Local Government (Part II)

For more than four hundred years local government was in the hands of Vestrymen, the chief tenants of the manor, who were responsible to the magistracy for poor relief and the maintenance of highways.

Vestries met in open meetings, which all ratepayers could attend, or in closed sessions for the 'selectmen' only. These worthies were chiefly concerned with keeping down the Poor Rate. In Victorian times they were rather inaptly called the Guardians of the Poor. Yardley's workhouse was on Red Hill, Coventry Road : out-relief was also given. Beggars and vagrants from other parishes were soon moved on ! From 1836, Yardley was in a Poor Law Union with Solihull, where a new workhouse opened two years later.

By 1880 there was a multiplicity of local authorities, all of them levying rates and none of them elected, which had been created by various Acts. Change was overdue. The system established by the Local Government Acts of 1888 and 1894 was to survive with little alteration for eight decades. Council were thence forward elected to control counties, excepting towns of more than 10,000 people. The second Act established Urban and Rural Districts : Yardley became the latter, because despite its population of 18,000 and a phenomenal rate of increase it still had an administration appropriate to a country village. Thanks to County Councillor Joseph Malins of Sparkhill an unnecessary duplication of authority was avoided : he succeeded in amending the second Act so that where as in Yardley the new District and the old Parish covered the same area a single council could perform both functions.

Thus Yardley acquired its first representative local government. Malins was a notable Chairman of the District Council, which met first (1894) in the Sparkhill Institute and then (1902-12) in the new Council House on 'The Hill'. His own map shows the Association area divided into Sparkhill Rural and Hall Green Wards.

When the Council House was opened in 1902 (having been built with Worcestershire money, the county being anxious to prevent Yardley for succumbing to the blandishments of Birmingham), the porch shields bore only the letter 'Y. D. C.', clearly looking ahead to Urban District status eventually. The R. D. C. had an impossible task : with only a rudimentary organisation and too-low rates it could not supply all the services and amenities demanded by the thousands of new Yardleians in Greet, Sparkhill and Springfield, and the hundreds in Hall Green. Drainage, street-surfacing and lighting were wholly inadequate, and there was no refuse collection. Birmingham supplied water, gas and transport : in 1911 the city's offer to provide everything else and not to claim full rates for the first fifteen years won over Yardley's voters, who decided to become citizens of Birmingham. The enlarged city was still not fully master in its own house, because administration of the Poor Law remained in the hands of Guardians. In 1912 the several Boards combined in one Union to administer the largest Civil Parish in Britain : its functions were not taken over by the City Council until 1930.

Delayed and hampered by two World Wars, several depressions, and post-war inflation, the City has attempted to keep its promises : the work of 66 years must be left for another article. After World War II, the largest all-purpose authority outside London lost bits of itself (part of Robin Hood golf course for example) and large areas of responsibility (electricity, gas, transport, and water most recently) : then in 1974, the big fish which gulped down so many little ones was itself swallowed by the West Midlands whale. That unloved giant now controls major planning, highways, and traffic, Police, fire and health services.

Hall Green voters still send ward representatives to the City of Birmingham District Council as well as to the West Midlands County Council. Despite worthy attempts to consult the electorate about future developments in the City, at meetings that were monopolised by sectional interests and ignored by the majority, local government seems remote and impersonal as it never was when the Headborough lived down the lane or the Council House was a short walk away on 'The Hill'.