Local government in the Isle of Man

The Isle of Man was historically divided into six sheadings (Manx: sheadinyn): in the traditional clockwise order, they are Glenfaba, Michael, Ayre, Garff, Middle, and Rushen. The sheadings are now significant only as:

• the districts of the Coroners (although two pairs of sheadings are now combined for this purpose), and
• the basis of certain electoral constituencies (now somewhat loosely).

The Coroners are responsible for process-serving and enforcement of judgments, not for holding inquests of death; that function is carried out by the High Bailiff, who is ex officio Coroner of Inquests.

The origins of the term sheading are unclear. There are three main possibilities:

• from the Norse word skeid – meaning ship-assembly, with each sheading providing men for a warship.
• from Middle Irish seissed meaning "sixth part" – with the sheadings having been a 14th-century Scottish introduction.
• from the Middle English word for an administrative division, scheding – with the sheadings having been introduced following English rule in the late 14th century.

The parishes have ecclesiastical roots, and are thought to have been introduced to the island in the 11th century from Scotland, the bishopric having been established in the 10th century. Civil parishes also existed from at least the late 15th century, their boundaries diverging significantly in some cases, where one or more Treens might pay their ecclesiastical tithes to one parish, but their Lord's Rent to another.[4] Parish boundaries broadly followed physical features such as rivers and watersheds, but there were many detailed divergences. For example, a mill and its croft, located on the west bank of a river, could be included in the adjoining parish east of the river by a loop in the boundary.

The parishes within each sheading of the Isle of Man are currently:

• Ayre - Andreas, Bride, Lezayre
• Garff - Lonan, Maughold, Onchan (Kione Droghad)
• Glenfaba - German, Patrick
• Michael - Ballaugh (Balley ny Loughey), Jurby (Jourbee), Michael (Maayl)
• Middle - Braddan, Marown, Santon
• Rushen - Arbory, Rushen (Rosien), Malew

The above are civil parishes; the ecclesiastical parishes of the Anglican church have been altered considerably to reflect the geographical distribution of the island's population.

The structure of local government in the Isle of Man has been recognised as unsatisfactory since before the Second World War, but no consensus on how it should be reformed has been achieved. Proposals for reform were made by the Local Government Board and various committees in 1934, 1949, 1963 and 1967.[27]

A Select Committee of Tynwald in 1985 recommended a thorough review,[28] and an interim report of a further Select Committee in 1986[29] led to a consultation document Time for Change containing proposals by the Department of Local Government and the Environment, issued in December 1991. Two interim reports[30] were followed in 1994 by a final report by the Department making recommendations for reorganisation, itself incorporated in a report by the Council of Ministers,[31] which however failed to endorse those recommendations.

In 1999, as no progress had been made, the Council of Ministers admitted that it had been unable to agree on proposals, and Tynwald set up a further Select Committee which reported in 2001 with a scheme to reduce the number of local authorities to four.[32] However, it merely "received" the report, declining to approve its recommendations.[33]

The next set of proposals, also for four local authorities, were made by the Department of Local Government and the Environment in 2004,[34] but were shelved because of opposition from the existing authorities.[35] An alternative plan, which would have preserved the existing authorities but transferred their waste collection and housing functions to joint boards, was produced shortly afterwards but also abandoned. The Department revived its previous proposals in 2005,[36] but shelved them again due to lack of support.[37]

After 30 years, the only step taken towards any reorganisation of local government, apart from the mergers in Onchan and Michael (above), has been to confer on the Department power by order to merge two or more local authorities with their consent.[38] This power has not been exercised.

However, in 2016[39] the village district of Laxey and the parish districts of Lonan and Maughold were merged to form the new parish district of Garff.

(The sheadings are not local government units today.)

• Local Authority Handbook, Department of Local Government and the Environment
• A Manx Note Book - Parishes, Francis Coakley