any burghs), whilst councillors for the burghs were co-opted by the town councils. A councillor co-opted for a burgh was not allowed to vote on matters relating to functions that the county council did not provide in that burgh. The Act did not contain a list of large and small burghs. They were eventually listed in the schedule to the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947. United burghs The Act united a number of adjacent burghs under a single town council (listed in Schedule 2): Kilrenny, Anstruther Easter and Anstruther Wester Elie, Liberty & Williamsburgh and Earlsferry Bonnyrigg and Lasswade Blairgowrie and Rattray Kirkcaldy and Dysart Where any of the merging towns was a royal burgh this status was to be continued in the united burgh. The four royal burghs that were counties of cities were largely unaffected by the Act, except that they assumed responsibility for public assistance and education. Changes to county councils For most local government purposes the counties of Kinross and Perth, and of Nairn and Moray were to be combined. The counties were to continue to exist, with individual county councils being elected, but they were to form a joint county council. The joint council was, however, permitted to delegate functions to either of the individual county councils. With the redistribution of powers between counties, large burghs and small burghs, the method of electing the county council was changed. The council was to be partly directly elected and partly chosen by the town councils of large burghs. Each large burgh was to nominate one (or more depending on population) members of the town council to the county council. The rest of the county was divided into electoral divisions (consisting of landward parishes) and small burghs, each returning single members. The first elections to the reconstituted county councils took place in November and December 1929. District councils The reconstituted county councils were obliged to submit a district council scheme to the Secretary of State for Scotland by 1 February 1930, dividing the landward part of the county into districts. The original bill had not included district councils, with the county council assuming all powers outside burghs. The intermediate level of administration was introduced following backbench pressure. Each district was to consist of one or more electoral divisions used for electing county councillors. The scheme specified the number of elected councillors. The county councillors elected for the division