Metropolitan borough

From Freepedia

A Metropolitan Borough (or Metropolitan District) is a type of local government district in England, covering urban areas within Metropolitan Counties.

Origin of the term

Between 1899 and 1965, Metropolitan boroughs were the sub-divisions of the County of London. When Greater London was created in 1965 they were replaced with larger London boroughs.

Current usage

The current Metropolitan Boroughs were created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. New Metropolitan Counties were created to cover the six largest urban areas in England outside of Greater London, and these were subdivided into Metropolitan Boroughs. (The new authorities were actually defined as Metropolitan Districts, but since they inherited the status of their predecessors, all Metropolitan Districts have Borough or City status.)

Metropolitan districts were originally part of a two-tier structure of local government, and shared power with Metropoilitan County Councils (MCCs). They differed from Non-metropolitan districts, in the division of powers between district and county councils. Metropolitan districts were Local Education Authorities and were responsible for social services. Whereas in non-metropolitan counties these services were the responsibility of county councils.

In 1986 the Metropolitan County Councils (MCCs) were abolished (by the Local Government Act 1985) and most of their functions were devolved to the Boroughs, making them to a large extent Unitary Authorities. However, this description is not normally used; although most of the functions of the MCCs were devolved to the Boroughs, some of their functions were taken over by Joint Boards - the Boroughs appoint Councillors to these boards to run some county-wide services, including Emergency Services, Public Transport, Waste Disposal and Civil Defence.

The Metropolitan Boroughs are:

Metropolitan County	Metropolitan Boroughs
Greater Manchester	Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan
Merseyside	Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, Wirral
South Yorkshire	Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham
Tyne and Wear	Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Sunderland
West Midlands	Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, Wolverhampton
West Yorkshire	Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Wakefield

For the historic London Metropolitan Boroughs see County of London.

See also

• Non-metropolitan district
• County Borough
• Subdivisions of England
• Passenger Transport Executive

Current structure of subnational entities in England (2005)
Region level:	Region	Region	Region	Region
County level:	Metropolitan county	Shire county	Unitary authority	Greater London
District level:	Metropolitan district	Non-metropolitan district	n/a	London borough
Parish level:	Civil parish	Civil parish	Civil parish	n/a