Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Boundaries of Local Government Areas

1948; Wiley; Volume: 111; Issue: 4/6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1789862

1475-4959

E. W. Gilbert,

Urbanization and City Planning

My subject this afternoon is complex. Nevertheless geographers must concern themselves with current problems of Society and of State however difficult task may be. Geographical questions concerning boundaries of local government areas have interested British geographers in past and are of pressing importance to-day. Nearly thirty years ago Sir Halford Mackinder asserted that the Oceanic peoples must strive to root ever more firmly their own organisation by localities, each locality with as complete and balanced a life of its own as circumstances may permit of, and added that this is precisely what real Freedom of Men requires?scope for a full life in their own locality. 1 These words are as true as when they were first written. It is not possible to give an adequate geographical account of many problems connected with boundaries of local government areas in short space of one lecture: I can only draw a picture in outline. Nor is it possible to say anything very original as most of ground has been covered already, notably by Professor C. B. Fawcett in his Trovinces of England' (1919). My own previous work on subject is contained in a paper on Practical regionalism in England and Wales, 2 and Professor E. G. R. Taylor opened a discussion on geographical aspects of regional planning 3 to which I sent a contribution. Both these papers were mainly concerned with division of country into large units, and I feel it is now very necessary for geographers to consider boundaries of smaller administrative areas as well as to re-examine those of larger ones. The problem of local government areas, large and small, should be treated as a whole. There is no doubt that present system of local government areas in England and Wales is in many respects out of date: needs of local administration have long outgrown existing framework of boundaries. In words of The Times (9 April 1948) the petrol engine, telephone, vast shifts of industry and population have transformed human map of England while leaving local government map essentially unchanged. It would be difficult to make radical changes in boundaries of local govern? ment areas without reorganizing system as a whole. The problem is not merely a matter of revising existing boundaries: it is a question of creating new types of unit more consonant with geography of country as it is at present day. Unfortunately, while there is almost complete agreement on necessity for change of some kind, there is extreme diversity of opinion as to design of any alternative structure. 1 H. J. Mackinder, 'Democratic ideals and reality/ pp. 254 and 266, London, 1919. 3 Geogr.J. 94 (1939) 29-443 Jbid. 99 (1942) 61-80.