Page "Civil parishes in England" Paragraph 7

In 1965 civil parishes in London were formally abolished when Greater London was created, as the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below a London borough ( since all of London was previously part of a metropolitan borough, municipal borough or urban district, no actual parish councils were abolished ).

In 1974 the Local Government Act 1972 retained civil parishes in rural areas and small urban areas, but abolished them in larger urban areas.

Many former urban districts and municipal boroughs that were being abolished rather than succeeded were continued as new successor parishes.

Urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes were refused this permission and became unparished areas.

The Act also led to the possibility of sub-division of all districts ( apart from London boroughs, reformed in 1965 ), into multiple civil parishes.

For example, Oxford, whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, covering part of its area.