West Midlands (county)

West Midlands
	County
	Flag
	; West Midlands shown within England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	West Midlands
Established	1974; (Local Government Act 1972)
Ceremonial county
Area	902 km2 (348 sq mi)
– Ranked	42nd of 48
Population (mid-2014 est.)	2,808,356
– Ranked	2nd of 48
Density	3,039/km2 (7,870/sq mi)
Ethnicity	70.1% White (66.0% White British); 18.9% Asian; 6.0% Black; 3.4% Mixed; 1.6% Other
Metropolitan county
Admin HQ	Birmingham
Area	902 km2 (348 sq mi)
ONS code	2E
NUTS	UKG3
	; Districts of West Midlands
Districts	City of Wolverhampton; Dudley; Walsall; Sandwell; City of Birmingham; Solihull; City of Coventry;
Members of Parliament	Bob Ainsworth (L); Adrian Bailey (L)/(Co-op); Richard Burden (L); Lorely Burt (LD); Liam Byrne (L); Ian Austin (L); Jim Cunningham (L); Valerie Vaz (L); Roger Godsiff (L); James Morris (C); John Hemming (LD); Steve McCabe (L); Khalid Mahmood (L); Paul Uppal (C); Pat McFadden (L); Andrew Mitchell (C); Chris Kelly (C); Emma Reynolds (L); Geoffrey Robinson (L); Wendy Morton (C); Shabana Mahmood (L); Jack Dromey (L); John Spellar (L); Caroline Spelman (C); Gisela Stuart (L); Margot James (C); Tom Watson (L); David Winnick (L);
Time zone	GMT (UTC)
– Summer (DST)	BST (UTC+1)

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2014 estimated population of 2,808,356,^[2] making it the second most populous county in England. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The county itself is a NUTS 2 region within the wider NUTS 1 region of the same name. The county consists of seven metropolitan boroughs: the City of Birmingham, the City of Coventry, and the City of Wolverhampton, as well as Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, and Walsall.

The West Midlands County Council was abolished on 31 March 1986, since then the county's constituent metropolitan boroughs have been effectively unitary authorities. However, the metropolitan county continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference.^[3]^[4]^[5] It forms the basis of county-wide bodies such as West Midlands Police, the West Midlands Fire Service and the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, and as a ceremonial county has a Lord Lieutenant^[6] and a High Sheriff.^[7] A new administrative body for the county; the West Midlands Combined Authority will be created in 2016.

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 main conurbation, or urban area, does not include Coventry for example. The name "West Midlands" is also used for the much larger West Midlands region, which sometimes causes confusion, not surprising perhaps when geographically it is on the eastern side of the region, the western side comprising Shropshire and Herefordshire.

History

Although the modern county has only existed since 1974, the settlements of the West Midlands have long been important centres of commerce and industry as well as developing a good local infrastructure. 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 materials. 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, it had become an important centre of bicycle and car manufacture.

1966 saw a substantial reform in the local government of the area as the patchwork of county boroughs with municipal boroughs and urban district councils 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 all of Brierley Hill as well as most of Coseley and Sedgley, and part of Amblecote, Tipton and Rowley Regis;
Solihull, which remained substantially unaltered;
Walsall, which absorbed all of Darlaston and most of Willenhall, as well as parts of Wednesbury, Coseley, Wednesfield and Bilston;
Warley, which was created by amalgamating the vast majority of Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis as well parts of Dudley, Tipton, West Bromwich and Halesowen;
West Bromwich, which absorbed most of Wednesbury and Tipton, along with parts of Bilston, Oldbury, Smethwick and Walsall;
Wolverhampton, which absorbed most of Bilston, Wednesfield and Tettenhall as well as parts of Sedgley, Coseley and Willenhall.

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. In the same year, 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 the Warwickshire Constabulary. The West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority was established in 1968.

County Creation

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, although these areas formed the Warley postal district. 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 received only small changes and Wolverhampton was 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 the West Midlands County Council that covered the entire area and dealt with strategic issues. A new West Midlands Police service 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.

post-1974		pre-1974
Metropolitan county	Metropolitan borough	County boroughs	Non-county boroughs	Urban districts	Rural districts
West Midlands is an amalgamation of 14 former local government districts, including eight county boroughs.	Birmingham	Birmingham	Sutton Coldfield	-	-
	Coventry	Coventry	-	-	Meriden
	Dudley	Dudley	Halesowen • Stourbridge •	-	-
	Sandwell	Warley • West Bromwich •	-	-	-
	Solihull	Solihull	-	-	Meriden • Stratford-on-Avon •
	Walsall	Walsall	-	Aldridge-Brownhills
	Wolverhampton	Wolverhampton	-	-	-

West Midlands County Council

File:Westmidsarms.PNG

The arms of the West Midlands County Council, depicted here, became redundant with the abolition of the council in 1986 (though similar arms are used by the West Midlands Fire Service).

