Redcliffe-Maud Report


The Redcliffe-Maud Report was published by the Royal Commission on Local Government in England 1966–1969 under the chairmanship of Lord Redcliffe-Maud.

Terms of reference and membership

The commission was appointed on 7 June 1966, with the following terms of reference:
"....to consider the structure of Local Government in England, outside Greater London, in relation to its existing functions; and to make recommendations for authorities and boundaries, and for functions and their division, having regard to the size and character of areas in which these can be most effectively exercised and the need to sustain a viable system of local democracy; and to report."

The members of the Commission were Redcliffe-Maud, John Eveleigh Bolton, Derek Senior, Sir James William Francis Hill, Victor Grayson Hardie Feather, Arthur Hedley Marshall, Peter Mursell, John Laurence Longland, Reginald Charles Wallis, Thomas Dan Smith and Dame Evelyn Adelaide Sharp.

The report

Broadly the report recommended the abolition of all the existing county, county borough, borough, urban district and rural district councils, which had been created at the end of the 19th century, and replacing them with new unitary authorities. These new unitary authorities were largely based on major towns, which acted as regional employment, commercial, social and recreational centres and took into account local transport infrastructure and travel patterns.
There were to be 58 new unitary authorities and three metropolitan areas, which were to be sub-divided into lower tier metropolitan districts. These new authorities, along with Greater London were to be grouped into eight provinces, each with its own provincial council.

Division of functions

In arriving at their recommendations, the commissioners were guided by a number of principles which they had themselves devised. These included:
Accordingly, the different categories of council would have the following powers and responsibilities:
It had originally been envisaged that parish councils should also be abolished, but the Secretary of the National Association of Parish Councils, Charles Arnold-Baker, convinced the Commission that they should be preserved.

Derek Senior's Memorandum of Dissent

The Commission was nearly unanimous, with some reservations as to the exact geographic details. One member of the Commission, Derek Senior, dissented entirely from the proposals, and put forward his own in a Memorandum of Dissent, which was slightly larger than the Report itself. He would have preferred a two-tier system, with 35 city-regions of varying size, along with 148 districts. These were to be further grouped into five provinces. At a lower level, there would be 'common councils', roughly equivalent to civil parish councils, which would also cover communities within large towns; special arrangements were to be made for the area surrounding Berwick-upon-Tweed. These proposals effectively ignored traditional boundaries, to a much greater extent than the Report itself did.

Reaction

Immediately after the report was published, Prime Minister Harold Wilson said that he accepted the recommendations "in principle" and committed the government to "press ahead quickly" on the legislation necessary to implement it, later clarifying that legislation would probably follow in the 1970–71 or 1971–72 Parliamentary session. The Labour Party Government issued a White Paper entitled "Reform of Local Government in England" in February 1970, broadly accepting the recommendations of the report. The Government had however added two new metropolitan areas: West Yorkshire, and South Hampshire based on the Southampton and Portsmouth unitaries, with the Isle of Wight being a separate district.
Observers felt that the Conservative Party, then in opposition, had no urgency in defining their position. The shadow spokesman Peter Walker did not commit himself but instead held a series of regional conferences to ascertain party grassroots opinion. Reports suggested these conferences were overwhelmingly hostile and the Conservative Party conference in 1969 passed a highly critical motion, while suggesting that some reform of local government was supported. Walker decided that a future Conservative government could not implement Redcliffe-Maud, but refused to disown the report completely.
The Rural District Councils Association was immediately opposed to the proposals which would see their members subsumed in much larger authorities. They started a national campaign with the slogan "Don't Vote for R.E. Mote", distributing material to all their members. The slogan was used on postal franking from the affected authorities. Swale Rural District Council was forced to opt out of the campaign due to the similarity of "R.E. Mote" with the local Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate R.D. Moate. By coincidence, Moate had moved the motion opposing Redcliffe-Maud at the Conservative Party conference.

New government

When the Conservatives won the 1970 general election, they did so on a manifesto committed to a two-tier system in local government. In 1971 a further White Paper entitled "Local Government in England: Government Proposals for Reoganisation" announced its intentions, which ultimately led to the 1974 re-organisation. Although the general plan of the Report was abandoned, many of the specific innovations were carried over, such as the plan to associate Slough with Berkshire, and Bournemouth with Dorset.

Aftermath

In the actual 1974 re-organisation, the three metropolitan areas became metropolitan counties, though their area was greatly reduced. A further three were added, covering the Leeds/Bradford area, the Sheffield/Rotherham area and the Tyneside area. The concept of authorities based around Bristol, and Teesside was also retained. In most areas though, the 1974 system was far more conservative and retained more traditional boundaries.
The situation of wholly two-tier government did not last. The county councils for the metropolitan counties were abolished in 1986 by Margaret Thatcher's government, making the metropolitan boroughs effectively into unitary authorities. A further set of reforms in the 1990s led to the re-establishment of many old county boroughs as unitary authorities, along with other areas.
In 2004 the Government put forward a proposal to introduce directly-elected regional assemblies in the three regions of Northern England, should referendums produce a 'yes' vote. The regional boundaries proposed were very similar to the three northern Redcliffe-Maud provinces. Associated with this reform would have been a move to wholly unitary local government in the affected regions. In the area of Cumbria and Lancashire, the proposals bear a striking resemblance to the ones in the Report.

