The body elected to carry out such responsibilities as may be statutorily determined, within a defined geographical boundary. In areas of England and Wales without all-purpose local authorities, it is the higher in a two-tier local government system whose powers are delegated by parliament. Actions beyond these powers may be declared by the courts to be ultra vires (outside its authority).
British Isles
In the British Isles, a county council is a council that governs a county.
The first county councils were introduced in 1889 in England and Wales by the Local Government Act 1888, largely taking over the administrative functions of the unelected Quarter Sessions. Except in Scotland, the areas they covered were termed administrative counties and did not necessarily align with the traditional counties.
County councils were responsible for more strategic services in a region, with smaller urban district councils and rural district councils responsible for other activities.
The writ of the county councils did not extend everywhere: county boroughs were independent of the council for the county in which they were geographically situated, and county borough councils exercised the functions of both county councils and district councils. County boroughs were abolished and all of the country (apart from Greater London) was placed in a two-tier arrangement with county councils and district councils.
Another form in 1986 abolished the Greater London Council (which was similar but not identical to a county council) and the councils of the six metropolitan counties abolished. Some of these have the styling of "county council" and some have the styling "county borough council". Most of these unitary authorities were boroughs or districts, but two, Rutland and Herefordshire, correspond to traditional counties, and so their councils are known as county councils.
In the Republic of Ireland, the county councils are still around in their original form, though they have taken on the powers of rural districts after they were abolished.
United States
In the United States, most of the individual states have counties as a form of local government; In other states, each county is headed by a county commission or a county board of supervisors.
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