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In the United Kingdom, 'Charter Trustees' are set up to maintain the continuity of a town charter or city charter after a district with the status of a borough or city has been abolished, until such time as a parish council is established. Functions are limited to ceremonial activities such as the election of a mayor, and various other functions depending upon local customs and laws. The Charter Trustees are made up of local councillors in the district representing wards within the boundaries of the town/city. In the event that there are less than three district councillors for the former borough, qualified local electors may be co-opted to make the number up to three.
The original sets of Charter Trustees were set up in 1974, under section 246 of the Local Government Act 1972; in the 1990s several more such bodies were set up in another local government reorganisation. The concept was introduced into the Bill by a government amendment in September 1972.^[1]
Section 245(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 allowed the 'shadow' district councils to make a petition to the Queen for borough status, prior to their coming into effect on April 1, 1974. In this case, if "it is signified on behalf of Her Majesty before that date that She proposes to accede" to the request then, the style of Borough could be used immediately from April 1, 1974, despite the fact that the Charter would only be presented later.
For the new districts which made no such petition (or where it was refused), for each former municipal borough in the district, which was not to become a successor parish, a body corporate styled the Charter Trustees of the town or city, were established, under section 246(4) of the Act.
Charter Trustees must hold an annual meeting within twenty-one days of the annual meeting of the district council. The first item of business is the election of a town or city mayor and deputy mayor for the next year. The charter trustees of Lowestoft failed to nominate any candidate for the office of town mayor for several years until a change of political control in 2003, the trustees being effectively in abeyance.
Originally, under section 246(7), when the district in which a charter trusteed town was in gained the status of a borough, the charter trustees would be immediately dissolved. Some new district councils petitioned for borough status soon after April 1, 1974, quickly dissolving the Charter Trustees.
This was changed by the 'Charter Trustees Act 1985', which provided that charter trustees would only cease to exist when a parish council was formed for the area of the former borough.
In the original legislation, charter trustees could also be formed in Welsh Districts, but the 'Charter Trustees Order 1974', which provided for the establishment of the trustees, stated that the section ''"shall not apply to the area consisting of the counties established by section 20 of the Act (new local government areas in Wales)"'', and ''"there will be no charter trustees in Wales."''^[2]
The failure of the outgoing City of Rochester-upon-Medway council to appoint charter trustees for Rochester and to apply for Rochester's city status to be transferred to the replacement unitary authority of Medway, led to Rochester losing its city status.
When boroughs such as Beverley were abolished in the 1990s, rather than give Charter Trustees authority over the entire area of the former borough, they were instead limited to that part of the borough which was unparished - the area identifiable as the town.

