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8
fact that local authorities must surely come into the picture in regard to
the hazards from nuclear radiation.
Consideration of the future of Local Government was taken a step
forward by the issue in May, 1957, of the Government White Paper,
"Functions of County Councils and County District Councils in England
and Wales " (Cmd. 161), which followed the White Paper of 1956 on
"Areas and Status of Local Authorities in England and Wales." The
report concerned itself with certain functions, including domiciliary and
certain other health and welfare services and education. In the main it
was proposed that in future a population of 100,000 should normally be
required for promotion to county borough status; and that the larger
boroughs and urban district councils should be entrusted with the main
responsibility for many of these services. But while it suggested that
responsibility for some of these might be conferred outright on the district
councils, some should be delegated. About delegation the report says:
"It is the system which applies at present and the Government believes
that it works satisfactorily where the district councils are given a large
measure of independence and where they are themselves of a size and
character to exercise the responsibility for the services effectively."
However, none of the proposals in the main White Paper applies to the
structure of government within the County of London, and it was appreciated
that Middlesex presented its own difficulties. Consideration of the
conditions in these districts has been referred to the Royal Commission
on Local Government in Greater London with the following terms of
reference: "To examine the present system and working of Local
Government in the Greater London area, to recommend whether any
and if so what changes in the Local Government structure and the
distribution of local authority functions in the area or any part of it would
better secure effective and convenient Local Government." For these
purposes the area has been extended outside the Metropolitan Police
District to include on the north the Borough of Watford, the Urban
Districts of Chorley Wood and Rickmansworth and the Parish of Watford
Rural in the Watford Rural District. Although to-day those in the
Public Health Department have little direct association with the provision
of such basic health services as water supply, drainage and sewage,
collection and disposal of house refuse and street cleansing, much of the
environmental health services is still so closely allied to these that perhaps
few would contemplate their being provided by any body other than
to-day's local sanitary authorities. Some of these services, though,
impinge so closely on some facets of the personal health services that
there is every advantage in the same body having this responsibility for
providing both sets of services. There are some who, seeing the disadvantages
of the tripartite arrangements for the administration ot the
health services, would favour these personal services becoming the
responsibility either of the hospital authorities or even of the executive
councils who are responsible for the general medical practitioner services.
Either method would bring those working in two out of the three divisions
of these services closer together. As the remit of the Royal Commission
is local government, it is unlikely that any step will be taken to move the
personal health services away from being the responsibility of some local