Local Government Act 1972

62 Alterations in the boundaries between English and Welsh counties. E+W

(1) The English Commission and the Welsh Commission may jointly review the boundary between a county in England and a county in Wales and, with the consent of the councils of both counties, make joint proposals to the Secretary of State for making alterations to the boundary appearing to the Commissions desirable in the interests of effective and convenient local government and for making consequential changes to the electoral arrangements for any area in those counties.

(2) The Commissions shall before making proposals under this section—

(a) give public notice in such manner as appears to the Commissions to be sufficient for informing persons likely to be concerned that they are holding a review under this section;

(b) prepare draft proposals and furnish copies of them to all public bodies appearing to the Commissions to be affected thereby and require those bodies which are principal councils to make copies available for inspection at their offices for a period specified in the requirement;

(c) on furnishing such copies as aforesaid give public notice as aforesaid that copies of the draft proposals are available for inspection as aforesaid and that objections to the proposals may be made to the Commissions within a time specified in the notice;

(d) consider any objections received by the Commissions within that time and, if they think fit, cause a local inquiry to be held with respect to the proposals.

(3) Section 250(2), (3) and (5) below shall apply in relation to an inquiry held under this section with the substitution for references to a Minister of references to the Commissions.

(4) The Secretary of State may give both the Commissions directions for their guidance in conducting a review and making proposals under this section.

(5) Where the Commissions have in accordance with this section completed a review thereunder, they shall submit to the Secretary of State a report on the review together with the proposals they have formulated or, as the case may be, a notification that they have no proposals to put forward, and section 60(5) above shall apply to the report and proposals as it applies to any report or proposals mentioned therein.

(6) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, the procedure of the Commissions for conducting a review under this section shall be such as they may determine.

(7) The Secretary of State may if he thinks fit by order give effect to any proposals made to him under this section either as submitted to him or with such modifications as he may agree with the county councils concerned.

(8) No order shall be made under this section unless a draft of the order has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.

[F1 (9) In the case of the boundary between a metropolitan county and a county in Wales the references in subsection (1) above to the councils of both counties and in subsection (7) above to the county councils concerned shall be treated as references to the council of the metropolitan district and the council of the county in Wales between which the boundary lies.]

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 62(9) inserted by Local Government Act 1985 (c. 51, SIF 81:1), ss. 1, 102, Sch. 16 para. 6