Talk:Unitary authority

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As far as I know the term "unitary authority" is only used officially in the UK. So I'm thinking that the UK should either be given prominence in the article, rather than being below other countries, or that the other countries should be moved to their own articles, with perhaps a mention in a "other countries" section. Any thoughts. G-Man 22:42, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Unitary authority is the official term in New Zealand for a territorial authority that has the functions of a regional council. The most authoritative source is possibly the definition given in section 5 of the Local Government Act 2002[1].

I think that the most significant jurisdictions to mention are those in which there is a legal concept of a unitary authority. We should even include jurisdictions where the concept goes by another name (we're writing an encyclopedia not a dictionary). The other name can redirect here.

On the other hand, some countries will have entities that look like a unitary authority, but aren't quite the same. In the United States, for instance, the structure of local government varies from state to state. A state that has a single tier of local government is not actually a state full of unitary authorities, so I agree it's not worth discussing that situation here except as a counter-example.

As much as possible we should factor out common characteristics of unitary authorities to the main part of the article, and only discuss the differences on a per-country basis.

Ben Arnold 00:42, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Unitary Authority"

A newbie (User talk:62.49.29.104) edited this page (and one or two others) yesterday, making the claim that ""unitary authorities" in the UK are specific to English local government". I have asked them exactly what they meant by that. But I think I understand what they mean: have a look at these pages:

• Portsmouth Unitary Authority Area
• Hartlepool Unitary Authority
• Bristol Unitary Authority

... here "Hartlepool Unitary Authority" etc is being used as a proper noun: it is actually the official title of the body. This type of usage just does not occur in Scotland, or at least not since the time around the upheaval of 1996. Since then we have settled down to just calling them "Councils", thus:

• "Highland Council", never "Highland Unitary Authority" (with caps)
• "Clackmannnanshire Council", never "Clackmannanshire Unitary Authority" (with caps)
• "Fife Council", never "Fife Unitary Authority" (with caps)

--Mais oui! 14:52, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] United Kingdom Legal Definition

The legal definition of a unitary authority given in the article is currently an extract from the "Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996". Unfortunately it is currently claimed that this defines unitary authorities in England and Wales, but in fact it only covers England. I will change the description in the article shortly, but I thought I would explain my reasons here to prevent reversion. Road Wizard 12:58, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

As a second point, I have found an older definition for unitary authorities in England, which I will add to the article. The benefit of this second definition is that it comes specifically from local government reform legislation. Road Wizard 12:58, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sub-national government

I have reverted an edit by User:129.12.200.49, which said that Unitary Authorities are responsible for all sub-national government functions. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In England where the term "unitary authority" exists in legislation as well as being an official title there are four primary tiers of government functions in unitary authority areas:

1. European Parliament
2. UK Parliament
3. Regional Assembly - not directly elected but carries out government functions
4. Unitary Authority

To say that the unitary authority carries out all sub-national functions is clearly missing out the regional level. Likewise a similar model exists in Scotland and Wales;

1. European Parliament
2. UK Parliament
3. Scottish Parliament/Welsh Assembly
4. Unitary Authority

Though Canada and the USA operate federal models, this does not discount the comparison that they have tiers of government similar in nature to Unitary authorities, and these sections should remain in the article for comparative purposes.

Finally, I am unsure what argument was intended for removing the comparison to Northern Ireland government structure.

If the editor would like to discuss this in more detail, please do so. Road Wizard 15:37, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

• Ok, I see why the Northern Ireland section was removed - it is currently empty. I will remove it again. If someone wants to add text later they can easily recreate the section. Road Wizard 16:36, 30 May 2006 (UTC)