County borough

County borough
Map of county boroughs in 1971 (named in boldface capitals), alongside administrative counties, municipal boroughs, urban districts, rural districts
Category	Borough
Location	England and Wales and Ireland
Found in	Counties
Created by	Local Government Act 1888 Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 Local Government (Wales) Act 1994
Created	England 1889 Wales 1889/1994 Ireland 1899
Abolished by	Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 Local Government Act 1972 Local Government Act 2001
Abolished	Northern Ireland 1973 (local government) England and Wales 1974 Ireland 2002
Number	11 (as of 2008)
Possible types	Lieutenancy area (2) Principal area (9)

County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent term used in Scotland was a county of city. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland they remain in existence but have been renamed cities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001.^[1] The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 re-introduced the term for certain "principal areas" in Wales. Scotland did not have county boroughs but instead had counties of cities. These were abolished on 16 May 1975. All four Scottish cities of the time—Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow—were included in this category. There was an additional category of large burgh in the Scottish system (similar to a municipal borough in England and Wales), which were responsible for all services apart from police, education and fire.