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, the Local Government Act 1985 abolished the county councils, and the West Midlands County Council ceased to exist in 1986. Most of its functions were devolved to the West Midland boroughs, which effectively became unitary authorities, with responsibility for most local authority functions.

Boundary changes

In 1994, the western/southern shores of Chasewater, plus the adjacent Jeffreys Swag, were transferred from the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall to the District of Lichfield, Staffordshire.^[8] Further boundary changes came into effect in 1995, when part of the Hereford and Worcester parish of Frankley (including the south-west part of Bartley Reservoir) was transferred to Birmingham and became part of the county.

Geography

Map of West Midlands, showing urban areas in grey and metropolitan district boundaries

The West Midlands is a landlocked county that borders the counties of Warwickshire to the east, Worcestershire to the south, and Staffordshire to the north and west.

The West Midlands County is one of the most heavily urbanised counties in the UK. Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Solihull together form the third most populous conurbation in the United Kingdom with a combined population of around 2.44 million.^[9] However, the West Midlands is not entirely urban; Coventry is separated from the West Midlands conurbation by a stretch of green belt land roughly 15 miles (24 km) 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.

The highest point in the West Midlands is Turners Hill, with a height of 271 m (889 ft). The hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Barr Beacon is another hill in the West Midlands, located on the border of Birmingham and Walsall, with a height of 227 m (745 ft).

There are 23 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the county.^[10] One of these SSSIs is Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield, which has an area of 970 hectares (2,400 acres).^[11] As a result, it is one of the largest urban parks in Europe, and the largest outside of a capital city in Europe.^{[citation needed]} The park also has national nature reserve status.

There are numerous rivers that pass through the county, including the River Tame. The river basin is the most urbanised basin in the United Kingdom, with approximately 42% of the basin being urbanised.^[12] The River Tame is fed by the River Rea, River Anker, and the River Blythe, which in turn is fed by the River Cole. The River Sowe and River Sherbourne both flow through Coventry. The River Stour flows through the west of the West Midlands county.

Like other metropolitan counties, the West Midlands is divided into districts called metropolitan boroughs. There are seven boroughs in the West Midlands, which are named after the largest settlement in their administrative area. The West Midlands is unusual amongst the metropolitan counties in that three of its boroughs have city status; Coventry is a city by ancient prescriptive usage,^[13] Birmingham was granted city status in 1889,^[14] and Wolverhampton in 2000 as a "Millennium City".^[15]

Metropolitan borough		Administrative centre	Other towns
City of Birmingham	50px	Birmingham	Edgbaston, Great Barr, Hall Green, Handsworth, Northfield, Quinton, Soho, Sutton Coldfield
City of Coventry		Coventry	Allesley, Binley, Keresley, Stoke, Tile Hill
Dudley		Dudley	Brierley Hill, Cradley, Halesowen, Kingswinford, Lye, Netherton, Stourbridge, Quarry Bank
Sandwell		Oldbury	Bearwood, Rowley Regis, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Smethwick, Tipton, Tividale, Wednesbury, West Bromwich, Yew Tree
Solihull		Solihull	Balsall Common, Bickenhill, Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Dorridge, Elmdon, Hampton-in-Arden, Kingshurst, Knowle, Marston Green, Meriden, Monkspath, Hockley Heath
Walsall		Walsall	Aldridge, Bloxwich, Brownhills, Darlaston, Pelsall, Pheasey, Shelfield, Willenhall
City of Wolverhampton		Wolverhampton	Bilston, Blakenhall, Bushbury, Oxley, Wednesfield

Governance

The boroughs of the West Midlands effectively work as unitary authorities are responsible for running their own services, however some services are organised on a county-wide level:

Centro (Network West Midlands), which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating public transport across the county. Centro/Network West Midlands is currently overseen by the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority.
The West Midlands Police, who are overseen by the West Midlands Police and crime commissioner.
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.^[16] The boroughs also jointly own a share in Birmingham Airport, which used to be owned by the county council.

A combined authority is planned to be formed in April 2016 for the West Midlands.^[17] The authority will absorb many of the current joint-boards such as the integrated transport authority into one legal authority (while also allowing for a greater level of county-wide collaboration and legal powers), as has happened in the other metropolitan counties. The combined authority will be chaired by a directly-elected mayor, with powers similar to the Mayor of London.^[18]