West Midlands (county)

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West Midlands

Geography
Status	Ceremonial and Metropolitan county (no county council) <tr><th>Origin</th><td>1974</td></tr>
Region	West Midlands
Area - Total	Ranked 42nd 902 km²
ONS code	2E
NUTS 3	UKG3
Demographics
Population - Total (2005 est.) - Density	Ranked 2nd 2,591,300 2,874 / km²
Ethnicity	72.0% White 13.4% S. Asian 6.7% Afro-Carib 5.5% Mixed Race 2.4% Other
Politics
No county council
Members of Parliament	Bob Ainsworth, Adrian Bailey, Richard Burden, Lorely Burt, Liam Byrne, Ross Cranston, Jim Cunningham, Bruce George, Roger Godsiff, Sylvia Heal, John Hemming, Lynne Jones, Khalid Mahmood, Rob Marris, Stephen McCabe, Pat McFadden, Andrew Mitchell, Ian Pearson, Ken Purchase, Geoffrey Robinson, Richard Shepherd, Clare Short, Siôn Simon, John Spellar, Caroline Spelman, Gisela Stuart, Lynda Waltho, Tom Watson, David Winnick
Districts
City of Wolverhampton Dudley Walsall Sandwell City of Birmingham Solihull City of Coventry

The County of West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a population of around 2,600,000 people. It was formed on April 1, 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The county contains three major cities, these being Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton. Other large settlements in the county include Sutton Coldfield, Solihull, and the Black Country towns of Dudley, Walsall and West Bromwich.

The West Midlands no longer has a county council, as the former West Midlands County Council was abolished in 1986, although the county remains in legal existence. The county is sometimes described as the "West Midlands metropolitan area" or the "West Midlands conurbation", although these have different, and less clearly defined, boundaries. The seven metropolitan boroughs, along with the nearby unitary authority of Telford and Wrekin are starting to collaborate as a non-statutory city region under the name "Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country".<ref>[1]</ref>

The name "West Midlands" is also used for the much larger West Midlands region, which sometimes causes confusion.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Local government
- 3.1 Metropolitan boroughs
- 3.2 County-wide services
4 Towns and villages
5 Places of interest
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Geography

The West Midlands borders the counties of Warwickshire to the east, Worcestershire to the south, and Staffordshire to the north.

The West Midlands is one of the most heavily urbanised counties in the UK. Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Solihull together form the largest conurbation in the UK outside London, with a combined population of around 2.27 million.

The West Midlands is not entirely urban; Coventry is separated from the Birmingham urban area, by stretch of green belt land roughly 15 miles across known as the "Meriden Gap", which retains a strongly rural character.

A smaller piece of green belt between Birmingham, Walsall and West Bromwich includes Barr Beacon and the Sandwell Valley.

[edit] History

Main article: History of West Midlands.

Although the modern county has only existed since 1974. The settlements of the West Midlands have long been important centres of commerce and industry. Coventry was one of England's most important cities during the Middle Ages, with its prosperity built upon wool and cloth manufacture. Birmingham and Wolverhampton have a tradition of industry dating back to the 16th century when small metal working industries developed. Birmingham was known for its manufacture of small arms, whereas Wolverhampton became a centre of lock manufacture and brass working. The coal and iron ore deposits of the Black Country area provided a ready source of raw material. The area grew rapidly during the industrial revolution, and by the 20th century had grown into one large conurbation. Coventry was slower to develop, but by the early 20th century had became an important centre of bicycle and car manufacture.

The area straddles the historic border between the counties of Warwickshire (Birmingham and Coventry), Staffordshire (the north), Worcestershire (the south).

1966 saw a substantial reform in the local government of the area as the patchwork of county boroughs with municipal boroughs and urban districts in between was replaced by a core of county boroughs covering a contiguous area, roughly as follows:

Birmingham, which remained substantially unaltered;
Dudley, which absorbed Brierley Hill, Coseley and Sedgley;
Solihull, which remained substantially unaltered;
Walsall, which absorbed Willenhall and Darlaston;
Warley, which was created by amalgamating Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis;
West Bromwich, which absorbed Wednesbury and Tipton;
Wolverhampton, which absorbed Bilston, Wednesfield and Tettenhall.

Around the periphery of this area, three other towns remained separate (Halesowen, Stourbridge and Sutton Coldfield), while Aldridge and Brownhills joined to form a single unit, called Aldridge-Brownhills.

A single West Midlands Constabulary was formed for the Black Country county boroughs, whilst Birmingham retained its Birmingham City Police and Solihull continued being policed by Warwickshire Constabulary. The West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority was established in 1968.

