A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities.
Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions.
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.
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.
In England, since the Local Government Act 1972, "town council" is the specific name given to a civil parish council which has declared itself by resolution to be a town council. If another type of local council, such as a district authority, covers a single town (such as Luton or Stevenage) then the council is often a 'borough council': borough status is however conferred at the discretion of the Crown.
Civil parishes are the most local level in the local government system. The higher levels are district, unitary and 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 entitled to be styled as "town mayor". This term contrasts with 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 council.
Historically the term 'town council' was used for the governing body of a municipal borough until the 1972 Act.