Burgh reform

A police burgh was a Scottish burgh which had adopted a “police system” for governing the town. They existed from 1833 to 1975.

The first police burghs were created under the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1833 (3 & 4 Wm IV c.46). This act enabled existing royal burghs, burghs of regality, and burghs of barony to adopt powers of paving, lighting, cleansing, watching, supplying with water and improving their communities.

This preceded the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which introduced a similar reform in England and Wales, by two years.

In order for the act to be adopted in any burgh, an application by householders in the town had to be made for a poll to be held. If three quarters of qualified voters were in favour, the act would come into force in the burgh. Inhabitants were also free to choose which parts of the act to adopt.

Boundaries for the police burgh were to be set out, which could be extended up to 1,000 yards (910 m) in any direction from the limits of the existing burgh. Contiguous burghs were allowed to unite for police burgh purposes. The boundaries agreed were recorded in the sheriff court books for the county.

A body of elected police commissioners was to administer the police burgh, between five and twenty-one in number. The chief magistrate of the existing burgh was to be, ex officio, a commissioner. Commissioners were to be elected annually.

The commissioners could, on applying the relevant sections of the act, collect and apply sums of money for the purposes of:

A further act was passed (3 & 4 Wm. IV, c.77) later in 1833 to extend local government to the thirteen burghs newly enfranchised by the Reform Act 1832. The inhabitants were permitted to elect magistrates and councillors and adopt a “general system of police”. The burghs thus created municipalities were:

The General Police (Scotland) Act, 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c.39) reduced the majority of householders required to adopt the police system from three quarters to two thirds. It also allowed the parliamentary burghs to adopt the burgh police act, and to levy for moneys to carry out municipal government.

The Police of Towns (Scotland) Act, 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c.33) - also known as “Lock’s Act” - repealed much of the earlier legislation. It also made it easier for police burghs to be created. Any “populous place” was now allowed to adopt a police system and become a burgh. A populous place was defined as any town, village, place or locality not already a burgh and with a population of 1,200 inhabitants or upwards. At the same time, a poll in favour of adopting the act now needed only a simple majority.

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