ABSTRACT
Local government has existed in some form in the UK since Anglo-Saxon times, although the relationship between national and local government has not always been an easy one. Thus local government has sometimes been seen (and even on occasions viewed itself) as an alternative and opposing power base, as a source of inconsistency in practice, and frequently as a profligate and inefficient drain on resources. Such views have always been balanced, however, by the obvious potential of local government to more easily respond to the needs and priorities of local populations, deliver national objectives at the local level, and extend the democratic mandate and responsibility downwards (Wilson and Game, 1994, pp. 30-1).
