| MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT |
| Any account of the growth of our Borough would be incomplete
without some reference to the manner in which we are governed by our Borough Council.
|
| This Council is elected by the ratepayers in the following manner.
By right of a residence qualification every householder (and in some cases a lodger),
has a vote at the municipal election, which takes place on the first day of November
in each year. For the purposes of these elections the Borough is divided into districts
or wards, of which there are five in Bury, viz :-Moorside, East, Church, Redvales, and
Elton. Each ward is further sub-divided into polling districts, the number in each ward
varying with the total number of electors and the size of the ward. In this way each
citizen votes locally in the polling district in which his residence is situated.
|
| The persons nominated for election must be proposed and seconded, on
special nomination forms, by electors of the ward in which they are to stand for election.
After the close of the poll the boxes containing the voting papers are taken to a central
counting station, where the votes are then counted. When this has been done, the Presiding
Alderman for each ward declares those having the greatest number of votes to have been
elected to the Borough Council. Each Councillor serves for three years, and each ward has
six Councillors allotted to it. Thus the Borough Council comprises thirty Councillors.
|
| The Council elect, from time to time, as a reward for long service and
valuable work for the Borough, certain of their number to become Aldermen, who serve for six
years and may be re-elected for further periods. The intention of Parliament in providing
for the election of Aldermen, with a longer period of service without election, was that
the Council should always include men of experience in municipal work. There are ten Aldermen
in Bury - two allotted to each ward.
|
| The thirty Councillors, together with the Aldermen, are entrusted with
the work of governing the Borough. From their number they elect each year one to be the Mayor,
though it is not essential that the Mayor should be an elected member of the Council - he may
be co-opted. It is the duty of the Mayor to preside at all meetings of the Council, and until
chairmen are appointed by the committees, the Mayor acts in that capacity. By virtue of his
office he is the chief magistrate for the Borough, and when acting he is Chairman of the Bench
of Magistrates. The Mayor holds the office of magistrate for one year after he has vacated
the office of Mayor. His Worship the Mayor is Returning Officer at all parliamentary Elections,
and unless he deputes his duties, is responsible for all the preparations necessary for carrying
out the election. Invariably the Mayor appoints the Town Clerk "Acting Returning Officer," and
reserves to himself only the right to announce the result of the poll. The office occupies a
great deal of time, because, apart from his purely municipal duties, he is called upon to
preside at many of the social functions which take place in the borough.
|
| Having seen how our Council is elected, let us now turn to its work and the
way in which this is performed. As we have already noted, the Council is responsible for the
upkeep of all public services, the maintenance of law and order, the care of the health of the
inhabitants, in fact, everything which is necessary to ensure that a large body of people shall
live together, work together, and play together to the best advantage of one and all.
|
| To entrust all this to one large body composed of forty people would not
be economical, so to the work to be done in the best manner the Council is divided into committees,
the Mayor being, by reason of his office, a member of all. The aim in appointing councillors to
these committees is two-fold - firstly, to make every Councillor do his fair share of work ;
and secondly, to put experts on various matters on the committees where their talents will be of most use.
|
| It is in committees where most of the work is done. Here all details are
carefully considered, and the recommendations of each committee have to be reported to the parent
body, i.e. the Council, for confirmation or otherwise. It is not proposed to give in detail the
duties of all the committees into which the Council is divided, but merely to mention shortly the
duties of those committees whose work is not fully explained by their titles.
|
| Previous: Municipal Work | Next: Cleansing Committee
|