The other members of the commission were Ruth Burton Buckley, Bernard Donald Storey and Ernest William Woodhead.
They were joined on 14 January 1959 by Professor Ely Devons and on 15 July 1959 by Robert Hughes Parry.
The North-Western GRA consisted of the administrative counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmorland (except those areas in the Merseyside and South East Lancashire SRAs), and the county boroughs of Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, Carlisle, Chester, Preston, St. Helens, Southport, Warrington and Wigan.
On 10 February 1966, the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson announced in the Commons the appointment of a Royal Commission chaired by Lord Redcliffe-Maud, to review the structure of local government in England more radically.
The area consisted of the administrative counties of Herefordshire, Salop (or Shropshire), Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire (except the parts included in the West Midlands SRA), and the county boroughs of Burton upon Trent, Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Worcester.
[13] Draft proposals were quite radical, as follows These proposals were greatly controversial (especially in Rutland, which put forth a counter-suggestions to add surrounding areas to Rutland instead from surrounding counties) and the final proposals were watered down somewhat[14] Extension of the two county boroughs of Leicester and Northampton was also recommended, and that the existing borough of Luton in Bedfordshire be constituted a county borough, but declined to recommend that Dunstable should be added to Luton.
[15] The proposal to merge Leicestershire and Rutland remained controversial, and an inquiry into objections made to this part of the report was held between 17 and 26 July 1962.
The commission's proposals included the creation of two new county boroughs: one based on the existing borough of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire (also including Charlton Kings urban district), the other to be formed from the areas of the borough of Torquay, the urban districts of Brixham and Paignton, and parts of Newton Abbot and Totnes rural districts in Devon.
The county boundary between Devon and Cornwall was realigned by the abolition of Broadwoodwidger Rural District in 1966.
On 14 December 1965, the Minister, Richard Crossman, proposed a large single county borough of Tyneside, which would have had a population of 900,000, making it the second largest in England after Birmingham.
[27] On 3 March 1966, the Minister for Housing and Local Government, being "of the opinion that the proposals of the Commission ... are not apt for the purpose of securing effective and local government in the area" formally rejected the commission's scheme, and substituted his own proposal.
A draft proposal for an area of 100 km2 with a population of 34,000, including Swadlincote to be transferred to Leicestershire was withdrawn in the final recommendations.
Objections were voiced to the extensions of Nottingham, Sheffield and York county boroughs into adjoining areas.
Changes in county boundaries proposed would have led to an area of East Suffolk adjoining Great Yarmouth passing to Norfolk.
[37] Inquiries were held on some of the proposed changes (the extension of Norwich, demotion of Yarmouth and amalgamation of Holland and Kesteven), but no alterations were made in the local government of the area until 1974.
The creation of a county of Cumbria to cover Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness, although floated, was not in the draft recommendations.
[38] Draft proposals were presented in December 1965 and would have seen a new county created based on the Manchester conurbation, divided into nine most-purposes boroughs, based on Manchester, Salford, Altrincham/Sale/Stretford (the future Trafford), Stockport, Ashton-under-Lyne/Hyde/Mossley (the future Tameside), Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Bolton.
Among the representations made during this review were: The commission met with limited success with only a few recommendations carried out.
The lack of executive powers meant that proposals could be rejected entirely and the reviews did not allow for suggested changes to the functions of local authorities.