Governing body putting writer in a spot

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ Alison Petch has undertaken research in a range of social policy areas, in both local authority and university settings. ▪ Mr. Portillo A local authority will record those people who step forward as being entitled to single-person ...

WordNet Word definitions in WordNet
n. an administrative unit of local government