The working of local governments Text a in great britain

(1) A very large part of public services in Britain is administered by local governments which together employ more than two million people. Local authorities provide a wide scope of services, which include the police, fire protection, refuse collection, supervision of water supply, preservation of public safety on the highways and many others. One of the main functions of local governments is delivery of personal services to local inhabitants ranging from education and consumer protection to provision of entertainment.

(2) The most important local area in Great Britain is the county. The counties vary greatly in size and population. The smallest in population has 20.000 inhabitants, the largest one, Lancashire, has 5 million people. Inside the counties there are cities, towns and boroughs which are entirely responsible for all their own local government services and quite independent of the counties in which they are geographically situated. There are also smaller local administrative units such as municipal boroughs (municipalities), urban districts and rural districts.

(3) For the purposes of local governments each administrative unit has its own council, a legislative and advisory body, elected by the inhabitants. The number of a council members depends on the population of the area. The smallest council has 15 councillors, the largest, which is the county council – 150.

The members of the county councils are elected for three years at general elections taking place every three years. With boroughs there is an election every year. But 25 per cent of council members are appointed for the term of six years each. These appointed members are called aldermen. The county councils are responsible for schools, police and fire service, building and maintaining important roads. Every local council has its presiding officer. The presiding officer of a county is called the Chairman, but in a city he is called Mayor. This post is filled by the vote of the whole council for only one year. Mayor has many formal duties as the first citizen of his town.

(4) Each local council has a committee for each of the main sections of its work, for example, the general management of schools in a county is under control of the Education Committee. There are many other committees: Social Welfare Committee, Health Committee, Finance and Housing Committees, etc. For very important matters a committee can only recommend to the council what is to be done, and the council makes the decision in а general session. For other matters the committees have authority to decide themselves and they report their decisions to the whole council.

СЛОВАРЬ АКТИВНОЙ ЛЕКСИКИ:

аuthorities ( n., pl.) власти, органы государственной власти,

государственного управления

supervision (n) руководство, наблюдение, контроль

consumer protection защита прав потребителей

county (n) графство ( административная единицa в Англии);

округ (в США)

borough (n) 1.небольшой город, поселок городского типа,

имеющий, согласно королевской хартии, право на

самоуправление; 2. район крупного города;3.один

из 32 административных районов Лондона

municipal borough поселок городского типа (имеет местное

самоуправление)

urban district городской район (административное подразделение)

rural district сельский округ

council (n ) совет

county council совет графства (орган местного самоуправления

Великобритании)

councillor член местного совета в Великобритании (города или

графства); избирается на три года.

alderman (n) (ист.) oлдермен, старший советник муниципалитета,

член совета графства в Великобритании

presiding officer председатель, председательствующий мэр

Mayor (n) (глава муниципалитета города или района

в Британии).

report to (v) докладывать, представлять отчёт, отчитываться

перед кем-то

social welfare (n) социальное обеспечение; пособие по социальному

обеспечению (государственная программа денежной

помощи лицам, временно лишенным средств к

существованию)

ЗАДАНИЯ К ТЕКСТУ