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(iv) That second-tier authorities be created where necessary
by amalgamation of existing authorities with wherever
possible a population of 150,000/250,000 and an area of
3,000/4,000 acreso
(v) That the power and duty of providing all local and personal
services be conferred on such authorities.
The Government issued a White Paper on the proposals for the
reorganisation of London Government in which they mention that the report
of the Royal Commission has been carefully studied with the views of over
100 local authorities and others who commented on it.
The Government's main conclusion is that the Commission were
justified in their criticism of the present structure of local government
in Greater London, and that their broad design should be adopted as a
basis for improving it. In particular, the Government endorse the view
that the boroughs ought to become the primary unit of local government;
and that a new, directly elected, authority should be set up to administer
functions which require to be dealt with over the whole of Greater London.
This conclusion is subject to two important qualifications of
the Commission's plan. One is that the boroughs ought to be larger,
and therefore fewer, than the Commission proposed, and the second was
that the education service should be re-organised.
The Council welcomed the Government's endorsement of the Royal
Commission's view that within the Greater London area the boroughs ought
to be the primary units of local government, and were unanimously of the
opinion that the proposed amalgamation of Kensington with Chelsea to form
a new borough should be accepted.
VITAL STATISTICS
The table set out on pages 8 and 9 gives the important vital
statistics for 1961, together with comparative figures for the previous
seven years.