Greater London Council - Creation

Creation

The GLC was established by the London Government Act 1963, which sought to create a new body covering all of London rather than just the inner part of the conurbation, additionally including and empowering newly-created London boroughs within the overall administrative structure.

In 1957 a Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London had been set up under Sir Edwin Herbert, and this reported in 1960, recommending the creation of 52 new London boroughs as the basis for local government. It further recommended that the LCC be replaced by a weaker strategic authority, with responsibility for public transport, road schemes, housing development and regeneration. Most of the Commission's recommendations were accepted, but the number of new boroughs was reduced to 32. Greater London covered the whole County of London and most of Middlesex, plus parts of Essex, Kent and Surrey, a small part of Hertfordshire and the County Boroughs of Croydon (Surrey) and East and West Ham (both in Essex), all of which had been independent of county council control since 1889.

Some areas on the boundaries of the area recommended by the Herbert Commission, fearing increased local taxation, fought successfully not to come under the new Greater London Council, notably the Chigwell, Sunbury-on-Thames, Staines and Potters Bar urban districts of Middlesex. Other areas recommended for inclusion that were never part of Greater London included Epsom and Ewell, Caterham and Warlingham, Esher, and Weybridge.

GLC councillors elected for areas within the former County of London became ex officio members of the new Inner London Education Authority, which took over the LCC responsibility for education; in Outer London, which was the rest of Greater London, the various London boroughs each became a local education authority, akin to a county council or county borough in the rest of England.