Some very interesting articles there, @creatr - didn't know about Stafford before. And the one about 'Countries where..." has some good discussion as well. It's important to note also about Stafford, it's a "Home Rule" city...

Although scholars have used a variety of flowery phrases to describe the concept of home rule, the principle is simple: home rule is the right of citizens at the grassroots level to manage their own affairs with minimum interference from the state. Home rule assumes that governmental problems should be solved at the lowest possible level, closest to the people.
As mentioned earlier, home rule cities look to the state to tell them what they are prohibited from doing, rather than for specific grants of authority to undertake particular functions.