Town commissioners were elected local government bodies that existed in urban areas in Ireland from the 19th century until 2002. Larger towns with commissioners were converted to urban districts by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, with the smaller commissions continuing to exist beyond partition in 1922. The idea was a standardisation of the improvement commissioners established in an ad-hoc manner for particular towns in Britain and Ireland in the eighteenth century. The last town commissioners in Northern Ireland were abolished in 1962. In the Republic of Ireland, the remaining commissions became town councils in 2002, and abolished in 2014.
| Short Title: | Lighting of Towns (Ireland) Act 1828 |
| Type: | Act |
| Parliament: | Parliament of the United Kingdom |
| Year: | 1828 |
| Citation: | 9 Geo. 4. c. 82 |
The first town commissioners were established by the Lighting of Towns (Ireland) Act 1828 (9 Geo. 4. c. 82).
This was "adoptive" legislation, which ratepayers in a borough or market town could choose to enact in their community. As the existing borough corporations were ineffective as local authorities the act came into force in sixty-five towns. William Neilson Hancock explained the act in 1877 thus:[1]
Whereas local acts appointing commissioners for particular places specified a boundary or distance inside which the commissioners' powers would be confined, no such limit was specified in the 1828 act.[2] Thomas Larcom of the Irish Ordnance Survey wrote of the commissioners in 1846:[3]
In 1840 the majority of Irish boroughs were abolished by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, and the commissioners established by the 1828 act became the only local council. The town commissioners were recognised as successor to the borough, retaining corporate property and the municipal coat of arms. Any town with property of more than £100 that lost its borough corporation, but had not adopted the 1828 Act, was to establish "municipal commissioners". There was, in fact, only one town to which this applied: Carrickfergus in County Antrim.
| Short Title: | Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act 1854 |
| Type: | Act |
| Parliament: | Parliament of the United Kingdom |
| Year: | 1854 |
| Citation: | 17 & 18 Vict. c. 103 |
| Royal Assent: | 10 August 1854 |
| Collapsed: | yes |
The Towns Improvement (Ireland) Act 1854 (17 & 18 Vict. c. 103) allowed electors of populous places to choose to establish town commissioners. This enabled many newer communities that had never had municipal status to gain local government bodies. Many of the towns governed by the 1828 act replaced this with the new legislation as it provided the commissioners with greater powers.
A number of towns took a different route to establish local authorities in their areas, by having private acts passed in parliament. These acts established "townships" with defined boundaries, defined the powers of the commissioners, gave them powers to make rates, named the first members and provided a procedure for subsequent elections. The majority of townships were formed in the rapidly growing suburbs of Dublin. To gain further powers or adjust their boundaries the township commissioners had to apply for a further act of parliament.
In 1872 the Local Government Board of Ireland was formed. One of its duties was to consider applications for the formation of commissioners under the 1854 act, and for alteration of the areas of existing local government towns. The board issued annual reports on its activities, detailing the finances and condition of the various municipalities under its control.
In 1878 Ireland was divided into sanitary districts, with all commissioners in towns with a population of more than 6000 becoming urban sanitary authorities. The Local Government Board had the power to designate additional towns with commissioners as sanitary districts.
There were 76 such towns in 1881:
According to the 1878 report of The Local Government Board, the 1854 Act was adopted in Strandtown, County Antrim on 25 February 1878.[4] However the town is not listed in later reports, and was subsequently incorporated into the borough of Belfast.
Only 11 towns were still governed by the act:
There were 14 towns with commissioners formed under such legislation:
Only one town had established Municipal Commissioners following the 1840 Act:
In addition to these 102 towns there were 11 boroughs, making 113 towns and cities with some form of local government on Ireland. For completeness, the boroughs were
The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created a new type of local council, the urban district governed by an urban district council. All town commissioners that were sanitary authorities became urban district councils. In addition, the Local Government Board was given the power to constitute any other local government town with a population of more than 1500 as an urban district, although the ratepayers could petition to prevent the application of this section of the act.
The effect of this was that the number of towns with commissioners was greatly reduced. Two towns still operating under the 1828 Act, Monaghan and Wicklow, were promoted to the 1854 Act by section 41 of the 1898 Act. By 1902, 74 urban districts had been formed, leaving only 30 towns still governed under the 1854 Act. These towns formed part of the surrounding rural district also created by the Local Government Act for nearly all local government purposes, compared with the urban district councils, who enjoyed considerable powers. Over the next few years the number varied as some towns became urban districts and other communities adopted the act of 1854.
Following partition in 1922, four towns with commissioners situated in the six counties of Northern Ireland. The number was reduced to three in 1925 when Downpatrick became an urban district. The remaining town commissioners were dissolved in 1959 and 1962, their functions being transferred to the rural district council:
In the Irish Free State (Ireland from 1937), town commissioners continued to exist until 2002. The 1854 Act was still occasionally used to create new local government towns. The Local Government Act 1925 enabled existing town commissioners to dissolve themselves and for urban district councils to downgrade themselves to commissioners.
Where commissioners ceased to exist, in the towns of Callan, Fethard, Newcastle West, Rathkeale, Roscommon and Tullow, their duties were taken over by the county council. However, the town still had a legal existence and separate rates were levied in its area, and the county council had to prepare accounts as commissioners for the town. For example, Newcastle West in County Limerick, whose commissioners were dissolved in 1941, received a grant of a coat of arms by the Chief Herald of Ireland in 1980 – the grant being to "Limerick County Council for the Town of Newcastle West". In 1994, these towns were abolished as distinct entities.[5]
The Local Government Act 2001 redesignated both town commissioners and urban district councils as town councils from 1 January 2002. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 abolished town councils. Municipal districts of the county council perform the functions previously performed by the separate town councils.