Talk:Local government in England/Archive 1

Archive 1

Officers

This needs info about how the relationship between officers and councillors works. Morwen - Talk 21:11, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

City of London

It says that the City of London covers a square mile (2.6 km^2). Shouldn't that be 2.6 * 2.6 or approximately 6.8 km^2.? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Troyac (talk • contribs) 13:11, 5 April 2005.

One square mile is (1,6 ^ 2) sq km or 2,6 sq km. Exile 21:22, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

References

It could also use some references. I think, given enough polishing, it could be a Featured Article.

The Future??

This section looks pretty daft now that voters have rejected regional government. As regional assemblies are no longer going to happen (that is, elected assemblies), does anybody know what will?

Duplication

Why are large chunks of this article duplicated? Kennethmac2000 09:10, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

No idea, but I've fixed it now. G-Man 19:13, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

White paper

It appears the White Paper is being released Thursday. I shall pick it up then, but the important bits are likely to be reported on in the press. So far we know

• some structural change possible, but probably not banham-style cherrypicking; more Herefordshires
• mayors are on the agenda; but unclear whether they are talking about city-region mayors or city mayors
• extra emphasis on parish councils; urban parishes?

If the whitepaper has a catchy title like Streamlining the Cities did, I propose to make an article about the White Paper there; and all the rumblings about Milliband's review etc can go there in the background section. if a Bill is introduced and comes into law, eventually moving it to Local Government Bill 2007 and then to Local Government Act 2007. Does this seem like a non-sensible approach to anyone? Morwen - Talk 23:42, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

It has been released (or will be within the next few hours), i plan to pick it up at lunchtime. Morwen - Talk 08:10, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

No need - it has a PDF. why didn't i expect that? Morwen - Talk 11:24, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

From my quick skim read, I would say it probably doesn't need an article at this stage. Key points could do with noting on this article of course. MRSC 16:26, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Not really "more Herefordshires" - technically the non-metropolitan counties that are to become unitary authorities would follow the process which the Isle of Wight went through (ie. abolition of the district councils). Therefore we will see the creation of more "unitary counties" (the Isle of Wight being the only one existing). David 19:36, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, when I say "more Herefordshires" I mean more large mainly rural unitary authorities, not referring to the technical differences. With Shropshire, do you know what the position of the other district councils is? I notice that South Shropshire and Oswestry are the two smallest of the five Shropshire shire districts. Morwen - Talk 19:55, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

For: Shropshire County Council, Oswestry Borough Council, South Shropshire District Council - Against: Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council, Bridgnorth District Council - Indifferent/Against: North Shropshire District Council. I suspect it will happen with re-assurances given to Shrewsbury (certain major projects like the new Theatre Severn, refurbishment of the Music Hall, etc to continue). Check out the Shropshire Star. David 10:58, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

You may want to have a look at the recently created PDF document on this Shropshire County Council webpage... [1] David 20:33, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Now, one thing that has been prominent in the media the in the few weeks leading up to this, was the story that Brown had strongly objected to more formal recognition of city regions: and that Blair had tried to push this and failed. This is all based on anonymous briefing of course - well, that and some interpretions of speeches by comment writers - however, it was very widely reported: should it be in the article? Morwen - Talk 20:50, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Administrative divisions of England

Administrative divisions of England is looking very similar to this article. I think it should be merged in to this one. MRSC • Talk 00:16, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

I've had a change of idea. This article should deal with functions and Subdivisions of England should deal with units. With similar articles for the other countries. MRSC • Talk 09:09, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Inconsistent

The table "Structure of local government in England" cannot be reconciled with the figures in the larger table embedded in the article. There are several unreconciled differences. And the large table omits non-metropolitan districts (all 200 or so); this may be intentional, but it is not clear as they are not described later, whereas Parish Councils are so described.

alleged complexity

It's not that complicated. Metropolitan boroughs and unitary authorities are almost the same. Counties are the other main model, with government arranged in tiers. London boroughs are close to being unitaries, though some stuff is handled by non-legislating regional government. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.103.145 (talk) 14:57, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

unitaries

Interesting just how many rural unitaries there are, and they're not just small bits of old counties. Unitaries dominate the Thames/M4-corridor and the marches. Weird how Leics, Notts and Derbys don't include their county-towns. The new Bedfordshire's a mess, like silly Berkshire. While the Isle of Wight makes sense, Cornwall is a surprise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.103.145 (talk) 15:17, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Outdated

This article appears to have some outdated material, particularly in the "Future" section which outlines the 2009 structural changes to local government in England and (what has become) the combined authority model which has already been applied to Greater Manchester (and is coming to South and West Yorkshire, and possibly Tyne & Wear and the Black Country).... this needs integrating into the article someway somehow.

It may be worth replacing content in the "Future" section with material about combined authorities, LEPs and City Deals, as well as material from No Stone Unturned, Michael Heseltine's report which supports all the above, plus the scrapping of the remaining two-tier council areas, and the introduction of conurbation-wide mayors ([2], [3]).

Yes I could do this myself, but feel I would make a mess of this succinct article, where others could do much better! --Jza84 |  Talk  22:58, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

P.S. As it happens, I've done a little bit more digging and found a fair bit about "conurbation mayors" proposals under various titles, particularly "metro mayors" or "metropolitan mayors" ([4], [5], [6], [7], [8]), with support from a variety of figures including Michael Heseltine, Greg Clark and Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis in places such as Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Greater Bristol/Avon and Greater Birmingham/West Midlands.

As there's no comments yet, and if there's no objections, I could take steps to try and update the article as best I can. --Jza84 |  Talk  13:08, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

--- Sorry I've not picked this up. However, there's a little more (progress) on the metro-mayor concept here and here. --Jza84 |  Talk  21:06, 18 March 2013 (UTC)