Proposed Unitary Areas

ProvinceNumberUnitary authorityApproximate extent
North East1Northumberlandnon-metropolitan Northumberland
North East2TynesideTyne and Wear minus Sunderland
North East3Durhamceremonial County Durham minus Easington
North East4Sunderland & East DurhamSunderland and Easington
North East5Teessideformer non-metropolitan county of Cleveland plus Whitby etc.
Yorkshire6Yorknon-metropolitan North Yorkshire and York minus Harrogate, Craven, Whitby
Yorkshire7BradfordBradford, Craven
Yorkshire8LeedsLeeds, Harrogate
Yorkshire9HalifaxCalderdale
Yorkshire10HuddersfieldKirklees
Yorkshire11Mid YorkshireWakefield
Yorkshire12Sheffield & South YorkshireSheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley
Yorkshire13DoncasterDoncaster
Yorkshire14North Humbersideceremonial county of East Riding of Yorkshire, small part of North Yorkshire
Yorkshire15South HumbersideNorth Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire
North West16Cumberland & North WestmorlandCarlisle, former Cumberland, area around Appleby in Westmorland
North West17Furness & North LancashireBarrow-in-Furness, South Lakeland and Lancaster
North West18The FyldeBlackpool, Fylde, Wyre
North West19Preston-Leyland-ChorleyPreston, South Ribble, Chorley
North West20BlackburnBlackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Ribble Valley
North West21BurnleyBurnley, Pendle, Rossendale
North West22Merseyside metropolitan areasee below
North West23Selnec metropolitan areasee below
West Midlands24Stoke & North StaffordshireStoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire Moorlands, Stafford, East Staffordshire, Congleton and Crewe and Nantwich
West Midlands25West Midlands metropolitan areasee below
West Midlands26ShropshireShropshire
West Midlands27Hereford & South WorcestershireHerefordshire and southern Worcestershire, excluding the districts of Wyre Forest, Bromsgrove and Redditch
West Midlands28Coventry & WarwickshireWarwickshire including Coventry
East Midlands29Derby & DerbyshireDerbyshire minus Glossop plus Burton upon Trent
East Midlands30Nottingham & NottinghamshireNottinghamshire
East Midlands31Leicester & LeicestershireLeicestershire, and most of Rutland
East Midlands32Lincoln and Lincolnshirenon-metropolitan county except for South Holland and the areas around Bourne and Stamford
South West33CornwallCornwall minus Saltash and area
South West34PlymouthPlymouth, the southern half of West Devon, the western part of South Hams and the area around Saltash in Cornwall
South West35Exeter & DevonDevon except the southern half of West Devon and the western part of South Hams
South West36Somersetnon-metropolitan county of Somerset except the area around Frome
South West37Bristol & Baththe former county of Avon, plus the adjacent parts of Wiltshire and the area around Frome
South West38North Gloucestershirethe non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire
South West39Wiltshireceremonial county of Wiltshire except the northern part of West Wiltshire and the western part of North Wiltshire
South West40Bournemouth & Dorsetthe ceremonial county of Dorset except the area around Sherborne, plus the western half of New Forest
East Anglia41Peterborourgh-North Fensthe districts of Peterborough, Fenland and South Holland plus the areas around Bourne, Stamford, Oundle and Ramsey
East Anglia42Cambridge-South Fensthe districts of Cambridge, East Cambridgeshire and South Cambridgeshire plus the areas around Newmarket, Saffron Walden, Haverhill, Royston, Huntingdon and St. Ives
East Anglia43Norwich & NorfolkNorfolk, except a small area to the west, plus the district of Waveney
East Anglia44Ipswich, Suffolk & North East EssexSuffolk except the areas around Newmarket and Haverhill, plus the districts of Colchester, Tendring and the northern part of Braintree
South East45Oxford & Oxfordshirenon-metropolitan Oxfordshire minus Henley-on-Thames, plus Brackley
South East46Northampton & Northamptonshirenon-metropolitan Northamptonshire minus the areas around Brackley and Oundle
South East47Bedford & North BuckinghamshireBedford and Milton Keynes, plus the areas around Buckingham and Ampthill
South East48Mid-BuckinghamshireChiltern and Wycombe plus the areas around Aylesbury and Tring
South East49Luton & West HertfordshireDacorum except Tring, St Albans, Watford, Three Rivers, Hertsmere except Potters Bar, Luton and South Bedfordshire
South East50East HertfordshireBroxbourne, East Hertfordshire, Welwyn Hatfield, Stevenage, Harlow, North Hertfordshire except Royston, the western halves of Epping Forest and Uttlesford and the areas around Biggleswade and Sandy
South East51Essexceremonial county of Essex minus Colchester, Harlow and Tendring, the western areas of Epping Forest and Uttlesford and the area around Saffron Walden
South East52Reading & Berkshirenon-metropolitan Berkshire plus Henley and the southern part of Buckinghamshire
South East53West SurreySpelthorne, Elmbridge, Runnymede, Surrey Heath, Woking, Guildford, Waverley, Rushmoor, Hart and the northern part of East Hampshire
South East54East SurreyEpsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Tandridge and Crawley
South East55West Kentthe western half of the current ceremonial county
South East56Canterbury & East Kentthe eastern half of the current ceremonial county
South East57Southampton & South Hampshirethe districts of Southampton, Eastleigh, Test Valley, the northern part of Winchester and the eastern part of New Forest
South East58Portsmouth, South East Hampshire and Isle of Wightthe Isle of Wight, the districts of Fareham, Gosport, Portsmouth, Havant and the southern parts of Winchester and East Hampshire
South East59West SussexArun, Adur, Chichester, Horsham and Worthing
South East60Brighton & Mid-SussexBrighton and Hove, Mid Sussex and Lewes
South East61East SussexEastbourne, Hastings, Rother and Wealden

'* Greater London

Proposed Metropolitan Areas

Merseyside