Urban district (England and Wales)
| Urban district | |
|---|---|
 Map of urban districts, administrative counties, county boroughs, municipal boroughs and rural districts in England in 1931. Urban districts are shown in normal (rather than bold or italic) type. | |
| Category | Local government district |
| Location | England and Wales |
| Found in | Administrative county |
| Created by | Local Government Act 1894 |
| Created |
|
| Abolished by | |
| Abolished |
|
| Government |
|
In England and Wales, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local government responsibilities with a county council.
In
They replaced the earlier system of urban and rural sanitary districts (based on poor law unions) whose functions were taken over by the district councils. The district councils also had wider powers over local matters such as parks, cemeteries and local planning.[2] An urban district usually contained a single parish, while a rural district might contain many. Urban districts were considered to have more problems with public health than rural areas, and so urban district councils had more funding and greater powers than comparable rural districts.[1]
Urban districts normally covered smaller towns, usually with populations of fewer than 30,000. When the 1894 Act came into force on 31 December 1894 there had been 753 urban districts, of which 692 had previously been
Urban districts in the outer London area were absorbed into
See also
- Small burgh (approximate equivalent in Scotland)
- Urban and rural districts (Ireland) (established in Ireland in 1899)