London Government Act 1939
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
London Government Act, 1939
(2 & 3 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 40.
An Act to consolidate with amendments certain enactments relating to local government in London.
[13th July 1939]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
Constitution and Elections.
Administrative County of London.
1 Administrative county of London.
(1) London, that is to say, the area consisting of—
(a ) the City of London;
(b ) the metropolitan boroughs specified in the First Schedule to this Act; and
(c ) the places known respectively as the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple,
shall be an administrative county, for the purposes of local government, by the name of ‘The Administrative County of London’, and the said county is in this Act referred to as ‘the county’.
(2) Subject to any alteration of boundaries which may be made in pursuance of any enactment, the boundaries of the City of London, of each metropolitan borough, and of the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple shall be the same as the boundaries of those areas respectively immediately before the commencement of this Act.
London County Council.
2 Establishment of county council.
(1) There shall be a county council for the county consisting of the chairman, county aldermen and county councillors, and the council shall have all such functions as are vested in it by this Act or otherwise.
(2) The county council shall be a body corporate by the name of ‘The London County Council’, and shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to hold land for the purposes of its constitution without licence in mortmain.
Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Deputy Chairman of County Council.
3 Chairman of county council.
(1) The chairman of the county council shall be elected annually by the council from among the county aldermen or county councillors or persons qualified to be county aldermen or county councillors.
(2) The chairman shall, unless he resigns or becomes disqualified for being a member of the council, continue in office until his successor becomes entitled to act as chairman.
(3) During his term of office the chairman shall continue to be a member of the council notwithstanding the provisions of this Act relating to the retirement of county councillors at the end of three years.
(4) The council may pay to the chairman such remuneration as it thinks reasonable.
(5) The chairman shall, by virtue of his office, be a justice of the peace for the county of London, but before acting as such a justice he shall take the oaths required by law to be taken by a justice of the peace for that county, unless he is, at the date on which he becomes entitled to act as chairman, a justice of the peace for that county and has taken the oaths required by law to be taken to enable him to act as such a justice.
4 Election of chairman.
(1) The election of the chairman of the county council shall be the first business transacted at the annual meeting of the council.
(2) An outgoing county alderman shall not, as alderman, vote at the election of a chairman.
(3) In the case of an equality of votes, the person presiding at the meeting, whether or not he voted or was entitled to vote in the first instance, shall give a casting vote.
5 Vice-chairman of county council.
(1) The county council shall appoint a member of the council to be vice-chairman of the council.
(2) The vice-chairman shall, unless he resigns or becomes disqualified for being a member of the council, hold office until immediately after the election of a chairman at the next annual meeting of the council, and during that time shall continue to be a member of the council notwithstanding the provisions of this Act relating to the retirement of county councillors at the end of three years.
(3) Subject to any standing orders made by the council, anything authorised or required to be done by, to or before the chairman may be done by, to or before the vice-chairman, except that he shall not be, by virtue of his office, a justice of the peace.
6 Deputy chairman of county council.
(1) The county council may appoint a member of the council to be deputy chairman of the council.
(2) The deputy chairman shall, unless he resigns or becomes disqualified for being a member of the council, hold office until immediately after the election of a chairman at the next annual meeting of the council, and during that time shall continue to be a member of the council notwithstanding the provisions of this Act relating to the retirement of county councillors at the end of three years.
(3) The council may pay to the deputy chairman such remuneration as it thinks reasonable.
(4) Subject to any standing orders made by the council, anything authorised or required to be done by, to or before the chairman may be done by, to or before the deputy chairman, except that he shall not be, by virtue of his office, a justice of the peace.
County Aldermen.
7 County aldermen.
(1) The county aldermen shall be elected by the county council from among the county councillors or persons qualified to be county councillors.
(2) The number of county aldermen shall be one-sixth of the whole number of county councillors or, if that number is not divisible by six, one-sixth of the highest number below that number which is divisible by six.
(3) If a county councillor is elected to and accepts the office of county alderman, his office of county councillor shall thereupon become vacant.
(4) If a county alderman is elected to and accepts the office of county councillor, his office of county alderman shall thereupon become vacant.
(5) In every third year, being the year in which county councillors retire together, one half as near as may be of the whole number of county aldermen, being those who have been county aldermen for the longest time without re-election, shall retire immediately after the election of the new county aldermen.
8 Election of county aldermen.
(1) The ordinary election of county aldermen shall be held in every third year, being the year in which county councillors retire together, at the annual meeting of the county council, and shall take place immediately after the election of the chairman of the council.
(2) A county alderman shall not, as such, vote at the election of a county alderman.
(3) Every person entitled to vote may vote for any number of persons, not exceeding the number of vacancies to be filled, by signing and delivering at the meeting to the person presiding thereat a voting paper containing the full names and places of residence and descriptions of the persons for whom he votes.
(4) The person presiding at the meeting, as soon as all the voting papers have been delivered to him, shall proceed to ascertain the result of the voting and state the number of votes given to each person.
(5) In the case of an equality of votes, the person so presiding, whether or not he voted or was entitled to vote in the first instance, shall give a casting vote.
(6) As many persons as there are vacancies to be filled, being the persons who have the greatest number of votes, shall be declared by the person so presiding to be elected.
(7) Immediately after the declaration of the persons elected, the person so presiding shall deliver the voting papers to the clerk of the county council to be kept for six months.
County Councillors.
9 Term of office, retirement, &c.
(1) The county councillors shall be elected in manner provided by this Act.
(2) The term of office of county councillors shall be three years, and they shall retire together in every third year on the eighth day of March.
10 Day of election.
10. The ordinary day of election of county councillors shall be such day, not being earlier than the first day and not later than the eighth day of March, as the county council may, not later than the preceding twenty-fifth day of January, fix for that purpose, and, if no date is so fixed, shall be the eighth day of March.
Electoral Divisions and Conduct of Elections.
11 Electoral divisions and number of county councillors.
(1) For the purpose of the election of county councillors, the county shall be divided into electoral divisions, and there shall be a separate election of councillors for each electoral division.
(2) Every parliamentary borough within the county, or in the case of a parliamentary borough divided into divisions every division thereof, shall be an electoral division for the purpose of the election of county councillors.
(3) The number of county councillors to be elected for an electoral division shall be twice the number of persons entitled for the time being to be returned to serve in Parliament for the parliamentary borough or division thereof of which the electoral division consists.
12 Persons entitled to vote.
(1) The persons entitled to vote at an election of county councillors shall be the persons entitled by virtue of the provisions of the Representation of the People Acts to vote at that election.
(2) An elector at an election of county councillors shall not give more than one vote for any one candidate, and shall not give more votes in all than the...
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