The Metropolitan Counties of England reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Metropolitan Counties of England

The metropolitan counties of England are administrative units that cover large urban areas, each with several metropolitan districts. Their county (i.e. top-level) councils were disbanded in 1986, for political rather than practical reasons, with most of the functions allocated to the individual districts. They still exist both as legal administrative counties, are used in government statistics, and are also ceremonial counties. Some functions such as emergency services and public transport are still administered on a metropolitan county wide basis.

The metropolitan counties are:

• Greater Manchester (Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan)
• Merseyside (Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St. Helens and 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)

Notably, legislation still refers to these administrative units as existing. For example, The North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire (County Boundaries) Order 1991, [1], refers to the county of South Yorkshire in the present tense, and adjusts its bounds.

Greater London is sometimes considered a to be metropolitan county, although it was defined differently.

Return of the metropolitan counties?

In the case of Greater London, since 2000 and the establishment of the post of the elected Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority Greater London has been restored as a full administrative entity.

When created in 1974, the administrative metropolitan counties were not popular units. This still largely the case today, particularly in respect of Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

Even so, some people have suggested that metropolitan counties such as Greater Manchester and Tyne & Wear also have elected mayors and assemblies in a similar fashion to London. However, the government does not appear to be giving this issue much thought, and instead is pressing ahead with plans to devolve powers to the regions of England.

See also Counties of England, Districts of England, Historical Counties of England.

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