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The County of West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a population of around 2,600,000 people. It was formed on April 1, 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The county contains three major cities, these being Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton. Other large settlements in the county include Sutton Coldfield, Solihull, and the Black Country towns of Dudley, Walsall and West Bromwich. The West Midlands no longer has a county council, as the former West Midlands County Council was abolished in 1986, although the county remains in legal existence. The county is sometimes described as the "West Midlands metropolitan area" or the "West Midlands conurbation", although these have different, and less clearly defined, boundaries. The seven metropolitan boroughs, along with the nearby unitary authority of Telford and Wrekin are starting to collaborate as a non-statutory city region under the name "Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country". The name "West Midlands" is also used for the much larger West Midlands region, which sometimes causes 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 heavily urbanised counties in the UK. Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Solihull together form the largest conurbation in the UK outside London, with a combined population of around 2.27 million. The West Midlands is not entirely urban; Coventry is separated from the Birmingham urban area, by stretch of green belt land roughly 15 miles across known as the "Meriden Gap", 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 Main article: History of West Midlands. The West Midlands conurbation developed around Birmingham and the coal fields of the Black Country. This area straddles the historic border between the counties of Warwickshire (Birmingham and Coventry), Staffordshire (the north), Worcestershire (the south). 1966 saw a substantial reform in the local government of the area as the patchwork of county boroughs with municipal boroughs and urban districts in between was replaced by a core of county boroughs covering a contiguous area, as follows: In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 came into effect, creating the metropolitan county of West Midlands. This area was based on the seven county boroughs and the other non-county boroughs and urban districts around the fringe of the conurbation. The new area consisted of seven new metropolitan boroughs, with Aldridge-Brownhills added to Walsall; Halesowen and Stourbridge to Dudley and Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham. A new borough of Sandwell was formed by the merger of West Bromwich and Warley, Solihull took in much of the suburban fringe to the east of Birmingham and the gap between Solihull and Coventry, whilst Wolverhampton and Coventry themselves were taken in more-or-less unaltered. This led to (apart from in the east, with Coventry and the Meriden Gap) quite a tightly defined metropolitan border, excluding such places as Burntwood, Bromsgrove, Cannock, Kidderminster, Lichfield and Wombourne which had been considered for inclusion in the West Midlands metropolitan area by the Redcliffe-Maud Report. The 1974 reform created a West Midlands County Council that covered the entire area and dealt with strategic issues. A new West Midlands Police force was formed covering the entire area, with the West Midlands Constabulary and Birmingham City Police abolished, and also taking over responsibility from the county forces. Margaret Thatcher's government abolished the metropolitan county councils with the Local Government Act 1985, in 1986, causing the seven metropolitan boroughs to become de facto unitary authorities with most of the county councils' functions given to the district councils. Metropolitan boroughs The West Midlands is divided into seven districts called metropolitan boroughs, these are: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton (see map). Three of these boroughs (Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton) have city status. Between 1974 and 1986 the county had a two-tier system of local government, and the seven districts shared power with the county council. However when the county council was abolished in 1986, most of its functions were devolved to the districts which effectively became unitary authorities, with responsibility for most local authority functions. County-wide services Although the county council was abolished, some local services continue to be run on a county-wide basis, administered by joint-boards, of the seven districts. These are: These joint-boards are made up of councillors appointed from each of the seven West Midlands district councils. In addition to this the West Midlands Joint Committee exists as a joint body of the seven districts to co-ordinate matters such as roads and planning. The boroughs jointly own a share in Birmingham International Airport, which used to be owned by the county council. Towns and villages
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