Kirklees
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Borough of Kirklees | |
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| Geography | |
| Status: | Metropolitan borough |
| Region: | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Ceremonial county: | West Yorkshire |
| Historic county: | Yorkshire (West Riding) |
| Area: - Total | Ranked 115th 408.60 km² |
| Admin. HQ: | Huddersfield |
| ONS code: | 00CZ |
| Demographics | |
| Population: - Total (2005 est.) - Density | Ranked 8th 394,600 966 / km² |
| Ethnicity: | 85.6% White 11.4% S.Asian 1.4% Afro-Carib. |
| Politics | |
 Coat of arms of Kirklees http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/ | |
| Leadership: | Leader and Cabinet |
| Executive: | Conservative (council NOC) |
| MPs: | Mary Creagh, Shahid Malik, Kali Mountford, Barry Sheerman, Mike Wood |
Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 390,000 and includes Batley, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Holmfirth, Huddersfield and Meltham.
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[edit] Structure
The borough was formed under the Local Government Act 1972 on April 1, 1974, by a merger of the county boroughs of Dewsbury and Huddersfield along with the municipal boroughs of Batley and Spenborough and the urban districts of Colne Valley, Denby Dale, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Kirkburton, Meltham and Mirfield. It was named after the Kirklees Estate, which is situated mid way between Huddersfield and Dewsbury. The grounds were the location of Kirklees Priory.
Most of Kirklees consists of old mill towns although there are a few country villages, such as Denby Dale and Emley. The combination of the two county boroughs (which only happened in three other metropolitan districts: Wirral, Sefton and Sandwell) resulted in a borough with no clear centre. Graham Riddick, MP for Colne Valley, campaigned in the early 1990s for it to be split into two <ref>Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 3 March, 1992, column 717</ref> <ref>Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 22 November, 1993, column 277</ref>, an ambition also mentioned by Elizabeth Peacock MP for Batley and Spen in 1991. <ref>Parliamentary Debates, House of Collomons, 8 May 1991, column 711</ref>, but no review of the borough was undertaken by the Banham Commission or its successors.
[edit] Notable features
Kirklees is the most populated borough or district in England not to have city status. In an unofficial referendum held by the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, the population of Huddersfield did not support city status. Kirklees council did not apply for that status in either the 2000 or 2002 competitions.
One attraction in Kirklees is Kirklees Light Railway. The border of Kirklees borough with Derbyshire (High Peak district) runs across the summit of the significant hill named Black Hill.
The last remaining colliery in West Yorkshire is at Scissett; the mine was so small that it was never nationalised and has always been in private hands.
[edit] Areas of deprivation
Some parts of Kirklees suffer from high levels of deprivation, such as the east end of Huddersfield, around Dalton and Deighton, and also large areas of Dewsbury and Batley – two towns which have been made into a special E.U. transformation area to address their problems.
[edit] Local government
The borough is divided into 23 wards and each is represented on the borough council by three councillors. Each councillor is normally elected on a first past the post basis for a four-year period which is staggered with the other councillors of that ward so that only one councillor per ward is up for election at any one time. Exceptions to this include by-elections and ward boundary changes.
For example, in 2004, the boundaries were changed, resulting in one less ward and, therefore, three less councillors. The local government election in June 2004 was for all seats of the council. The electorate were given three votes each to fill the three seats of each ward. The candidate with the most votes was elected for the standard four years, the candidate with the second highest number of votes was elected for three years and the candidate with the third highest number of votes was elected for two years; their seat therefore being up for re-election in 2006.
[edit] 2006 election
The table below summarises the results of the 2006 local government election. Each party is ordered by number of votes registered. No party won the 35 or more seats required for overall control, though the Conservatives won the most seats.
| Parties | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net Gain/Loss | Seats % | Votes % | Votes | +/- | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | 20 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 29.0 | 25.2 | 31,103 | -3.1% | |
| Conservative | 21 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 30.4 | 23.6 | 29,200 | ||
| Liberal Democrats | 20 | 1 | 5 | -4 | 29.0 | 19.8 | 24,445 | ||
| British National | 3 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 4.3 | 18.5 | 22,914 | ||
| Green | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.3 | 8.3 | 10,300 | -1.4% | |
| Save Huddersfield NHS | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 2,827 | N/A | |
| Independent | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 2,312 | ||
| English Democrats | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.4 | 436 | N/A | |
| Monster Raving Loony | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 66 | 0.0% | |
| Total | 69 | 123,603 | |||||||
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Districts of Yorkshire and the Humber | Image:Yorkshire rose.svg |
| Barnsley | Bradford | Calderdale | Craven | Doncaster | East Riding of Yorkshire | Hambleton | Harrogate | Hull | Kirklees | Leeds | North Lincolnshire | North East Lincolnshire | Richmondshire | Rotherham | Ryedale | Scarborough | Selby | Sheffield | Wakefield | York | |
| Counties with multiple districts: North Yorkshire - South Yorkshire - West Yorkshire |
