Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "England" to "English Finance" / Volume 9, Slice 4

by Various

It was provided by the Highway Act 1878 that every road which was disturnpiked after the 31st of December 1870 should be deemed to be a main road, the expenses of the repair and maintenance of which were to be contributed as to one-half Main roads. thereof by the justices in quarter sessions, then the county authority. By another section of the same act it was provided that where any highway in a county was a medium of communication between great towns, or a thoroughfare to a railway station, or otherwise such that it ought to be declared a main road, the county authority might declare it to be a main road, and thereupon one-half the expense of its maintenance would fall upon the county at large. Once a road became a main road it could only cease to be such by order of the Local Government Board. As already stated, the powers of the quarter sessions under the act of 1878 were transferred to the county council under the Local Government Act of 1888, and that body alone has now power to declare a road to be a main road. But the act of 1888 made some important changes in the law relating to the maintenance of main roads. It declared that thereafter not only the half but the whole cost of maintenance should be borne by the county. Provision is made for the control of main roads in urban districts being retained by the urban district council. In urban districts where such control has not been claimed, and in rural districts, the county council may either maintain the main roads themselves or allow or require the district councils to do so. The county council must in any case make a payment towards the costs incurred by the district council, and if any difference arises as to the amount of it, it has to be settled by the Local Government Board. In Lancashire the cost of main roads falls upon the hundred, as distinguished from the county at large, special provision being made to that effect. Special provision has also been made for the highways in the Isle of Wight and in South Wales, where the roads were formerly regulated by special acts, and not by the ordinary Highway Acts.

The county council have the same power as a sanitary authority to enforce the provisions of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Acts in relation to so much of any stream as passes through or by any part of their county. Under these acts a Rivers pollution prevention. sanitary authority is authorized to take proceedings to restrain interference with the due flow of a stream or the pollution of its waters by throwing into it the solid refuse of any manufactory or quarry, or any rubbish or cinders, or any other waste or any putrid solid matter. They may also take proceedings in respect of the pollution of a stream by any solid or liquid sewage matter. They have the same powers with respect to manufacturing and mining pollutions, subject to certain restrictions, one of which is that proceedings are not to be taken without the consent of the Local Government Board. The county council may not only themselves institute proceedings under the acts, but they may contribute to the costs of any prosecution under the acts instituted by any other county or district council. The Local Government Board is further empowered by provisional order to constitute a joint-committee representing all the administrative counties through or by which a river passes, and confer on such committee all or any of the powers of a sanitary authority under the acts.

A county council has the same power of opposing bills in parliament and of prosecuting or defending any legal proceedings necessary for the promotion or protection of the interests of the inhabitants of a county as are conferred on the council Parliamentary and legal costs. of a municipal borough by the Borough Funds Act 1872, with this difference, that in order to enable them to oppose a bill in parliament at the cost of the county rate, it is not necessary to obtain the consent of the owners and ratepayers within the county. The power thus conferred is limited to opposing bills. The council are not authorized to promote any bill, and although they frequently do so, they incur the risk that if the bill should not pass the members of the council will be surcharged personally with the costs incurred if they attempt to charge them to the county rate. Of course if the bill passes, it usually contains a clause enabling the costs of promotion to be paid out of the county rate. It must not be supposed, however, that the county council have no power to institute or defend legal proceedings or oppose bills save such as is expressly conferred upon them by the Local Government Act. In this respect they are in the same position as all other local authorities, with respect to whom it has been laid down that they may without any express power in that behalf use the funds at their disposal for protecting themselves against any attack made upon their existence as a corporate body or upon any of their powers or privileges.

The county council have also the same powers as a borough council of making by-laws for the good government of the county and for the suppression of nuisances not already punishable under the general law. This power has been largely By-laws. acted upon throughout England, and the courts of law have on several occasions decided that such by-laws should be benevolently interpreted, and that in matters which directly arise and concern the people of the county, who have the right to choose those whom they think best fitted to represent them, such representatives may be trusted to understand their own requirements. Such by-laws will therefore be upheld, unless it is clear that they are uncertain, repugnant to the general law of the land, or manifestly unreasonable. It may be mentioned that, while by-laws relating to the good government of the county have to be confirmed by the secretary of state, those which relate to the suppression of nuisances have to be confirmed by the Local Government Board. Such confirmation, however, though necessary to enable the council to enforce them, does not itself confer upon them any validity in point of law.

The county council have power to appoint and pay one or more medical officers of health, who are not to hold any other appointment or engage in private practice without the express written consent of the council. The council may make Medical officers. arrangements whereby any district council or councils may have the services of the county medical officer on payment of a contribution towards his salary, and while such arrangement is in force the duty of the district council to appoint a medical officer is to be deemed to have been satisfied. Every medical officer, whether of a county or district, must now be legally qualified for the practice of medicine, surgery and midwifery. Besides this, in the case of a county, or of any district or combination of districts of which the population exceeds 50,000, the medical officer must also have a diploma in public health, unless he has during the three consecutive years before 1892 been medical officer of a district or combination having a population of more than 20,000, or has before the passing of the act been for three years a medical officer or inspector of the Local Government Board.

