Local Government Act 1888

40 Application of Act to Metropolis as county of London.

In the application of this Act to the Metropolis, the following provisions shall have effect:—

(1) The Metropolis shall, on and after the appointed day, be an administrative county for the purposes of this Act by the name of the administrative county of London.

(2) Such portion of the administrative county of London as forms part of the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, shall on and after the appointed day be severed from those counties, and form a separate county for all non-administrative purposes by the name of the county of London; and it shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen to appoint a sheriff of that county, and to grant a commission of the peace and court of quarter sessions, to that county; and, subject to the provisions of this Act, all enactments, laws, and usages with respect to counties in England and Wales, and to sheriffs, justices, and quarter sessions shall, so far as circumstances admit, apply to the county of London:

(3) Provided that, for the purpose of the jurisdiction of the justices under such commission, and of such court, as well as other non-administrative purposes, the county of the city of London shall continue a separate county, but if and when the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of the city assent to jurisdiction being conferred therein on such justices and court may by commission under the Great Seal be made subject to the jurisdiction thereof.

(4) The number of the county councillors for the administrative county of London, shall be double the number of members which at the passing of this Act, the parliamentary boroughs in the metropolis are authorised by law to return to serve in Parliament; and each such borough, or if it is divided into divisions, each division thereof, shall be an electoral division for the purposes of this Act, and the number of county councillors elected for each such electoral division, shall be double the number of members of Parliament which such borough or division is at the passing of this Act entitled to return to serve in Parliament:

(5) Provided that the number of county aldermen in the administrative county of London, shall not exceed one-sixth of the whole number of county councillors.

(6) The provisions of this Act with respect to the powers, duties, and liabilities of county councils, and the transfer of property, debts, and liabilities of counties to county councils, shall apply to the administrative county of London in like manner, so nearly as circumstances admit, as if the quarter sessions, justices, and clerks of the peace of the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent had been, so far as regards the metropolis, the quarter sessions, justices, and clerk of the peace for the administrative county of London:

(7) Provided that any property, debts, or liabilities of the county of Kent shall not, by reason only of this enactment, be vested in the county council of London, but such property, debts, and liabilities, and also the property, debts, and liabilities of the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, shall be apportioned between the portions of those counties situate within the Metropolis and the portions situate outside the Metropolis in such manner as may be determined by agreement between the respective county councils, or in default of agreement by the Commissioners under this Act, and the property, debts, and liabilities apportioned to the portions within the Metropolis shall be the property, debts, and liabilities of the whole of the administrative county of London.

(8) There shall also be transferred to the London county council the powers, duties, and liabilities of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and after the appointed day that board shall cease to exist, and the property, debts, and liabilities thereof shall be transferred to the London county council, and that council shall be in law the successors of the Metropolitan Board of Works.

(9) If the London county council borrow for the purposes of this Act they shall borrow in accordance with the provisions of the Acts relating to the Metropolitan Board of Works, but save as aforesaid Part Four of this Act shall apply to the London county council when acting as successors of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and the costs incurred when so acting shall be paid out of the county fund, and the payment thereof shall be a general county purpose.