There is a long history of elected democracy in England, but Desborough Town Council was formed only in 1974. There had been a “Desborough Urban District Council” (DUDC) before that and that Council ran many services for Desborough but it was lost in the great Local Government reorganisation of 1974. The obligations and assets of the DUDC were combined with those of similar Councils in the area and Kettering Borough Council was created. At the same time, a new Council, Desborough Town Council was created. It has the same powers and duties as other town and parish Councils. (In case you want to know the difference between town and parish Councils, they are called something different; there is no difference at all in powers or duties: a Parish Council can just choose to call itself a Town Council).
This reorganisation process has just been repeated with Kettering Borough Council merging with other District and Borough Councils, and part of the County Council, to create the North Northamptonshire Council. The town and parish Council functions for Kettering will now be carried out by a new parish Council to be known as Kettering Town Council.
There are now only two tiers of Local Government in Northamptonshire: the new North Northamptonshire Council (and its twin West Northamptonshire Council), and the Town and Parish Councils.