Metropolitan county
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The six metropolitan counties shown within England |
The
metropolitan counties are a type of county-level
subnational entity in current use in
England. There are six metropolitan counties and they cover large urban areas, typically with populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million. They were created in 1974 and are each divided into several
metropolitan districts.
The
county councils were abolished in 1986 with most of their functions being devolved to the individual boroughs, making them de facto
unitary authorities. The remaining functions were taken over by joint-boards.
The six metropolitan counties and their metropolitan districts (also known as boroughs) are:
The structure of
Greater London is similar to the metropolitan counties and it is sometimes considered to be one. It was created earlier, in 1965, by the
London Government Act 1963.
Creation
The idea for creating administrative areas based upon the large
conurbations outside
London, was first mooted by the
Redcliffe-Maud Report in the late
1960s. The report proposed the creation of three large "metropolitan areas" based upon the conurbations surrounding
Manchester,
Liverpool and
Birmingham.
The proposals of the report were radically altered when
Edward Heath's
Conservative government came to power in 1970. The metropolitan areas were re-named metropolitan counties, and three new areas were added (
Tyne and Wear,
West Yorkshire,
South Yorkshire). In their final form, the counties were also far smaller than in the original proposals.
The metropolitan counties were established by the
Local Government Act 1972, the county councils were first elected in 1973, and were formally established in April
1974.
Structure
The metropolitan counties were first created with a two-tier structure of local government. Local government functions were divided between the
metropolitan district councils as lower tier authorities and metropolitan county councils (MCCs) as the upper tier.
The structure differed from the
non-metropolitan counties in the allocation of powers between the county and district councils. The metropolitan districts had more powers than
non-metropolitan districts, in that they were responsible for services such as education, and social services. In the non-metropolitan counties these were the responsibility of the county councils.
The metropolitan county councils (MCCs) were intended to be strategic authorities that ran regional services such as main roads, public transport, emergency services, civil protection, waste disposal and strategic
town and country planning. The MCCs functioned between 1974 and 1986. The last elections to the councils were held in May
1981.
Abolition of the county councils
Just a decade after they were established the mostly
Labour-controlled metropolitan county councils and the
Greater London Council had several high profile clashes, about overspending and high
rates charging, with the Conservative government of
Margaret Thatcher. In 1983 the government published a
White Paper entitled
Streamlining the cities which proposed the abolition of the MCCs, together with the abolition of the
Greater London Council (GLC). The government enacted the report in the
Local Government Act 1985; the MCCs and the GLC were abolished in 1986.
The government claimed that this was an efficiency measure, although it is widely believed that they were abolished for political reasons, because all of the county councils were controlled by the Labour Party. Most of the functions of the MCCs passed either to the
metropolitan borough councils, or to joint-boards. Some assets were given to
residuary bodies for disposal.
The status today
The metropolitan counties are sometimes referred to as "former metropolitan counties", although this description is not entirely correct; although the county councils were abolished, the metropolitan counties still exist legally, and are also
ceremonial counties (or
geographic counties), they are also used in government statistics.
Some local services are still run on a metropolitan county-wide basis, administered by
joint-boards, these include
emergency services, (policing and fire)
public transport (by joint
Passenger Transport Executives),
waste disposal and
civil defence. These joint-boards are made up of councillors appointed by the boroughs.
The abolition of the GLC was extremely controversial, but the MCCs less so. In 1997
Tony Blair's new Labour government legislated to restore a successor body to the GLC: the
Greater London Authority. Despite some talk of doing so, no bodies have been established to replace the MCCs. The Blair government instead pursued the idea of elected
Regional Assemblies, although this idea now looks dead, as there is little public support for them.
One possible alternative floated subsequent to the rejection of regional assemblies is that of the
City region, an idea which is currently under exploration by the government and several think-tanks. For instance, an ODPM strategy paper in 2005 proposed that new
directly elected mayors could instead hold office across several urban councils, in effect a city region.
Since the 1995, the cities of
Birmingham,
Bristol,
Leeds,
Liverpool,
Manchester,
Newcastle,
Nottingham and
Sheffield have assembled together in the
Core Cities Group. This organisation accords no distinct legal status on these councils over any other city council in England but appears to be organically moving towards some kind of recognition of their role as regional capitals outside of London.
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List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom
