(1)On [F1 1st October 1973]—
(a)every county and every county borough shall cease to be an administrative area for local government purposes;
(b)every borough (other than a county borough), every urban district and every rural district shall be abolished;
(c)every united district within the meaning of section 12 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878 [1878 c.52] or section 7 of the Water Supplies and Sewerage Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 [1945 c.17] shall be abolished.
(2)Without prejudice to any provision of an order made under section 134(2)( h), on [F1 1st October 1973]—
(a)the council of every county, county or other borough, urban district and rural district;
(b)the corporation of every borough other than a county borough or a borough to whose corporation section 132(3)( b) applies;
(c)the joint board constituted for every united district such as is mentioned in subsection (1)( c); and
(d)the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners;
shall be dissolved.
(3)A new town commission established under the New Towns Acts (Northern Ireland) 1965 to 1968 shall—
(a)if immediately before [F1 1st October 1973] the commission were exercising municipal functions, cease to exercise those functions on that day;
(b)cease to exercise development functions, and be dissolved, on such day or days as the Ministry may by order appoint;
and paragraph ( a), and any order under paragraph ( b), shall have effect notwithstanding section 33 of the New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965 or any other provision of the said Acts of 1965 [1965 c.13] to 1968.
(4)Any council, corporation or joint board to which subsection (2) applies, the corporation of any county borough or of any borough to whose corporation section 132(3)( b) applies, the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners, and any new town commission, is in this Part referred to as an “existing local authority” ; and in this Part “municipal functions” and “development functions” in relation to a new town commission have the same meanings as in section 7 of the New Towns Act (Northern Ireland) 1965.