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Borough meaning

What does Borough mean?
In legal practice, a borough denotes an urban local government area or town with recognised municipal status. In England, the term appears in London Boroughs (London Government Act 1963) and in metropolitan or other boroughs under the Local Government Act 1972. It chiefly affects corporate style, mayoralty and civic ceremony rather than conferring additional substantive powers. In Wales, modern principal areas are counties or county boroughs; county boroughs perform borough-type functions. In Northern Ireland, a district may hold borough status by charter (Local Government (Northern Ireland) Act 1972), allowing the council to style itself a borough and appoint a mayor. In Scotland, the analogous historic term is burgh; borough is not used in current local government legislation. Parliamentary usage is distinct. Historically, a parliamentary borough was a town returning burgesses to Parliament. Today, the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 classifies constituencies in England and Wales as borough or county, a distinction relevant to election expenses and administration. Scotland historically used burgh constituencies. In Ireland, statutory boroughs and town councils were abolished by the Local Government Reform Act 2014; certain municipal districts may use the title borough district for civic purposes (for example, Drogheda), without additional legal powers.
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NEWS
Thomas v Cheltenham BC: EMF and medical implants can be material in GPDO Part 16 telecoms prior approval; Court of Appeal clarifies NPPF discretion and appellate jurisdiction (England and Wales)

Thomas v Cheltenham Borough Council [2025] EWCA Civ 259 What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment will interest practitioners dealing with prior approval applications for electronic communication developments, and, more generally, those pursuing public law challenges about material considerations and appeals against High Court decisions. It reviews the Supreme Court's guidance in Friends of the Earth v Secretary of State for Transport [2021] UKSC 52 on three types of information that can amount to a material consideration. These include: information that legislation or policy, either expressly or by necessary implication, obliges the decision-maker to take into account or to ignore; and information that the decision-maker is entitled to consider where, in their own judgement and discretion, they regard it as appropriate. The judgment underlines that, within this third class, a decision-maker may choose not to refer to something others might regard as pertinent; yet, unless it was so plainly relevant that no rational decision-maker could have left it out of account, the omission to have regard...

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NEWS
UK Public Law update: Supreme Court on Equality Act ‘sex’ and clinician anonymity; judicial review timing; procurement, FOI and ICO guidance; immigration and SEND funding; state aid and customs updates

In this issue Equality and human rights Constitutional and administrative law Judicial review Public procurement Subsidy control and State aid Post-Brexit transition guidance Information law Other Public Law news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information No Weekly Highlights on 24 April 2025 Equality and human rights Supreme Court rules that the EqA 2010 terms ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ denote biological sex (For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers). In For Women Scotland Ltd v Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16, the UK Supreme Court unanimously concluded that these terms identify biological sex rather than ‘certificated sex’. The court determined that those holding a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) are not included within the EqA 2010 definition of their acquired gender. The ruling confirms that trans people remain safeguarded by the Act’s gender reassignment provisions and may pursue sex discrimination claims where...

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NEWS
UK Public Law weekly: Supreme Court upholds Russia sanctions; unlawful Public Order Act regulations; key JR and FOI/EIR rulings; UK-France migration treaty; AI regulation; HMCTS evidence system failures

In this issue Equality and human rights Judicial review Information law International law Other public law news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Equality and human rights Supreme Court rules on first Russia sanctions challenge (Shvidler v Foreign Secretary) The Supreme Court concluded, by a 4–1 majority, that the sanctions applied by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs to Mr Shvidler, and, unanimously, that the actions taken by the Secretary of State for Transport against the yacht M/Y Phi owned by Dalston Projects, introduced immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, were proportionate and lawful notwithstanding the recognised impact on the appellants’ rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. In a robust dissent, Lord Leggatt criticised the majority’s stance in Mr Shvidler’s appeal, holding that the measures against him, as a UK national, were disproportionate and thus unlawful. With...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Local housing authority allocations: decisions, eligibility and qualification, internal reviews, reasonable preference and judicial review, including discrimination challenges (England and Wales)

This Practice Note clarifies that a local housing authority (LHA) may allocate housing accommodation as it thinks suitable, reflecting the needs of the local community, set out within a published allocation plan. When an application is submitted, it must be examined and a determination reached by applying the published allocation criteria. An applicant is entitled to seek a review of refusals and to be told the outcome on review together with the reasons for it. It also identifies when a challenge is governed by statute, and when it ought to be brought by judicial review. Applications for housing—decisions An LHA is required to assess every application for the allocation of accommodation made in line with the procedural requirements of its allocation scheme. So long as it is evident that proper consideration has been given, the court is unlikely to disturb the LHA’s approach. In R (on the application of Heaney) v Lambeth Borough Council, Collins J rejected the claim for judicial review on the basis that the LHA’s...

