Political Geography of England
The local government geography of England is constantly under review and changes often, but at any one time it sis still quite bewildering. Here's a bit of a 'tour':
At the moment, England comprises 27 two-tier counties, 36 metropolitan districts, 56 unitary authorities, 32 London Boroughs and The City of London.
7 County Councils
At the moment, England comprises 27 two-tier counties, 36 metropolitan districts, 56 unitary authorities, 32 London Boroughs and The City of London.
The 56 unitary authorities, which don't come under any county council, have the most complexity. 32 (or 34 if you include Isles of Scilly and Isle of Wight which may have been the names of county councils though it isn't obvious from the name) of them contain no reference to a county in their name (by a county, I mean a a well-recognised county name - a something shire, or something like Essex, or Somerset). The remaining 22 can be categorised as follows, the headings being of my devising;
7 County Councils
Cornwall, Durham County, Herefordshire, Northumberland, Rutland, Shropshire and Wiltshire - have recognisable county names.
5 Parts of Counties other than county towns - corresponding county council exists
Bath-and-North East Somerset, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire - reference a county that has a county council.
5 Parts of Counties other than county towns - corresponding county council exists
Bath-and-North East Somerset, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire - reference a county that has a county council.
5 Parts of Counties other than county towns - corresponding county council does not exist
Central Bedfordshire, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, East Riding of Yorkshire and West Berkshire - reference a county that does not have a county council.
3 County towns - corresponding county council exists
Derby, Leicester and Nottingham
2 County towns - corresponding county council does not exist
Bedford and York (East Riding of Yorkshire is a Ceremonial County which includes the Unitary of the same name, but not York itself, which is in the N Yorks ceremonial county).
It is is highly counterintuitive to say that (eg) Derby isn't in Derbyshire, but it is as true as saying that Medway (main towns Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, and Rainham) is not in Kent. Furthermore, names like West Berkshire and Cheshire East make it clear (without any other information) that there is a Berkshire and a Cheshire for them to form the West or East part of.
Of course we are quite used to saying that such an such a place is in such and such a county; these examples make it clear that we are not talking about the areas controlled by county councils. If anything, the names of the 32 unitaries that do not reference any county make it even clearer. For example, where is Halton? We have to be able to say it's in Cheshire - and by doing so we demonstrate that the fact that Cheshire County Council doesn't exist does not mean Cheshire doesn't.
So what is the 'Cheshire' that Halton is in? Well it is in the ceremonial county of Cheshire: Ceremonial counties come to our aid by retaining a semblance of a 'county' for unitary authorities and the like to 'be' in. Their boundaries are much more stable than local authority boundaries, which change frequently, arguably with good reason. Arguments against such changes often arise from people's understanding of where they live, which they instinctively feel is stable and immutable. Paradoxically the names of some Districts would tend to reinforce this - Three Rivers? Uttlesford?
The best candidate for a stable geography is, I argue, the traditional or historic county. They aren't perfect - having part of Kent north of the Thames, with North Woolwich straddling the county boundary is unhelpful but they still have much to commend them. Intuitively, once someone had drawn a boundary and named the area it bounds, that name and boundary cannot cease to exist, but only cease to be used or referenced.
The names of course do get reused for different areas all called a county, thus, for example, Essex can mean (i) Essex CC and/or its area of control, (ii) the former postal county of Essex, (iii) the ceremonial county of Essex, or (iv) The traditional/historic county of Essex. Part of our problem is we have no simple way of denoting which one we mean, even if we are aware of the differences. We can't even expect that a postal address's county is a formal postal county. It is increasingly common for 'London' (meaning Greater London, which at least is a ceremonial county) to be used in place of the fpc.
It is less common for people to write "Tel:" before a phone number and even "email:" before an email address nowadays - we recognise them from the format used to write them or the context, but we can't do that with county names unless and until a convention/rule is applied and followed. A notation for what kind of county we are referring to might help, but many/most people are unaware of the problem and work on the basis that 'county' is unambiguous. I wonder if some companies look at the quality of the data they have gathered using forms with this ambiguity.
It is is highly counterintuitive to say that (eg) Derby isn't in Derbyshire, but it is as true as saying that Medway (main towns Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, and Rainham) is not in Kent. Furthermore, names like West Berkshire and Cheshire East make it clear (without any other information) that there is a Berkshire and a Cheshire for them to form the West or East part of.
Of course we are quite used to saying that such an such a place is in such and such a county; these examples make it clear that we are not talking about the areas controlled by county councils. If anything, the names of the 32 unitaries that do not reference any county make it even clearer. For example, where is Halton? We have to be able to say it's in Cheshire - and by doing so we demonstrate that the fact that Cheshire County Council doesn't exist does not mean Cheshire doesn't.
So what is the 'Cheshire' that Halton is in? Well it is in the ceremonial county of Cheshire: Ceremonial counties come to our aid by retaining a semblance of a 'county' for unitary authorities and the like to 'be' in. Their boundaries are much more stable than local authority boundaries, which change frequently, arguably with good reason. Arguments against such changes often arise from people's understanding of where they live, which they instinctively feel is stable and immutable. Paradoxically the names of some Districts would tend to reinforce this - Three Rivers? Uttlesford?
The best candidate for a stable geography is, I argue, the traditional or historic county. They aren't perfect - having part of Kent north of the Thames, with North Woolwich straddling the county boundary is unhelpful but they still have much to commend them. Intuitively, once someone had drawn a boundary and named the area it bounds, that name and boundary cannot cease to exist, but only cease to be used or referenced.
The names of course do get reused for different areas all called a county, thus, for example, Essex can mean (i) Essex CC and/or its area of control, (ii) the former postal county of Essex, (iii) the ceremonial county of Essex, or (iv) The traditional/historic county of Essex. Part of our problem is we have no simple way of denoting which one we mean, even if we are aware of the differences. We can't even expect that a postal address's county is a formal postal county. It is increasingly common for 'London' (meaning Greater London, which at least is a ceremonial county) to be used in place of the fpc.
It is less common for people to write "Tel:" before a phone number and even "email:" before an email address nowadays - we recognise them from the format used to write them or the context, but we can't do that with county names unless and until a convention/rule is applied and followed. A notation for what kind of county we are referring to might help, but many/most people are unaware of the problem and work on the basis that 'county' is unambiguous. I wonder if some companies look at the quality of the data they have gathered using forms with this ambiguity.
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