The only other powers and duties of a county council arising under the Local Government Act itself which it is necessary to notice are those relating to alterations of local areas. It may be convenient here to state that certain alterations Alterations of local areas. of areas can only be effected through the medium of the Local Government Board after local inquiry. These cases include the alteration of the boundary of any county or borough, the union of a county borough with a county, the union of any counties or boroughs or the division of any county, the making of a borough into a county borough. In these cases the order of the Local Government Board is provisional only, and must be confirmed by parliament. The powers of a county council to make orders for the alteration of local areas are as follows: When a county council is satisfied that a prima facie case is made out as respects any county district not a borough, or as respects any parish, for a proposal for all or any of the things hereafter mentioned, they may hold a local inquiry after giving such notice in the locality and to such public departments as may be prescribed from time to time by the orders of the Local Government Board. The things referred to include the alteration of the boundary of the district or parish; the division or union thereof with any other district or districts, parish or parishes; the conversion of a rural district or part thereof into an urban district or vice versa. In these cases, after the local inquiry above referred to has been held, the county council, being satisfied that the proposal is desirable, may make an order for the same accordingly. The order has to be submitted to the Local Government Board, and that board must hold a local inquiry in order to determine whether the order should be confirmed or not, if the council of any district affected by it, or one-sixth of the total number of electors in the district or parish to which it relates, petition against it. The Local Government Board have power to modify the terms of the order whether it is petitioned against or not, but if there is no petition, they are bound to confirm, subject only to such modifications. Very large powers are conferred upon county councils for the purpose of giving full effect to orders made by them under these provisions. A considerable extension of the same powers was made by the Local Government Act 1894, which practically required every council to take into consideration the areas of sanitary districts and parishes within the entire administrative county, and to see that a parish did not extend into more than one sanitary district; to provide for the division of a district which did extend into more than one district into separate parishes, so that for the future the parish should not be in more than one county district; and to provide for every parish and rural sanitary district being within one county. An enormous number of orders under the act of 1894 was made by county councils, and, speaking generally, it will now be found that no parish extends into more than one county or county district. Other powers and duties of the county council under the act of 1894 will be noticed hereafter.

Of the statutes affecting county councils passed subsequent to 1888 mention need only be made of the chief.

Previous to the Education Act 1902, county councils had certain optional powers under the Technical Instruction Acts to supply or aid the supply of technical or manual instruction. Their duties in respect to education were, however, much Education. enlarged by the act of 1902. That act abolished the old school boards and school attendance committees, and substituted a single authority for all kinds of schools and for all kinds of education. The county council or the council of a county borough is now in every case the local education authority, except that non-county boroughs with a population of over 10,000, and urban districts with a population of over 20,000, may be the local education authorities for elementary education only, but they may relinquish their powers in favour of the county council. For higher education county councils and county boroughs are the sole education authorities, except that non-county boroughs and urban councils are given a concurrent power of levying a rate for higher education not exceeding 1d. in the £. Under the act, an education committee must be established by all authorities. The majority of the members of the committee are appointed by the council, usually out of their own body, and the remainder are appointed by the council on the nomination or recommendation of other bodies. Some of the members of the committee must be women. All matters relating to the exercise of the powers of the education authority (except those of rating and borrowing) must be referred to the committee, and before exercising any of their powers the council must (except in cases of emergency) receive and consider the report of the education committee with respect to the matter in question. As to higher education the local education authority must consider the educational needs of their area and take such steps as seem to them desirable, after consultation with the Board of Education, to supply or aid the supply of education other than elementary, and to promote the general co-ordination of all forms of education. For this purpose they are authorized to levy a rate not exceeding 2d. in the £, except with the consent of the Local Government Board. They must also devote to the same purpose the sums received by them in respect of the residue of the English share of the local taxation (customs and excise) duties already referred to. See further [Education] and [Technical Education].

Under the Midwives Act 1902, every council of a county or county borough is the local supervising authority over midwives within its area. The duty of the local supervising authority is to exercise general supervision over all midwives practising Midwives. within their area in accordance with rules laid down in the act; to investigate charges of malpractices, negligence or misconduct on the part of a midwife, and if a prima facie case be established, to report it to the Central Midwives Board; to suspend a midwife from practice if necessary to prevent the spread of infection; to report to the central board the name of any midwife convicted of an offence; once a year (in January) to supply the central board with the names and addresses of all midwives practising within their area and to keep a roll of the names, accessible at all reasonable times for public inspection; to report at once the death of any midwife or change in name and address. The local supervising authority may delegate their powers to a committee appointed by them, women being eligible to serve on it. A county council may delegate its powers under the act to a district council.

Part of the business transferred from quarter sessions to the council was that which related to pauper lunatics, but the whole subject of lunacy was consolidated by an act of the year 1890, which again has been amended by a later act. The Lunatics. councils of all administrative counties and county boroughs and the councils of a few specified quarter sessions boroughs, which before 1890 were independent areas for purposes of the Lunacy Acts, are local authorities for the purposes of the Lunacy Acts, and each of them is under an obligation to provide asylum accommodation for pauper lunatics. This accommodation may be provided by one council or by a combination of two or more, and such council or combination may provide one or more asylums. The county council exercise their powers through a visiting committee, consisting of not less than seven members, or, in the case of a combination, of a number of members appointed by each council in agreed proportions. In the case of a combination the expenses are defrayed by the several councils in such proportion as they may agree upon, and the proportion may be fixed with reference to either the accommodation required by each council or the population of the district. A county borough may also, instead of providing an asylum of its own, contract with the visiting committee of any asylum to receive the pauper lunatics from the borough. Private patients may be accommodated in the asylums provided by a county council, and received upon terms fixed by the visiting committee. The expenses of lunatic asylums are defrayed in the following manner: The guardians from whose union a lunatic is sent have to pay a fixed weekly sum, which may not exceed 14s. a week. A larger charge is made for lunatics received from unions outside the county, as these do not, of course, contribute anything towards the provision or up-keep of the asylum itself. In addition to the payments by guardians, there is a contribution of 4s. a week from “the exchequer contribution account” already mentioned, and the remaining expenses are defrayed out of the county rate.