Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England
Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties are a level of
subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. Due to successive legislation there are currently several types of county level entity in existence.
*
unitary authority†
metropolitan county (no county council)
‡ non-metropolitan county with no county council
¹ 'administrative area' and
region (not a county).
Metropolitan counties
The metropolitan counties are
Greater Manchester,
Merseyside,
South Yorkshire,
Tyne and Wear,
West Midlands and
West Yorkshire. The counties typically have populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million.
The county councils of these were abolished in 1986 by
the Thatcher government for largely political rather than practical reasons, but they still exist legally. They are used for some administrative and geographic purposes, and are still
ceremonial counties. Most of the powers that the former county councils had were devolved to their
metropolitan boroughs, which are now in effect
unitary authorities, however some functions such as emergency services, civil defence, and public transport are still run jointly on a metropolitan county wide basis.
Greater London
The Greater London administrative area and the
Greater London Council were created in 1965 by the
London Government Act 1963. The Greater London Council was abolished in
1986 at the same time as the metropolitan county councils. Since
2000 Greater London has had an elected
Assembly and
Mayor, and forms the London
region of England.
Non-metropolitan counties
Shire counties
A 'shire county' is a non-metropolitan county that has multiple
districts. Its name need not have '
shire' in it.
There are 35 such counties:
Bedfordshire,
Berkshire,
Buckinghamshire,
Cambridgeshire,
Cheshire,
Cornwall,
Cumbria,
Derbyshire,
Devon,
Dorset,
Durham,
East Sussex,
Essex,
Gloucestershire,
Hampshire,
Hertfordshire,
Kent,
Lancashire,
Leicestershire,
Lincolnshire,
Norfolk,
Northamptonshire,
Northumberland,
North Yorkshire,
Nottinghamshire,
Oxfordshire,
Shropshire,
Somerset,
Staffordshire,
Suffolk,
Surrey,
Warwickshire,
West Sussex,
Wiltshire,
WorcestershireAll, apart from
Berkshire, have
county councils. Sometimes 'shire county' is used to exclude Berkshire, because it has no county council. The counties typically have populations of 109,000 to 1.4 million.
Unitary authorities
Unitary authorities are areas with only one council. 40 of these are coterminous with a county.
Bath and North East Somerset,
Blackburn with Darwen,
Blackpool,
Bournemouth,
Brighton and Hove,
Bristol,
Derby,
Darlington,
East Riding of Yorkshire,
Halton,
Hartlepool,
Herefordshire,
Isle of Wight,
Kingston upon Hull,
Leicester,
Luton,
Medway Towns,
Middlesbrough,
Borough of Milton Keynes,
North East Lincolnshire,
North Lincolnshire,
North Somerset,
Nottingham,
Peterborough,
Plymouth,
Poole,
Portsmouth,
Redcar and Cleveland,
Rutland,
Southampton,
Southend-on-Sea,
South Gloucestershire,
Stockton-on-Tees,
Stoke-on-Trent,
Swindon,
Telford and Wrekin,
Thurrock,
Torbay,
Warrington,
YorkThirty-nine of these are defined as counties with a single district council, and no county council. The
Isle of Wight is technically a county with a county council and no district councils, but the effect is the same.
The districts of
Berkshire are unitary authorities, but are not granted county status.
The
Isles of Scilly are not part of
Cornwall for administrative purposes, but neither do they constitute a county.
The current system of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties was created in
1974 and replaced the
administrative counties of England, which were abolished at that time. Greater London was created in
1965 under separate legislation.
In the
1990s a new type of non-metropolitan county was created - the unitary authority - which combines the functions and powers of county and district. The existing non-metropolitan counties became known as
shire counties to distinguish them from the unitary authorities.
Local Government Act 1972
By the late
1960s, it had become obvious that the structure of local government in
England and Wales needed reforming.
Harold Wilson's
Labour government set up the
Redcliffe-Maud Commission to produce proposals for wholesale reform.
The report proposed that for most of England the two-tier structure be abolished, and replaced with a system of 58
unitary authories, which would generally ignore the previous administrative boundaries in favour of changes that made geographic sense - a total redrawing of the map. In the metropolitan areas of
Merseyside,
South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire, and the
Birmingham area, there would be 3 metropolitan areas, with 20 district authorities.
