Does ABC seek further local government reorganisation ?
No, but we do wish to see reforms to certain parts of local government terminology. Most urgently, we are seeking the replacement of the word “county” as a description of a top tier local government area within the Local Government Act 1972. At the very least these areas should be re-labelled “administrative counties” (as were their pre 1974 forbears) to make it clear that these are not replacement for the traditional Counties but, simply, administrative areas, defined for a narrow administrative purpose and not intended to have any wider geographical or cultural significance. Of course, ABC is not opposed to the use of the historic County areas as a basis for local government areas. Local government areas should still reflect historic identities where possible and could still use the County names where appropriate (with further geographical qualifications in many cases). However, they should not masquerade as the Counties themselves. In this way the desire of many people for cultural
