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Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England
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Everything about Metropolitan And Non-metropolitan Counties Of England totally explainedMetropolitan and non-metropolitan counties are one of the four levels of English administrative division used for the purposes of local government. Due to successive legislation, there are currently several types of administrative division at this level in existence.
Current metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England
* 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. The term shire county is however unofficial.
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, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire, Worcestershire
All, 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 non-metropolitan county:
Bath and North East Somerset, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Darlington, Derby, East Riding of Yorkshire, Halton, Hartlepool, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, Luton, Medway, Middlesbrough, Borough of Milton Keynes, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Redcar and Cleveland, Rutland, South Gloucestershire, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, Stockton-on-Tees, Stoke-on-Trent, Swindon, Telford and Wrekin, Thurrock, Torbay, Warrington, York
Thirty-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.
History
The current system of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties came into effect on April 1, 1974 and replaced the administrative counties and county boroughs, 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, 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:
Other 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 Oxfordshire, as was the area around Wallingford and Didcot now comprising the western half of the South Oxfordshire District
Bournemouth was moved from Hampshire to Dorset, to join its sister town of Poole
Map 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.
Local Government Act 1992
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 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 & 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.
2009 structural changes
In April 2009 the following changes will be made to the non-metropolitan counties:
Further Information
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