Editing Greater London Council (section)

==Background==
In 1957 a [[Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London]] had been set up under [[Edwin Herbert, Baron Tangley|Sir Edwin Herbert]] to consider the local government arrangements in the [[London]] area.

It reported in 1960, recommending the creation of 52 new [[London borough]]s as the basis for local government. It further recommended that the LCC be replaced by a weaker strategic authority, with responsibility for public transport, road schemes, housing development and regeneration. The [[Greater London Group]], a research centre of academics within the [[London School of Economics]], also had a significant effort on the commission's report and the eventual creation of the GLC.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last=Kochan | editor-first=Ben | date=2008 | title=London government 50 years of debate: The contribution of LSE's Greater London Group | publisher= London School of Economics | page=4 | chapter=Introduction | url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/63374/1/Kockan_London_Government_50_Years_of_Debate.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/458352631/?terms=%22greater%2Blondon%2Bgroup%22 | title=NCC Control Needed | newspaper=The Ottawa Citizen  | date=10 May 1965 | page=4 | via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

Most of the commission's recommendations were accepted, but the number of new boroughs was reduced to 32. [[Greater London]] covered the whole [[County of London]] and most of [[Middlesex]], plus parts of [[Essex]], [[Kent]], and [[Surrey]], a small part of [[Hertfordshire]] and the [[County Borough]]s of [[County Borough of Croydon|Croydon]] (Surrey) and [[County Borough of East Ham|East]] and [[County Borough of West Ham|West Ham]] (both in Essex), all of which had been independent of county council control since 1889.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://hidden-london.com/miscellany/london-boroughs-map/|title=London Boroughs Map|access-date=15 September 2019}}</ref><ref name=herbert>Report of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London, 1957–60, (Cmnd. 1164) was published on 19 October 1960</ref>

Some areas on the boundaries of the area recommended by the Herbert Commission, fearing increased local taxation, fought successfully not to come under the new Greater London Council, notably the urban districts of [[Chigwell Urban District|Chigwell]] in Essex; and [[Sunbury-on-Thames Urban District|Sunbury-on-Thames]], [[Staines Urban District|Staines]] and [[Potters Bar Urban District|Potters Bar]] in Middlesex. Other areas recommended for inclusion that were never part of Greater London included [[Epsom and Ewell]], [[Caterham]] and [[Warlingham]], [[Esher]], and [[Weybridge]].<ref name=herbert/>

The first election for the new Greater London Council took place on 9 April 1964, and the old London County Council was abolished the following year.<ref name="Barratt">{{cite book |last=Barratt |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Barratt |year=2012 |title=Greater London - The Story of the Suburbs |location=Vauxhall Bridge Road, [[London]] |publisher=[[Random House]] |pages=439–445 |isbn=9781847945327}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |last=Cunningham |first=John |date=1 April 2014 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/apr/01/glc-ken-livingstone-abolished-thatcher |title=From the archive, 1 April 1986: Thatcher abolishes the GLC |work=[[TheGuardian.com]] |access-date=27 November 2022}}</ref>