In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 came into effect, creating the metropolitan county of West Midlands. This area was based on the seven county boroughs and the other non-county boroughs and urban districts around the fringe of the conurbation. The new area consisted of seven new metropolitan boroughs, with Aldridge-Brownhills added to Walsall; Halesowen and Stourbridge to Dudley and Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham. A new borough of Sandwell was formed by the merger of West Bromwich and Warley (the actual designation of Warley itself was abolished and the three towns of Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis reinstated as component parts of Sandwell). Solihull took in much of the suburban fringe to the east of Birmingham, including the former villages of Chelmsley Wood and Castle Bromwich, also Birmingham Airport, and the area of countryside between Solihull and Coventry, whilst Coventry itself and Wolverhampton were more-or-less unaltered.

This led to (apart from in the east, with Coventry and the Meriden Gap) quite a tightly defined metropolitan border, excluding such places as Burntwood, Bromsgrove, Cannock, Kidderminster, Lichfield and Wombourne which had been considered for inclusion in the West Midlands metropolitan area by the Redcliffe-Maud Report.

The 1974 reform created a West Midlands County Council that covered the entire area and dealt with strategic issues. A new West Midlands Police force was formed covering the entire area, with the West Midlands Constabulary and Birmingham City Police abolished, and also taking over responsibility from the county forces.

Margaret Thatcher's government abolished the metropolitan county councils with the Local Government Act 1985, in 1986, causing the seven metropolitan boroughs to become de facto unitary authorities with most of the county councils' functions given to the district councils.

[edit] Local government

[edit] Metropolitan boroughs

The West Midlands is divided into seven districts called metropolitan boroughs, these are: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton (see map). Three of these boroughs (Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton) have city status.

Between 1974 and 1986 the county had a two-tier system of local government, and the seven districts shared power with the county council. However when the county council was abolished in 1986, most of its functions were devolved to the districts which effectively became unitary authorities, with responsibility for most local authority functions.

[edit] County-wide services

Although the county council was abolished, some local services continue to be run on a county-wide basis, administered by joint-boards, of the seven districts. These are:

The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, Known as Centro, which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating public transport across the county.
The West Midlands Police, who are overseen by a joint Police authority.
The West Midlands Fire Service, which is administered by a joint "Fire and Rescue Authority".

These joint-boards are made up of councillors appointed from each of the seven West Midlands district councils. In addition to this the West Midlands Joint Committee exists as a joint body of the seven districts to co-ordinate matters such as roads and planning. The seven West Midlands councils jointly produce a county wide Local Transport Plan [2]

The boroughs jointly own a share in Birmingham International Airport, which used to be owned by the county council.

[edit] Towns and villages

Arms of the former West Midlands County Council

[edit] Places of interest

Aston Hall, Birmingham
Birmingham Bullring
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Birmingham Hippodrome
Birmingham Railway Museum
Birmingham Wheel
Black Country Living Museum
Blakesley Hall
Cadbury World, Bournville, Birmingham
Coventry Cathedral
Coventry SkyDome Arena
Coventry Transport Museum
Dudley Castle
Dudley Zoo
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham
ICC, Birmingham
Molineux stadium (Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.)
National Exhibition Centre
National Indoor Arena (NIA), Birmingham
Netherton tunnel
Perrott's Folly
Ricoh Arena (Coventry City Football Club)
Sarehole Mill
Sea Life Centre, Birmingham
Birmingham City Football Club, Bordesley
The Hawthorns, (West Bromwich Albion Football Club)
Thinktank, Millennium Point, Birmingham
Villa Park, (Aston Villa Football Club)
Walsall Art Gallery
Wightwick Manor

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Districts of the West Midlands	Image:Flag of England.svg
Birmingham \| Bridgnorth \| Bromsgrove \| Cannock Chase \| Coventry \| Dudley \| East Staffordshire \| Herefordshire \| Lichfield \| Malvern Hills \| Newcastle-under-Lyme \| North Shropshire \| North Warwickshire \| Nuneaton and Bedworth \| Oswestry \| Redditch \| Rugby \| Sandwell \| Shrewsbury and Atcham \| Solihull \| South Shropshire \| South Staffordshire \| Stafford \| Staffordshire Moorlands \| Stoke-on-Trent \| Stratford-on-Avon \| Tamworth \| Telford and Wrekin \| Walsall \| Warwick \| Wolverhampton \| Worcester \| Wychavon \| Wyre Forest
Counties with multiple districts: Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire