Local Government Act 1888

35 Application of Act to larger quarter sessions boroughs not county counties.

In the case of a quarter sessions borough, not being one of the boroughs named in the Third Schedule to this Act, but containing, according to the census of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, a population of ten thousand or upwards, the following provisions shall, on and after the appointed day, apply:

(1) Nothing in this Act shall transfer to the county council any power of the council of the borough as local authority under any Act, or (save as in this Act expressly mentioned) alter the powers, duties, and liabilities of the council of the borough under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, but subject to the above provisions and to the savings herein-after contained, the borough shall form part of the county for the purposes of this Act, and the parishes in the borough shall, subject to the exemptions herein-after mentioned, be liable to be assessed to county contributions in like manner as the rest of the county.

(2) Where such borough is at the passing of this Act exempt, in whole or in part, from contributing towards costs incurred for any purpose for which the quarter sessions of the county in which the borough is situate are authorised to incur cost the parishes in the borough shall not, save as in this Act expressly mentioned, be assessed by the county council to county contributions in respect of costs incurred for any such purpose, nor in the case of a partial exemption, be so assessed for any larger sum than such as will give effect to that exemption, but this exemption shall not extend to any costs incurred for the purpose of any powers, duties, or liabilities of the justices of the borough, which will by virtue of this Act be exercised or discharged by the county council nor to any costs of or incidental to the assizes of the county.

(3) Notwithstanding the last enactment the borough shall, for the purposes of the provisions of the [41 & 42 Vict. c. 77.] Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878, respecting main roads, form part of the county, and the costs of maintaining, repairing, improving, enlarging, or otherwise dealing with any main road in the borough shall be paid out of the county fund, and the payment of the costs incurred in the execution of the provisions of this Act with respect to main roads shall be a general county purpose for which the parishes of the borough may be assessed to county contributions:

(4) Provided that—

(a) the borough shall be deemed to be an urban sanitary district within the meaning of the [41 & 42 Vict. c. 77.] Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878; and the council of the borough shall have the power under the Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878, of making byelaws respecting locomotives, and authorising locomotives to be used on any road within the borough, save that if any difference is made by such byelaws or authority between any main road maintained by the county council and the other roads in the borough, such authority and byelaws shall require the approval of the county council; and

(b) the council of the borough shall have power as an urban authority to claim, in accordance with this Act, to retain the powers and duties of maintaining and repairing any main road in the borough; and

(c) the council of the borough may within two years after the passing of this Act apply to the county council to declare such roads in the borough as are mentioned in the application to be main roads within the meaning of the Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act, 1878, and the county council shall consider such application and inquire whether such roads are or ought to be main roads within the meaning of the said Act, and shall make or refuse the declaration accordingly, and if the county council refuse to make the declaration, the council of the borough may within a reasonable time after such refusal apply to the Local Government Board, and that Board, shall have power, if after a local inquiry they think it just so to do, to make the said declaration, which shall have the same effect as if made by the county council.

(5) The payment of the costs of assizes and sessions shall be a general county purpose for which the parishes in the borough may be assessed to county contributions, and all costs of prosecutions mentioned in section one hundred and sixty-nine of the [45 & 46 Vict. c. 50.] Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, shall be paid out of the county fund.

(6) The county councillors elected for an electoral division consisting wholly of such borough, or of some part of such borough, shall not act or vote in respect of any question arising before the county council as regards matters involving expenditure on account of which the parishes in the borough are not, for the time being, liable to be assessed equally with the rest of the county to county contributions.

(7) The county council and the council of any such borough may agree for the cessation in whole or in part of any exemption under this section of the parishes in the borough from assessment to county contributions, in consideration either of payment by the county council of a capital sum, or of an annual payment, or of a transfer of property or liabilities, or of the county council undertaking in substitution for the council of the borough any powers or duties, or partly for one consideration and partly for another, or in any other manner, according as may be determined.

(8) A borough which is a county of a city or a county of a town shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be situate in and form part of the county which it adjoins, or if it adjoins more than one county, then in and of the county of which it forms part for the purposes of parliamentary elections.