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36
"HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LONDON GOVERNMENT AND
SANITARY AUTHORITIES"
The London Government Act 1963 completely reorganises
Greater London Local Government providing a final step in the long
history of Local Authorities in the Metropolis.
It might be interesting to the members of the Council to have a
resume of this history which by its development demonstrates the
long and interesting struggle for local control in this great City of
ours commencing as it does with sanitary administration.
English local government can rightly be said to have commenced
before Parliament, having its origins in Anglo-Saxon times when the
country was divided into hundreds, wapentakes, parishes and
boroughs where justice and local affairs were jointly administered.
The growth of the manor produced a decline in the administrative
powers of these authorities and the local judicial and civil administration
was vested in the Lord's court and executed by the Lordls
officials.
In the Shires and Counties the Sheriff, acting as the representative
of the Crown dispensed local justice, whilst in the
boroughs the local customary rules prevailed without intervention
by the Sheriff.
With the supremacy of the Normans the former Saxon customs
and institutions were in large measure preserved, but with the
diminution of the feudal systems local government advanced and
the execution of local matters was vested in the parishes and
boroughs. The latter, gaining importance from the rapid growth of
both population and commercial interests, required powers for the
government of their districts which they obtained by petition to
Parliament to include both the civil and judicial control of borough
affairs.
Thus the Sheriff ceased to be an important local executive and
his functions became more or less honorary. His judicial powers
were transferred to the Justices of the Peace who were to have
jurisdiction in the local courts primarily to preserve the King's Peace.
These early authorities appointed officers whose duties were
generally of a sinecure nature. Thus the 'High Steward, invariably
a 'Peer of the Realm' was responsible for the protection of the
proprietory rights of the corporation; whilst the 'Patron' guaranteed