west midlands (county)

olspan=2 align=center bgcolor="#ff9999"\|West Midlands
olspan=2 align=center\|
olspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"\|Geography
idth="45%"\|Status:	County and Ceremonial county
egion:	West Midlands
a href="/encyclopedia/Surface-area" title="Surface area">Area: - Total	Ranked 42nd 902 km²
a href="/encyclopedia/ONS-coding-system" title="ONS coding system">ONS code:	2E
a href="/encyclopedia/Nomenclature-of-Territorial-Units-for-Statistics" title="Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics">NUTS 2:	UKG3
olspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"\|Demographics
a href="/encyclopedia/Population" title="Population">Population: - Total (2002 est.) - Density	Ranked 2nd 2,575,768 2,856 / km²
thnicity:	80.0% White 13.4% S.Asian 3.7% Afro-Carib.
olspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"\|Politics
olspan=2 align=center\|Members of Parliament
olspan=2\|Bob Ainsworth, Adrian Bailey, Richard Burden, Liam Byrne, Ross Cranston, Jim Cunningham, Bruce George, Roger Godsiff, Sylvia Heal, Lynne Jones, Khalid Mahmood, Rob Marris, Stephen James McCabe, Andrew Mitchell, Estelle Morris, Ian Pearson, Ken Purchase, Geoffrey Robinson, Richard Shepherd, Debra Shipley, Clare Short, Sin Simon, John Spellar, Caroline Spelman, Gisela Stuart, John Taylor, Dennis Turner, Tom Watson, David Winnick
olspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"\|Metropolitan boroughs
olspan=2\| Wolverhampton Dudley Walsall Sandwell Birmingham Solihull Coventry

The County of West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England, formed in 1974. The county contains the cities of Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry. It also covers includes major centres such as Solihull, and the Black Country towns of Dudley, Walsall and West Bromwich. Since 1986 the West Midlands has had no county council. However the county still exists legally and ceremonially. The name "West Midlands" is also used for the much larger West Midlands region of England, which sometimes causes some confusion.

Geography

The West Midlands borders the counties of Warwickshire to the east, Worcestershire to the south, and Staffordshire to the north. The West Midlands is one of the most heavilly urbanised counties in England. Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Solihull together form the largest conurbation in England outside London with a combined population of around 2.28 million. The West Midlands is not entirely urban, a stretch of green belt land, roughly 15 miles across known as the "Meriden Gap" exists, separating the Birmingham conurbation from Coventry, 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.

History

The county was created by the Local Government Act 1972 and came into being in 1974. The West Midlands took in areas from the historic counties of Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire. Birmingham and Coventry were traditionally in Warwickshire; Wolverhampton and most of the Black Country were in Staffordshire and some of the Black Country was in Worcestershire, many of these were administered as county boroughs. Main article: History of West Midlands.

Local government

The West Midlands is divided into seven metropolitan boroughs, these are, Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton (see map). Three of these boroughs: Birmingham, Coventry and Woverhampton have city status For the first twelve years after the West Midlands was created in 1974, the county had a two-tier system of local government, and the boroughs shared power with the West Midlands County Council. However in 1986, along with five other metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council, the West Midlands County Council was abolished, and most of its powers were devolved to the boroughs, which became effective unitary authorities. Despite the abolition of the county council, some local services are still run on a county-wide basis. Including:

The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, known as Centro, which is resposible for planning and co-ordinating public transport across the county.

The West Midlands Police, who are overseen by a joint Police authority.

The West Midlands Fire Service, which is administered by a joint "Fire and Civil Defence Authority".

These are administered by joint-boards which are made up of councillors appointed from each of the seven West Midlands boroughs. The boroughs jointly own a share in Birmingham International Airport, which used to be owned by the county council. The West Midlands is also still a Ceremonial County with a Lord-Lieutenant. And is still recognised for statistical purposes.