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The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (c. 19) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which created the current local government structure in Wales of 22 unitary authority areas, referred to as principal areas in the Act,〔''Local Government (Wales) Act 1994'', s. 1〕 and abolished the previous two-tier structure of counties and districts. It came into effect on 1 April 1996. ==Background== In June 1991, the Secretary of State for Wales, David Hunt, published a consultation paper on reform of local government in Wales. The paper proposed the replacing of the existing two-tier system of administrative counties and districts, established by the Local Government Act 1972 in 1974, with unitary authorities. The number and size of the unitary areas was not set down, instead three options were given for ten, twenty or twenty-four new councils. On 3 March 1992 the Secretary of State made a statement in the House of Commons, in which he stated that the number of proposed unitary authorities was to be twenty-three. He further stated: The areas of the new councils were not precisely defined, although a map was issued at the time of the statement.〔(House of Commons Hansard Debates for 3 Mar 1992 )〕 The Conservatives held power at the general election held on 9 April 1992, and a white paper ''Local government in Wales: A Charter for the Future'' was published on St David's Day, 1 March 1993. The number of unitary authorities had been reduced to twenty-one, with the deletion of separate authorities for Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire, and their areas and proposed names were given. speaking in the commons, David Hunt said: The fire service, previously administered by county councils, was to be organised as three combined authorities. Elections for the new councils was to be in 1994, initially acting as "shadow authorities" until 1 April 1995 when they would assume their responsibilities.〔(House of Commons Hansard Debates for 1 Mar 1993 )〕 In May 1993, a cabinet reshuffle led to John Redwood replacing David Hunt as Welsh Secretary. In November 1993, it was announced that the reorganisation was to be put back by a year to 1 April 1996 to allow more time for consultation.〔(House of Commons Hansard Debates for 22 Nov 1993 )〕 The Glamorgan Valleys authority was to be renamed as Rhondda Cynon Taff, and a number of boundary changes were made. Following representations the Welsh Secretary announced on 15 March 1994 the splitting of the Heads of Valleys area into Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent, each approximating to an existing district increasing the number of unitary authorities to twenty-two: The Local Government (Wales) Bill was introduced to the Commons in June 1994. The debate on the bill led to a number of opposition amendments which sought to increase the number of councils, with representations being made by Members of Parliament for the affected areas.〔(House of Commons Hansard Debates for 15 June 1994 )〕 None of these amendments was successful and the Bill was passed by both houses and received the Royal Assent on 5 July 1994.〔London Gazette, issue no. 53730, 11 July 1994〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Local Government (Wales) Act 1994」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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