Mrs Maye Dicks, new & last chairman of the urban council, receiving the chain of office from retiring chairman, Mr. A. Goulsbra.
THE HEYDAY of small local councils is over. The colourful regalia may remain after next April but the power they have for so long held will be drastically reduced.
Progress has at last overtaken the smaller councils and their death knell is sounded this week as chairmen and mayors hand over their chains of office for the last time.
On April 1 next year, local government leaps into the jet age and the county's smaller towns are swallowed up into the new district councils.
The changeover ceremonies which have been taking place up and down Northamptonshire will go down in the history books as the end of an era in local government.
For the last mayors and council chairmen, it is a week tinged with sadness at the passing of a system that has remained almost unaltered for nearly a century.
But for the new district councils which take over next April the future offers new challenges.
