillor is elected for three years, the elections being so arranged that one-third of the councillors (one in each ward) retire every year, and elections for the choice of their successors are held on the first of November. The aldermen are chosen by the members of the Council, and are elected for six years; they may be chosen from amongst the members of the Council, or from fit persons not members of the Council, but who are qualified for election to it. The Mayor is chosen by the Council, on the ninth of November, for a term of one year. Under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, it was obligatory that, at the time of being elected, he should be a member of the Council; but by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1882 it is provided (sec. 15) that ‘the Mayor shall be a fit person elected by the Council from among the aldermen or councillors, or persons qualified to be such.’ There is now no property qualification required for any members of the Council.
“The Council, as a whole, is the rating and controlling authority for the Borough. In all matters subjected to its authority it acts upon communications from the Mayor, upon motions made upon its own initiative (regulated by its standing orders for the conduct of business) and upon reports and proposals from the Committees it appoints, and to which it delegates specified branches of municipal work, under such regulations and with such limitations as it may direct.
“These Committees have varied from time to time; at present they are sixteen in number, and are named, constituted, and empowered as follows, taking them in the order in which they are stated in the ‘Borough of Birmingham Municipal Diary,’ issued by the Town Clerk, under the direction of the Council:—
1.—Baths and Parks Committee.—“To have charge of the public baths, parks, gardens, and recreation grounds, and the buildings thereon (excepting the recreation ground in St. Clement’s Road, in charge of the Gas Committee, and the buildings in Adderley Park, in charge of the Free Libraries Committee); to have charge of the trees planted in the streets; to lay out disused burial grounds acquired by the Council; and to arrange for supplies of coal and coke to the several departments of the Corporation, excepting the Lunatic Asylum, Public Works, Gas and Water Committees.
2.—Estates Committee.—“To take charge of all estates and buildings belonging to the Corporation, not in charge of other Committees (including the Council House); to make rules for granting the use of the Town Hall; to sell, let or exchange lands or buildings not required for public purposes, as the Council may resolve; to superintend the arrangements of the Borough Cemetery, and perform the functions of the Burial Board; and to arrange for the acquisition of closed burial grounds.