It is fair to say that if I were to be asked a few weeks ago what the differences between the District and the County Council were, I would probably look a little blank and then tell you I didn’t know.
But now I do….
The clue is really in the name in terms of the two council’s sizes, the County Council is naturally bigger as that Council governs over a larger area, i.e Hampshire County Council governs the whole of Hampshire. However, District Councils govern a small body within the county council’s domain. For example, Winchester City Council. The two have very different budgets for expenses, that being because of not the only size of the area they govern but also because of the difference in responsibilities, which I will come onto shortly.
Local government is run using a two-tier system and tasks are distributed between the County Council and the District Council.
The County Council has several members and the general public votes these in every four years. From these elected members, a Cabinet is drawn and this essentially acts as a group of people representing certain areas within the Council that come together when making decisions, it is then their task to choose a Council Leader. For example, Ken Thorber is the current leader for Hampshire County Council.
Although, the leader usually holds the ‘final say’ when making decisions, the Cabinet cast their opinion too. Having attended a Council Meeting, I saw members of the Cabinet for Hampshire County Council casting their opinions on potential changes to adult social care.
Unlike the District Council, the County Council has Civil Servants. These are important members of the Council but are not elected in; they are permanent figures. The general public as taxpayers, pay for the salary of the Civil Servants. In most cases, the Chief Executive is paid higher than the Prime Minister!
County Councils are usually responsible for tasks including Fire and Rescue services, education, waste disposal and other tasks that affect the county as a whole.
District Council as mentioned above will control a smaller area within a particular county. The members of the District Council will be elected but only by those living in that particular area. For example, residents of Winchester will vote for the members within Winchester City Council. The leader of the District Council is usually determined by which political party has the majority, in Winchester City Council’s case, Kelsie Learney is the current leader, as she is the representative for the Liberal Democrats and they hold the majority within Winchester.
The District Council’s responsibilities are more minor issues but ones that are just as important and may be overlooked by the County Council. For example, road/pavement repairs, tax collection, waste collection, council housing etc. I was interested to find out, having attended a talk held by Kelsie Learney, that there is actually a website called fixmystreet.com that allows residents to post their worries or complaints, and this acts as a form of communication between the residents of Winchester and Winchester City Council.
I’ll be the first to admit that I do still find Councils quite tricky to get head around, but I have learnt so much more knowledge now that I had originally. I think one of the most important things I learnt was that although both Councils have such different responsibilities, it is the way the work together that makes local government work successfully.
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