(1)On [F1 1st October 1973] the charter of the corporation of every borough other than a county borough or a borough to whose corporation subsection (3)( b) applies shall be annulled.
(2)The council for a district which includes the whole or the major part of a borough other than a county borough may, before [F1 1st October 1973], resolve that the charter of the corporation of the borough shall have effect in relation to the district; and, if the borough bears a name other than the name of the district, the resolution shall provide for the name of the corporation of the borough to be changed to correspond to the name of the district.
(3)On and after [F1 1st October 1973] the charter of—
(a)the corporation of each county borough; and
(b)the corporation of a borough with respect to whose charter a resolution has been passed under subsection (2);
shall have effect in relation to the district which includes the whole or the major part of the borough as existing immediately before that date, but subject to any order made under section 134(2)( c).
(4)Where a charter to which subsection (3) applies has effect subject to any adaptations or modifications by virtue of section 30(1A) of the New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965, it shall, on [F1 1st October 1973], cease to be subject thereto.
(5)The corporation established or regulated by a charter to which subsection (3) applies shall continue to bear the name it bore immediately before [F1 1st October 1973] or, where a resolution passed under this section provides for a change of its name, shall on and after that date bear the name specified in the resolution, and shall continue to have perpetual succession, and shall act by the council of the district mentioned in that subsection.
(6)The chairman of the council mentioned in subsection (5), and the councillors of that council who are designated as aldermen in accordance with the charter, shall be respectively the mayor (or, as the case may be, the lord mayor) and the aldermen of the borough to which the charter relates.
(7)Without prejudice to any provision of the charter for the conferment of the freedom of the borough, the local electors of a district in relation to which a charter to which subsection (3) applies has effect shall, for the purposes of the charter, be the burgesses (or, as the case may be, the citizens) of the borough.
(8)When a council passes a resolution under subsection (2) it shall forthwith publish notice of the resolution in the Belfast Gazette.