These proposals were opposed by the
Conservative Party opposition led by
Edward Heath. They won the
1970 general election, and set to work defining their own scheme. This scrapped the concept of unitary authorities (even for existing
county boroughs) — the entire area of
England and Wales was to be divided into uniform counties and districts. In England the new divisions were to be largely modelled on the traditional counties, but in some areas (quite apart from the metropolitan areas) quite radical reforms were put forward.
Despite reassurances from the government that nobody's loyalties were expected to change as a result of the local government reform, and that the
ancient and geographic counties would not be formally abolished, many changes did incur significant local opposition. Most of the radical changes were withdrawn. One aspect the government stood firm on was the mergers of small counties. Campaigns for the continuation of
Rutland and
Herefordshire were unsuccessful, although due to its special geographic circumstances, the
Isle of Wight was permitted to retain a separate county council, as opposed to being reunified with its historic county of
Hampshire.
The
Local Government Act was passed in
1972, and defined the English counties and metropolitan districts, but not the non-metropolitan districts. These were set by a Boundary Commission that had already begun work.
The metropolitan counties were composed as follows:
*
Merseyside - based around
Liverpool, south-west
Lancashire, along with the
Wirral in north-west
Cheshire, on the other side of the
River Mersey,
*
Greater Manchester - the
Manchester urban area along with many surrounding towns
*
South Yorkshire - based upon the
Sheffield-
Rotherham area in the
West Riding of Yorkshire*
Tyne and Wear - the
Tyneside conurbation based on
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in
Northumberland, along with
Sunderland in
County Durham*
West Midlands -
Birmingham conurbation, including the
Black Country and
Coventry*
West Yorkshire -
Leeds-
Bradford area in the
West RidingOther significant changes were:
*
Avon formed from northern
Somerset, southern
Gloucestershire, and
Bristol and
Bath*
Cleveland formed from southern
Durham and northern part of the
North Riding, focusing on the
Teesside conurbation along with
Guisborough and
Hartlepool*
Cumbria was formed from
Westmorland,
Cumberland and part of
Lancashire and
Yorkshire*
Herefordshire and
Worcestershire were merged into
Hereford and Worcester*
Humberside formed from
eastern Yorkshire and northern
Lincolnshire*
Huntingdon and Peterborough was annexed by
Cambridgeshire*
Rutland was merged into
Leicestershire as a
district*
Vale of White Horse, including
Berkshire's former county town
Abingdon, was ceded to
OxfordshireMap 1974-1995
Abolition of metropolitan county councils
In
1986 the county councils of the metropolitan counties and the
Greater London Council were abolished by
Margaret Thatcher's government following disputes with central government, but the counties themselves remained legally in existence.
1990s UK local government reform
The
1990s led to the restoration of
county boroughs under a new name,
unitary authorities, which radically changed the administrative map of England. The changes were carried out in several waves.
On
April 1,
1995, the
Isle of Wight became a single unitary authority. It had previously had a two-tier structure with an Isle of Wight County Council,
Medina Borough Council and
South Wight Borough Council. Also on this day, two small areas were ceded from
Surrey and
Buckinghamshire to
Berkshire, giving it a border with
Greater London.
On
April 1,
1996, the unpopular counties of
Avon,
Humberside and
Cleveland were abolished and their former area divided into unitary districts. Also at this time, the
City of York was expanded and separated from
North Yorkshire.
On
April 1,
1997, the districts of
Bournemouth,
Darlington,
Derby,
Leicester,
Luton,
Milton Keynes,
Poole,
Portsmouth,
Rutland and
Southampton became unitary authorities. Also, the districts of
Brighton and
Hove were merged to form the new unitary authority of
Brighton and Hove.
On
April 1,
1998,
Blackpool,
Blackburn with Darwen,
Halton,
Medway,
Nottingham,
Peterborough,
Plymouth,
Swindon,
Stoke-on-Trent,
Southend-on-Sea,
Telford and Wrekin,
Torbay,
Thurrock and
Warrington became unitary authorities. Also,
Hereford and Worcester was abolished and replaced by the unitary authority of
Herefordshire and the shire county of
Worcestershire.
Berkshire was split into six unitary authorities, but not formally abolished.
*
Subdivisions of England*
Ceremonial counties of England*
List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom*
Association of British Counties*
European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 - Schedule 2 - Electoral Regions in England listing many counties extant at that date