Contents

List

References

External link

Sources

List

Former municipal borough	Successor district	County in 1974	Website	Created	Parished/abolished
Andover	Test Valley District	Hampshire		1974	abolished 1976, successor the Borough of Test Valley
Aylesbury	Aylesbury Vale	Buckinghamshire	[1]	1974	parished 2000
Banbury	Cherwell	Oxfordshire	[2]	1974	parished 2000
Basingstoke	Basingstoke District	Hampshire		1974	abolished 1978, successor the Borough of Basingstoke and Deane
City of Bath	Bath and North East Somerset	Avon	[3]	1996	extant
Bedford	Bedford District	Bedfordshire		1974	abolished 1975, successor the Borough of North Bedfordshire
Beverley	East Riding of Yorkshire	Humberside	[4]	1996	parished 1999
Bexhill-on-Sea	Rother	East Sussex		1974	extant
Bootle	Sefton	Merseyside		1974	abolished c. 1975, successor the Borough of Sefton
Bridgwater	Sedgemoor	Somerset		1974	parished 2003
Burton upon Trent	East Staffordshire	Staffordshire		1974	abolished 1992 when East Staffordshire became a borough [5]unparished area became various parishes in 2003
Chelmsford	Chelmsford District	Essex		1974	abolished, 1975, successor the Borough of Chelmsford
Chippenham	North Wiltshire	Wiltshire	[6]	1974	parished 1980?
Cleethorpes	Cleethorpes District	Humberside		1974	Abolished 1975, successor the Borough of Cleethorpes
Cleethorpes	North East Lincolnshire	Humberside		1996	extant
Colne	Pendle district	Lancashire		1974	Abolished 1976, successor the Borough of Pendle
Crosby	Sefton	Merseyside		1974	abolished c. 1975, successor the Borough of Sefton
Dartford	Dartford district	Kent		1974	Abolished 1977, successor the Borough of Dartford
Daventry	Daventry district	Northamptonshire		1974	parished 2003
Deal	Dover district	Kent	[7]	1974	parished 1996
Dover	Dover district	Kent		1974	parished 1996
Dunstable	South Bedfordshire	Bedfordshire	[8]	1974	parished 1985
East Retford	Bassetlaw	Nottinghamshire		1974	extant
Folkestone	Shepway	Kent		1974	parished 2004
Goole	Boothferry	Humberside		1974	Abolished 1978, successor the Borough of Boothferry
Grantham	South Kesteven	Lincolnshire		1974	extant
Great Grimsby	North East Lincolnshire	Humberside		1996	extant
Hemel Hempstead	Dacorum District	Hertfordshire		1974	Abolished 1986, successor the Borough of Dacorum
City of Hereford	Herefordshire	Herefordshire	[9]	1998	parished 2000
High Wycombe	Wycombe	Buckinghamshire	[10]	1974	extant
Ilkeston	Erewash	Derbyshire		1974	abolished 1975, successor the Borough of Erewash
Kidderminster	Wyre Forest	Worcestershire		1974	extant
King's Lynn	West Norfolk district	Norfolk		1974	Abolished 1981, successor the Borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk
City of Lichfield	Lichfield district	Staffordshire]]	[11]	1974	parished 1980
Lowestoft	Waveney	Suffolk		1974	extant
Lymington	New Forest district	Hampshire		1974	parished (as four parishes) 1979
Maldon	Maldon	Essex	[12]	1974	parished ?
Mansfield	Mansfield district	Nottinghamshire		1974	extant
Margate	Thanet	Kent	[13]	1974	extant
Nelson	Pendle district	Lancashire		1974	Abolished 1976, successor the Borough of Pendle
Newark	Newark district	Nottinghamshire	[14]	1974	parished 1976?
Newbury	West Berkshire	Berkshire	[15]	1974	parished 1997
Penzance	Penwith	Cornwall		1974	parished 1980
Queenborough-in-Sheppey	Swale district	Kent		1974	parished 1976?
Ramsgate	Thanet	Kent		1974	extant
Royal Leamington Spa	Warwick district	Warwickshire	[16]	1974	parished 2002
Royal Tunbridge Wells	Tunbridge Wells district	Kent		1974	Abolished 1974, successor the Borough of Tunbridge Wells
City of Salisbury (New Sarum)	Salisbury district	Wiltshire		1974	extant
Scunthorpe	North Lincolnshire	Humberside		1996	extant
Southport	Sefton	Merseyside		1974	abolished c. 1975, successor the Borough of Sefton
Taunton	Taunton Deane District	Somerset		1974	abolished 1975, successor the Borough of Taunton Deane
Weston-super-Mare	Woodspring (now North Somerset)	Avon	[17]	1974	parished 2000
Workington	Allerdale	Cumbria		1974	parished 1982
Worksop	Bassetlaw	Nottinghamshire		1974	extant
Yeovil	Yeovil district (now South Somerset)	Somerset	[18]	1974	parished 1984

References

1.
2. S.I. 1974 No. 176

External link

★ An article about Charter Trustees from the City of Bath

Sources

★ Local Government Act 1972

★ Charter Trustees Act 1985 (C.45)

★ ''Local Government in England and Wales : A guide to the New System'', HMSO, London 1974