Charter Trustees

From Free net encyclopedia

In the United Kingdom, Charter Trustees are set up to maintain the continuity of a town charter or city charter after a district with the status of a borough or city has been abolished, until such time as a parish council is established. Functions are limited to ceremonial activities such as the election of a mayor, and various other functions depending upon local customs and laws. The Charter Trustees are made up of local councillors in the district representing wards within the boundaries of the town/city.

The original sets of Charter Trustees were set up in 1974, under section 246 of the Local Government Act 1972; in the 1990s several more such bodies were set up in another local government reorganisation.

Section 245(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 allowed the 'shadow' district councils to make a petition to the Queen for borough status, prior to their coming into effect on April 1, 1974. In this case, if "it is signified on behalf of Her Majesty before that date that She proposes to accede" to the request then, the style of Borough could be used immediately from April 1, 1974, despite the fact that the Charter would only be presented later.

For the new districts which made no such petition (or where it was refused), for each former municipal borough in the district, a body corporate styled the Charter Trustees of the town or city, were established, under section 246(4) of the Act.

Originally, under section 246(7), when the district in which a charter trusteed town was in gained the status of a borough, the charter trustees would be immediately dissolved. Some new district councils petitioned for borough status soon after April 1, 1974, quickly dissolving the Charter Trustees.

This was changed by the Charter Trustees Act 1985, which provided that charter trustees would only cease to exist when a parish council was formed for the area of the former borough.

Medway's decision not to appoint charter trustees for Rochester, nor to apply for Rochester's city status to be transferred to Medway, led to Rochester losing its city status.

When boroughs such as Beverley were abolished in the 1990s, rather than give Charter Trustees authority over the entire area of the former borough, they were instead limited to that part of the borough which was unparished - the area identifiable as the town.

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List

Former municipal borough	Successor district	Website	Created	Parished/abolished
Andover	Test Valley District		1974	abolished 1976, successor the Borough of Test Valley
Aylesbury	Aylesbury Vale	[1]	1974	parished 2000
Banbury	Cherwell	[2]	1974	parished 2000
Basingstoke	Basingstoke District		1974	abolished 1978, successor the Borough of Basingstoke and Deane
City of Bath	Bath and North East Somerset	[3]	1996	extant
Bedford	Bedford District		1974	abolished 1975, successor the Borough of North Bedfordshire
Beverley	East Riding of Yorkshire	[4]	1996	parished 1999
Bexhill-on-Sea	Rother		1974	extant
Bootle	Sefton		1974	abolished c. 1975, successor the Borough of Sefton
Bridgwater	Sedgemoor		1974	parished 2003
Burton-upon-Trent	East Staffordshire		1974	abolished 1992 when East Staffordshire became a borough [5] unparished area became various parishes in 2003
Chelmsford	Chelmsford District		1974	abolished, 1975, successor the Borough of Chelmsford
Chippenham	North Wiltshire	[6]	1974	parished 1980?
Cleethorpes	Cleethorpes District		1974	Abolished 1975, successor the Borough of Cleethorpes
Cleethorpes	North East Lincolnshire		1996	extant
Colne	Pendle district		1974	Abolished 1976, successor the Borough of Pendle
Crosby	Sefton		1974	abolished c. 1975, successor the Borough of Sefton
Dartford	Dartford district		1974	Abolished 1977, successor the Borough of Dartford
Daventry	Daventry district		1974	parished 2003
Deal	Dover district	[7]	1974	parished 1996
Dover	Dover district		1974	parished 1996
Dunstable	South Bedfordshire	[8]	1974	parished 1985
East Retford	Bassetlaw		1974	extant
Folkestone	Shepway		1974	parished 2004
Goole	Boothferry		1974	Abolished after 1977, successor the Borough of Boothferry
Grantham	South Kesteven		1974	extant
Great Grimsby	North East Lincolnshire		1996	extant
Hemel Hempstead	Dacorum District		1974	Abolished 1986, successor the Borough of Dacorum
City of Hereford	Herefordshire	[9]	1998	parished 2000
High Wycombe	Wycombe	[10]	1974	extant
Ilkeston	Erewash		1974	abolished 1975, successor the Borough of Erewash
Kidderminster	Wyre Forest		1974	extant
King's Lynn	West Norfolk district		1974	Abolished 1981, successor the Borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk
City of Lichfield	Lichfield district	[11]	1974	parished 1980
Lowestoft	Waveney		1974	extant
Lymington	New Forest district		1974	parished (as four parishes) 1979
Maldon	Maldon	[12]	1974	parished ?
Mansfield	Mansfield district		1974	extant
Margate	Thanet	[13]	1974	extant
Nelson	Pendle district		1974	Abolished 1976, successor the Borough of Pendle
Newark	Newark district	[14]	1974	parished 1976?
Newbury	West Berkshire	[15]	1974	parished 1997
Penzance	Penwith		1974	parished 1980
Queenborough-in-Sheppey	Swale district		1974	parished 1976?
Ramsgate	Thanet		1974	extant
Royal Leamington Spa	Warwick district	[16]	1974	parished 2002
Royal Tunbridge Wells	Tunbridge Wells district		1974	Abolished 1974, successor the Borough of Tunbridge Wells
City of Salisbury (New Sarum)	Salisbury district		1974	extant
Scunthorpe	North Lincolnshire		1996	extant
Southport	Sefton		1974	abolished c. 1975, successor the Borough of Sefton
Taunton	Taunton Deane District		1974	abolished 1975, successor the Borough of Taunton Deane
Weston-super-Mare	Woodspring (now North Somerset)	[17]	1974	parished 2000
Workington	Allerdale		1974	parished 1982
Worksop	Bassetlaw		1974	extant
Yeovil	Yeovil district (now South Somerset)	[18]	1974	parished 1984