County Borough
County Borough (literally "county district") is a term used in local government in English-speaking countries , especially the United Kingdom . These are administrative districts in the urban area that do not belong to a county , that is, are on the same level as the "county". H. handle all tasks that the county takes on under its own responsibility. They are therefore sometimes called county-free cities and can be compared with independent cities in Germany or statutory cities in Austria .
County boroughs were established in the United Kingdom in 1889. New county boroughs were established until 1968 (around 1968 Teesside ). They all existed until the local government was reorganized in 1974 . At that time they were reintegrated into the counties and declared districts or parts thereof ("two-stage administration").
In England , during the reorganization of local government in the 1990s, so-called unitary authorities were created from many densely populated districts , which are similar in function to the earlier county boroughs, since the unitary authorities do not belong to any county, i.e. they carry out the tasks of Counties and the district (“one-tier administration”). However, the term county borough was no longer used. The same applies to the Council Areas in Scotland, which are classified as a unitary authority . In Wales, on the other hand, 10 of the 22 principal areas in existence since 1996 (analogous to the Unitary Authority) bear the name County Borough again.
In the Republic of Ireland there are still "county boroughs" today. They are the urban areas of Cork , Dublin , Galway (only declared a county borough in 1986), Limerick and Waterford .