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'Borough' is a fairly arbitrary redrawing of boundaries and merging of smaller authorities into a unified whole. The old 'borough' meant something slightly different. There's been an attempt in recent decades to effect a restrucuring of local government in order to simplify...our system had evolved across centuries and incorporated ancient rights and priveleges, overlapping authorities and competing claims. The relationship between central and local authority is not a simple one. It evolved out of relationships between kings and barons, metropolis and counties, royal and local prerogatives, all in the context of a North South divide that was cultural, political, economic and at one time racial.
Local government is a different tier of government, contained within and below the parliamentary system. Local government has no legislative function, merely executive and quasi-legal functions. We operate within a system which is dictated by Parliament. We are one of the mechanisms for operating the laws and systems they pass.
I am represented in local government (council) by a representative for whom I vote. I am also represented in parliament by an elected representative, and again I am represented by a member of the European parliament. They serve the same places but at different levels. The area an MP represents is much larger than the area a councillor represents. There will usually be 60-100 councillors working in the area that an MP represents. For the European parliament the area represented is even greater: County level .
I actually don't fully understand it. I am still confused as to the relationship between the Borough council I sit on and the Parish councils that also meet in this borough...
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