A town council, village council or rural council is a form of local government for small municipalities.
Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions.
Republic of Ireland
Town Councils in the Republic of Ireland were the second tier of local government under counties, and date from 2002, when the existing Urban District Councils and Town Commissioners were redesignated, until the town councils were abolished under the Local Government Reform Act 2014. There were previously 75 such councils.
Belize
Main article: Local government in Belize
There are currently seven town councils in Belize. Each town council consists of a mayor and a number of councillors, who are directly elected in municipal elections every three years. Town councils in Belize are responsible for a range of functions, including street maintenance and lighting, drainage, refuse collection, public cemeteries, infrastructure, parks and playgrounds.
England and Wales
n England, since the Local Government Act 1972, town councils are the specific name given to a civil parish councils, where the civil parish council has declared itself by resolution to be a town council. Civil parishes are the lowest level in the local government system. The higher levels are district, unitary or county. However town councils are not subordinate in democratic accountability to those higher levels, but to the electorate of their civil parish area.
The chairman of a town council is technically called a town mayor. The term "town mayor" is used as opposed to simply "mayor", which means the mayor of a borough or a city. However, this is often abbreviated simply to mayor, especially where the town was historically a borough or city, such as Lewes or Ely. In Scotland, the term 'provost' is commonly used to designate the leader of the town of council.
Historically the term 'town council' was used for the governing body of a municipal borough until the 1972 Act.
The term 'town council' in England, is today used only for a parish council which has named itself as a town council. If another type of local council such as a district authority covers a single town (such as Corby or Cheltenham) then the council is often a 'borough council': borough status is however conferred at the discretion of the Crown.
In Wales, where the lowest tier of local government is known as a community, the Community Council may unilaterally declare itself to be a Town Council, but this has the same status as a Community Council.