Central Regional Council

Central Region (Roinn Meadhanach in Gaelic) was a local government region of Scotland from 1975 to 1996, one of twelve such bodies across the country. The Regional Council's HQ was at Viewforth in Stirling, which had been previously the HQ of Stirlingshire County Council. It is now divided into the council areas of Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling, which had previously been districts within Central.

Regional councils in Scotland were established under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65). A two-tier system of local government was instituted with regional councils responsible for functions including social work, education, electoral registration, roads, valuation and rating, water and sewerage, police and fire. Regional councils were elected in 1974 and acted as shadow authorities until May 1975, when they assumed full powers. Regional, islands and district councils were abolished by the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 (c.39). They were replaced in 1996 by a single-tier local government structure. Some functions, including water and sewerage, were removed from local government and arrangements were made for others to be carried out by the successor authorities jointly.

At the time of the local government reorganisation of 1975, there was a great discussion on where the new region should be based – the options being Falkirk or Stirling, which was chosen as the county council had just finished construction of a new office building at Viewforth in the town in 1972.

Scottish Local government corporate body.

Maintenance of various services in the Central Regional area including Education, Social Work, Roads and infrastructure, Planning functions.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

Scottish Local Government

ISAAR(CPF): International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families, International Council on Archives (2nd edition, 2003); Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names, National Council on Archives (1997)

Created Feb 2011; updated 14 Sep 2020

• Engels