Local Councils - what do they do anyway?

As fewer and fewer people bother to vote in local elections these days, it might be helpful to explain what the powers and responsibilities of local councils actually are.
In Lewes there are three levels of local government that are directly elected: the Town Council, the District Council and the East Sussex County Council. They all take a proportion of money from the Council Tax, but are responsible for different duties and local services.
For example, the County Council has direct responsibility for libraries, childrens’ services, adult social care (like some services for the elderly), transport, roads, overall waste management and some other community services. County Council is funded by the Council Tax (72% of expenditure) and by government grants (the other 28%). It is no longer directly responsible for health and education.
The fire and rescue service is run by the East Sussex Fire Authority, which is separate from the County Council itself, but funded in part by the Council Tax, the rest by grants from central government. But County Council has representatives on the Fire Authority and influence on it. There is a similar set-up with the Sussex Police Authority, and both have county councillors on their leading committees, though neither are directly elected like the County Council itself.
Lewes District Council is in charge of housing, local planning permission and several local facilities and services such as maintaining some public places and running housing benefit services. The District Council is responsible for rubbish collection and also for the collection of the Council Tax.
It is funded by a combination of Council Tax, local business rates, rents, and most of all by government grants (53.8%).