The difference between County and District councils

There are many distinct differences between district and county councils within the United Kingdom. The single tier and two-tier system of local government in England was revised in the early 1990's. The two-tier system represents a city and is divided into a district and county council. An example of this within Hampshire is Winchester. Single tier councils are unitary authorities, which have the combined powers of both the district and county council. A prime example of a unitary authority in Hampshire is Portsmouth and Southampton.

There are 55 unitary authorities in England and 9 regional English European authorities. Each of the European Authorities are represented by a MEP (Member of the European Parliament), who will represent their local area within the European Union.

County councils are elected bodies who represent a wide area across a county They are responsible for wider-spreads services, such as education and social services. Within Hampshire County Council, they have an annual budget of £1 Billion. This is made up of 26% of funding from the British government, with the remaining 74% of the funding coming from payment of council tax from residents within Hampshire.

Hampshire County Council employ staff from a wide variety of areas across the public sector including teachers, social workers and the emergency services. The council is made up of 78 councillors who are elected every four years to represent the electoral wards within the county. The headquarters of the County Council is based in Winchester, but is also spread over various other locations across the county.

The main responsibilities of a County Council include; education services, emergency services, libraries, local transport, mental health services, road maintenance and waste disposal. These services are bound by law and must be offered by all County Councils.

A district council in comparison focuses around services in a much smaller area. Winchester City Council is made of 55 local councillors who will look after the interests of the local community. They are led by Kelsey Learney, a Liberal Democrat who is elected by the political party who has the majority within the council.

Their budget in comparison to Hampshire County Council is much smaller at £12 million. They focus on services in areas including environmental health, car parking, housing benefits and local council housing. Within district councils, there are smaller parish councils who will look after similar services, but with a reduced budget of between £10,000 and £100,000.

Within both county and district councils decisions will be made by the elected members. Each member will have a specific portfolio area that they specialise in, however the entire cabinet will vote on each specific decision, not the executive portfolio member. For example, when I attended the safer neighbourhoods meeting, decisions to what priorities the local police should focus their attention to could not be decided because the numbers of councillors needed to make the decision was not enough to carry the motion forward.

Some information from both county and district councils can not divulged to hide personal information or information that can used and spun by local newspapers. It is evident that it is hard to gather information from local councils, but it is always possible if you try hard enough.