In Wales, too, the Act established a similar pattern of counties and districts,[3] but these have since been entirely replaced with a system of unitary authorities.

A Local Government Commission for England was set up in 1958 to review local government arrangements throughout the country, and made some changes, such as merging two pairs of small administrative counties to form Huntingdon and Peterborough and Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, and creating several contiguous county boroughs in the Black Country.

[5] Despite mergers, there was still a proliferation of small district councils in rural areas, and in the major conurbations the borders had been set before the pattern of urban development had become clear.

In 1969 it recommended a system of single-tier unitary authorities for the whole of England, apart from three metropolitan areas of Merseyside, SELNEC (South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire, now known as Greater Manchester) and West Midlands (Birmingham and the Black Country), which were to have both a metropolitan council and district councils.

[6] The new government made Peter Walker and Graham Page the ministers, and quickly dropped the Redcliffe-Maud report.

[8] The Association of Municipal Corporations, an advocacy group representing the boroughs, responded to Redcliffe-Maud by putting forward a scheme where England outside London would be divided into 13 provinces, with 132 main authorities below that.

The government aimed to introduce a Bill in the 1971/72 session of Parliament for elections in 1973, so that the new authorities could start exercising full powers on 1 April 1974.

[27] In October, the government brought up this issue again, proposing an amendment to put the western part of Lymington borough in Dorset.

[28][29] The government lost divisions in the House of Lords at Report Stage on the exclusion of Wilmslow and Poynton from Greater Manchester and their retention in Cheshire, and also on whether Rothwell should form part of the Leeds or Wakefield districts.

[30] (Rothwell had been planned for Wakefield, but an amendment at report stage was proposed by local MP Albert Roberts[21] and accepted by the government, then overturned by the Lords.)

[32][33] Two more metropolitan districts were created than were originally in the Bill: As passed, the Act would have included Charlwood and Horley in West Sussex, along with Gatwick Airport.

The Isle of Wight (originally scheduled to be merged back into Hampshire as a district) was the only local campaign to succeed, and also the only county council in England to violate the 250,000 minimum for education authorities.

The Redcliffe-Maud report led to a reconsideration of the plans, especially with respect to Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, and a March 1970 White Paper proposed three unitary authorities for South Wales, based on Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.

[12][42][43] After the 1970 general election, the new Conservative government published a Consultative Document in February 1971, at the same time as the English White Paper.

Ambiguity as to the status of Monmouthshire had been introduced by legislation in the 16th and 17th centuries, and by the gradual cultural anglicisation of some eastern parts of the county.

The Act abolished previous existing local government structures, and created a two-tier system of counties and districts everywhere.

One key principle was that education authorities (non-metropolitan counties and metropolitan districts) were deemed to need a population base of 250,000 in order to be viable.

A Boundary Commission, provided for in the Act, had already begun work on dividing England into districts whilst the Bill was still going through Parliament.

[55][57] The Act also extended the rights of the Duchy of Lancaster to appoint Lord-Lieutenants for the shrunken Lancashire along with all of Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

Rhuddlan Glyndŵr Delyn Alyn & Deeside Wrexham Maelor Carmarthen Dinefwr Llanelli Preseli South Pembroke Islwyn Monmouth Newport Torfaen Afron Dwyfor Meirionnydd Anglesey Merthyr Tydfil Ogwr Rhondda Rhymney Valley Taff-Ely Montgomeryshire Radnor Vale of Glamorgan Neath Port Talbot Swansea Elections to the new authorities were held on three different Thursdays in 1973.

There was not sufficient time to conduct a full warding arrangement so a temporary system was used: in some county councils electoral divisions elected multiple councillors.

Having lost office at the general election of February 1974, Graham Page, the minister who had piloted the Act through Parliament, condemned the existing system of rates and grants.

His successor as Minister for the Environment, Tony Crosland said that he would be re-examining the rates system, while the Association of Metropolitan Authorities sought the establishment of a royal commission to consider the matter.

[63] It was also felt that the boundaries of the metropolitan counties were too tightly drawn, leaving out much of the suburban areas of the conurbations[citation needed].

A campaign was mounted to return the Uffington White Horse to Berkshire, and a bonfire was lit at the site by protestors as the Act came into effect.

[65] The campaigners claimed 10,000 signatures in favour of diverting the county boundary to include the "Berkshire White Horse".

[67][68] Professor Anthony Fletcher, of the Department of Medieval History of the University of Sheffield, suggested that the new councils place signs at the boundaries of ancient counties.

[69] The removal of Gatwick Airport and the surrounding area from Surrey into West Sussex met some fierce local opposition with the result that the parishes of Horley and Charlwood were subsequently returned to Surrey in the eponymous Charlwood and Horley Act 1974, leaving the airport to stay in West Sussex.

Humberside united the north and south banks of the River Humber – in theory at least promoting cooperation of the ports of Kingston-upon-Hull, Grimsby and Immingham – carving territory out of the East Riding of Yorkshire and of northern Lindsey respectively.

[73] The local government reform in the 1990s led to the creation of many new unitary authorities, and the complete abolition of Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester and Humberside.