The Council of the Royal County of Berkshire — also known as the Berkshire County Council — was the top-tier local government administrative body for Berkshire from 1889 to 1998. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for education, public transport, planning, emergency services and waste disposal, it was composed of 87 members. Berkshire County Council shared power with six lower-tier district councils, each of which directed local matters.
It then used these offices up until 1 April 1998, when it was split into six unitary authorities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1992. Rather than abolition, its powers were passed to the unitary authorities of West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Reading and Slough.
Read more about Berkshire County Council: Powers and Composition, Coat of Arms
Famous quotes containing the words county and/or council:
“It would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens of your County who twelve years ago knew me a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat—at ten dollars per month to learn that I have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“There by some wrinkled stones round a leafless tree
With beards askew, their eyes dull and wild
Twelve ragged men, the council of charity
Wandering the face of the earth a fatherless child....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)