Area let initially to the foreign chap on the English council (8)

I believe the answer is:

alderman

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'the english council' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how one could define the other.

'area let initially to the foreign chap on' is the wordplay.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
'to the foreign' becomes 'der'.
'chap on' becomes 'man' (I've seen this before. I am not sure about the 'on' bit.**).
The first letters of 'area let' is 'al'.
'al'+'der'+'man'='ALDERMAN'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for alderman that I've seen before include "Bigwig" , "Former civic dignitary" , "Member of an English city council" , "Local politician" , "superior member of county council" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times (Crosaire) and the Irish Times.

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