Urban district (England and Wales)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Urban districts were local government areas in England and Wales that covered urbanized towns. Each had an elected urban district council (UDC) and shared local government duties with the county council. They were created in 1894 by the Local Government Act 1894, replacing older urban sanitary districts. An urban district usually covered one town or parish and handled local matters like parks, cemeteries and planning, with a focus on public health. They tended to be smaller towns, often with populations under 30,000, and had more funding and powers than rural districts.

At the start in 1894 there were 753 urban districts. The numbers changed over time; many small urban districts merged with surrounding rural districts during county reviews in the 1930s, and some larger urban districts became municipal boroughs with mayors.

Urban districts in the outer London area were absorbed into London Boroughs in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963.

In 1974, all urban districts were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and replaced by larger districts that covered both urban and rural areas.

After abolition, many parish councils were created for towns that were previously in urban districts. In Wales, today all areas are covered by 870 communities within 22 unitary authorities.