CIOS
The Council of the Isles of Scilly was formed under the Local Government Board’s Provisional Order Confirmation (No 6) Act 1890, under the Local Government Act 1888. It came into being in 1891, enabling people living on the islands to elect their own representatives for the first time.
The council was granted powers equal to those of mainland county councils to ensure that all aspects of the islands’ administration could be tailored to the needs of the islands and their inhabitants. This decision was made to acknowledge the unique challenges faced by those living so remotely from the mainland and, in the case of residents on the off-islands of Tresco, St Martin’s, St Agnes and Bryher, from the largest and most heavily populated island of St Mary’s.
Today, the council consists of 16 seats for elected members: 12 from St Mary’s and 1 from each of the inhabited off-islands. Elections are held every 4 years. The council remains one of only two sui generis authorities in the United Kingdom, the other being the City of London Corporation. This unusual status means that some administrative law that applies in the rest of England applies in modified form on the islands and that the Council of the Isles of Scilly usually has to be specifically mentioned in legislation for it to apply.
Considering the tiny size of the administrative area, we are incredibly fortunate to have a council with wide ranging powers, offering a great degree of localised control and diverse employment opportunities. We are the voice of residents in discussions with government and other organisations, both on the islands and elsewhere, and we are often the operator of last resort due to a lack of suitable alternative organisations from other sectors on the islands. These factors combined mean that we have responsibilities relating to all of the following, in addition to the range of corporate and back-office functions which keep the authority running:
Registration of births, deaths and marriages
Benefits and taxation
Elections
Highways
Education
Family services
Social Services for adults and children
Libraries
Public Health
Housing
Waste management
Environmental Health
Planning
Building Control
Licensing
Flood Authority
Promotion of economic development
Emergency planning and business continuity
Animal health
Leisure services
Unusually for a local authority, we run an airport, a residential care home and a Fire and Rescue Service with stations on all of the inhabited islands (5 in total). The Council also makes provision for the coroner’s court whenever necessary and hosts the Isles of Scilly Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA), by providing the administrative and financial support necessary for it to function remotely from mainland IFCAs.
- Username
- CIOS
- Member Since
- 23 January 2018
- State
- active