MR HOOKHAM'S report and its headline state that if the Government's plans to scrap county councils goes ahead it will result in "the death of ancient Wiltshire" and of the other traditional English counties.
The counties came about in a variety of ways over a considerable period. The counties are considered to be territorial divisions whose names and areas had been fixed and universally accepted for centuries.
The historical counties are recognised as having separate existence from the county council administrative areas created by the Local Government Act of 1888 and subsequent local government legislation. Though the administrative areas were initially based on the historic counties, they have always been legally understood to be separate from.
If Mr Miliband's proposals become fact it would seem that would herald the end of the administrative Wiltshire County Council, but it will not be the death of the entirely separate historic county of Wiltshire.
PHILIP GRACE
Highworth
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