Comments on: British tabloid hypocrisy shocker

By: Indigo Jo

Indigo Jo — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:40:21 +0000

Yes, although unitary authorities seem to be free to call themselves what they like - all of Wales’s councils are unitary, and some call themselves counties and some use the old-fashioned term “county borough”, although actually, old county boroughs were much smaller and were nominally part of their actual county; their suburbs often actually were. We have seen UA’s carved out of other highly populated areas in counties elsewhere, like Wrekin, Milton Keynes and Swindon. Before long, it’s possible that some of the resulting counties will have to go unitary and will be impoverished by the loss of the urban centres.

By: M Risbrook

M Risbrook — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:29:01 +0000

To be pedantic, this abolition of county councils is actually the creation of one-tier local government where unitary authorities represent all local government in England. Northumberland and Durham are only county councils in name as they are unitary authorities in reality. I suspect that district and borough councils will be the survivors in more populous counties such as Essex or Hampshire.

By: Indigo Jo

Indigo Jo — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:05:08 +0000

Don’t forget that some English counties have had all their heavily populated areas excised by metropolitan counties and unitary authorities: Northumberland and Durham are classic examples, having lost Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland, and their surrounding areas, to Tyne & Wear. Durham also lost Hartlepool and whatever it had of the Middlesbrough-Stockton conurbation to Cleveland (which has itself been split up). So, making a unitary authority of some of these depopulated counties makes some sense, although actually County Durham still has Durham itself, Bishop Auckland and Darlington, leaving a fairly substantial population.

By: George Carty

George Carty — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:10:03 +0000

No, in Northumberland and Durham it was the district councils which were abolished, not the county council.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:29:53 +0000

Given how little power county councils and their city or urban equivalents have we might as well abolish them.

By: M Risbrook

M Risbrook — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:48:41 +0000

The pro-EU Green Party has openly stated for over 10 years that they wish to abolish county councils as a level of government. Recently, a few county councils such as Northumberland, Durham, and Shropshire have been abolished.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Fri, 22 May 2009 02:26:44 +0000

“the EU breaking England up into regions each with their own elected assemblies. ” They existed now until very recently they had real powers. They were called county councils. They were deliberately deprived of power by a series of governments that objected to their independence.

By: M Risbrook

M Risbrook — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:14:59 +0000

LeedsLad is indeed right about what he says about the EU breaking England up into regions each with their own elected assemblies. The eventual objective is to abolish Westminster as a level of government.

By: LeedsLad

LeedsLad — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:44:06 +0000

Well, my postal voting papers arrived and I have now decided to share my vote with the English Dem Party. I think they are realists when it comes to their push for an English parliament, however the EU has plans to canonise England even more to make decisions and unity even harder.

By: Indigo Jo

Indigo Jo — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:26:54 +0000

LeedsLad: England doesn’t have its own parliament. It’s only legislature is the Westminster parliament.