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PRACTICE NOTES
2022 appeal round-up and tracker: key civil litigation decisions and forthcoming Supreme Court cases (England and Wales)

Practice Note This Practice Note consists of two strands created to help dispute resolution practitioners remain up to date with developments in case law that affect their field, or which influence civil litigation procedure more generally: selected forthcoming appeals to the Supreme Court are highlighted below; see Key forthcoming appeals to the Supreme Court—2022 summaries of significant appeal decisions in England and Wales (ie rulings of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court and, where appropriate, certain judgments of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Court of Justice of the European Union), and ECtHR, which we have covered; see: Key forthcoming appeal cases—2022 You can navigate this content using the table of contents in the left-hand margin. Alternatively, search this tracker using [CTRL]+[F]. This material is not intended to be a comprehensive register of every appeal or major decision relevant to dispute resolution practitioners. Key forthcoming appeals to the Supreme Court—2022 Tort and negligence ...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Archived Court of Protection case tracker: key England & Wales judgments (2021–2024) on capacity, best interests, medical treatment, deprivation of liberty and cross‑border issues

ARCHIVED: This tracker is archived and no longer updated. For an overview of Court of Protection cases from 2025 onwards, see: Court of Protection—table of cases. P, Re (Property & Affairs Deputyship: Jurisdiction) [2024] EWCOP 77 (T2) Court of Protection determines it has jurisdiction to consider whether P’s mother should continue as property and affairs deputy The proceedings related to P, an adult who sustained a brain injury in an accident and had a substantial personal injury claim. His mother had been appointed by the Court of Protection as his property and affairs deputy, and the present decision addressed an application seeking to revoke that appointment. The litigation had been protracted. Earlier, the court permitted ‘closed material’ to be withheld from P’s parents to facilitate capacity assessments; for a summary of that ruling, see here. Despite that step, neither the Official Solicitor nor the court gained clarity about P’s condition or even his location. It was reported that P was now residing in Italy. HHJ Burrows concluded that...

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PRECEDENTS
Local Authority Precedent: Abatement Notice for Statutory Nuisance under s.80 Environmental Protection Act 1990: Form, Compliance, Enforcement and Appeals (England and Wales)

To: [ name ] of [ address ] Please note that: The [ name ] [ District ] [ Borough ] [ City ] Council (the Council) is satisfied that a statutory nuisance [ exists OR is likely to [ occur OR recur ] ] under section 79(1) [ specify which subsection ] of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA 1990), originating from [ the premises at ] [ specify the address of the source of the nuisance ] and resulting from [ describe the matters which are causing the nuisance ]. This abatement notice is issued to you as you are [ the person responsible for the statutory nuisance OR [ the owner OR the occupier of ] the premises ]. What you are required to do [ You are required to abate...

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PRECEDENTS
London Borough s 249 TCPA 1990 template order extinguishing vehicular rights over highway, with optional exemptions and improvement or alternative highway dedication preconditions

TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT 1990 THE EXTINGUISHMENT OF VEHICULAR RIGHTS ON HIGHWAY [ insert highway description and number ] ORDER [ insert number ] Acting pursuant to section 249 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (‘the Act’), the Council of the London Borough of [ insert name of borough ] (The Council) hereby issues this order...

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PRECEDENTS
London Borough draft order notice under TCPA 1990 ss 249 and 252: extinguishment of vehicular rights and highway creation or improvement

London Borough of [ insert name of Borough ], Town and Country Planning Act 1990 The Council of the London Borough of [ insert name of Council ] gives notice of its intention to make an order, under section 249 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990), to authorise the ending of vehicular rights over [ insert description of highway where vehicular rights are to be extinguished ], more particularly identified and delineated on the plan in the Schedule 1 below...

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Q&As
Close-contact COVID-19 mask/visor offences, FPNs, council powers

On 23 October 2020, Nesil Caliskan, Chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Safer and Stronger Communities Board, issued remarks about the powers councils require to curb the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). Caliskan argued that local authorities should be able to take “rapid action” against businesses that do not put in place appropriate safety measures, adding that he “look[s] forward to hearing more details…over the coming days”. See: LGA seeks tools to combat businesses violating safety measures amid coronavirus (COVID-19)—LNB News 23/10/2020 86. The interventions designed to limit the spread of coronavirus continue to change as government policy tracks how the virus is circulating within communities. To streamline arrangements, a three-tier set of response levels was brought in to manage localised transmission of coronavirus. These regulations took effect in England on 14 October 2020, establishing a three-tier framework of restrictions intended to tackle local outbreaks of coronavirus. The regulations were made under powers granted by sections 45C(1), (3)(c), (4)(b), (4)(d), 45F(2) and 45P of the Public Health (Control of Disease)...

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