Public affairs test- District and county councils

Within the council system there are two tiers; the first tier is the county council and the second tier is the district council. District and county councils have different responsibilities within the area that they are responsible for. County councils such as Hampshire county council have much larger budgets, and are much bigger in terms of the area they cover as they provide services for an entire county and therefore are a much bigger organisation. District councils such as Winchester city council, only cover the areas in and around Winchester, and therefore have a much smaller budget, offer a smaller range of services and are on the whole a smaller organisation.

As an example of budgets available to the councils; Winchester city council has a budget of only £12.5 million, which is spent on things such as waste disposal and maintaining leisure facilities, environmental issues, and Winchester’s public transport and community activities in Winchester. Hampshire County Council has a much larger budget of £1.8 billion which is mainly spent on maintaining roads, pavements, providing services such as libraries, education, economy and tourism to the much larger area of Hampshire. Some of the two council’s roles can interconnect and disputes may arise when deciding who is responsible for certain aspects such as highway maintenance.

There are 55 areas of the country that have unitary authorities which mean that there is not a two tiers system of councils; instead there is one authority which overlooks that area including all the services and functions. An example of a unitary authority would be Southampton as there is only one level of council for this area.

Councillors for both district and county councils represent the people of particular areas which they represent. Councillors of district councils have particular wards which they are responsible for, whereas in the county council, a single councillor will represent an area in the county. Like national government the councils have a cabinet of a few councillors who ponder over the main decisions and each have a portfolio; an area within the council with a title such as ‘environment’ which they are responsible regarding decisions and any disputes within the area. The cabinet have meetings which can be viewed by the public. These meetings contain certain issues which are to be discussed, and then the cabinet, representing the councillors and the public make a decision to pass or to reject new proposals. Civil servants work for the councils and take the title of ‘director’ these people work for the government and assist the councillors on issues on related topics to the areas which they are responsible for.

District and county councils are similar, but the main different between them is the scale at which they operate and the funding that they have available to them. County councils have a much larger area of responsibility and bigger funding, although only ¼ of local government funding is from council tax.