ABSTRACT
An important provision of the Local Government Act, 1948, permits local authorities to provide and support entertainment and the arts, and thereby to help people to make better use of their leisure time. About thirty municipal corporations own theatres, some of them being leased to a trust on which in a few instances the local authority is represented. The town and country planning powers of county councils and county borough councils were enlarged by the Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, and the Town Development Act, 1952. The major local authorities were given much wider powers and duties of looking after children deprived of a normal home life by the Children Act, 1948. Government departments have an important influence on Parliamentary decisions in these matters, and governments nowadays look with suspicion and distrust on any deviations from the norm.
