Association of British Counties: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 11:59, 11 March 2006

ABC map of counties, based approximately on "reputed boundaries" from first edition Ordnance Survey maps c.1880

The Association of British Counties is one of a small number of pressure groups in the United Kingdom dedicated to promoting the idea of the "traditional counties" of Britain. Its president is the astrologer Russell Grant, who owns the title Lord of the Manor of Ashford in Middlesex. The Chairman of the Association is Peter Boyce.

The significance of ABC is hard to ascertain, there being no data on membership published on its website, and no evidence of widespread coverage in the British news media. To date no British political party has taken up the cause, which indicates that the chances of sucess are limited at present, but the association and "affiliated organisations" do claim some successes.

Claims

ABC claims that the traditional counties are an important part of Britain's cultural heritage and as such should be preserved and promoted. To this end it has produced a postal directory putting British place names in the corresponding traditional county with respect to the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, in addition to cross-referencing this with various other administrative areas, noting alternatives where the correct county is debatable and providing detailed discussion of these instances where they occur. It should be noted that the boundaries and designations of counties have changed a number of times in British history, so the designation of the asserted boundaries as "historic" or "traditional" is itself contentious. For example, the historic county of Fife might more justifiably be characterised as the historic Kingdom of Fife.

It also seeks to bring about an official change in government terminology to bring it in line with its interpretation of the Local Government Act 1888 — the original piece of legislation which created the modern administrative counties of England and Wales, though there have since been several further changes. They aledge the Act specifically called them "administrative counties", and the ABC wishes to see this terminology consistently used to describe them. Also it wishes to see the term "county" stripped from the unitary authorities that use it, a measure which it claims will remove what it sees as confusion resulted from the status of various entities termed counties since 1889. In particular, ABC uses scare quotes around the word 'county' when not referring to the traditional counties.

Other policies

Other policies include:

Compelling the Ordnance Survey to mark traditional county borders on their maps.
Lobbying for the erection of boundary signs at the boundaries of traditional counties.
Making the ceremonial counties match the historic ones.
That the English regions should be redefined in to order ensure that counties 'be brought wholly within one region or another'.

The latter point would mean various local authorities would need to be changed, a change for which there is no evidence of current political will. Currently the border between the London region and the South-East and East regions straddles numerous former county borders - so these regions would probably need to be merged. Some areas not part of Yorkshire and the Humber would be moved to a different local authority in order that they could be part of this region, as region boundaries never split authorities. Also North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire would become part of the East Midlands Region, where the administrative county of Lincolnshire is located. This policy is mainly designed to safeguard the local attachment and identification with the historic counties, should England be split in regional assemblies. Otherwise, the ABC fears ^{[citation needed]}, having a single historic county falling within more than one region could have an adverse effect on people's cultural ties to their home county . This point is debatable since the British population is quite mobile and also includes a number of ethnic and social sub-groups, so cultural identification with counties is not universal, although there is evidence of county identification in natives of counties with long-standing rivalries such as Yorkshire and Lancashire.

However, it also states on its FAQ:

Q. Does ABC seek further local government reorganisation ?

A. No, but we do wish to see reforms to certain parts of local government terminology.

Successes

Successfully lobbying the Royal Mail to have traditional counties included in the Postcode Address File's Alias record, which now gives the ability to determine the traditional county for any UK postcode.
The erection of signs marking the traditional boundary between Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire on the A59. [1]

References

Russell Grant (1996). The Real Counties of Britain. Virgin Books. ISBN 1852274794.
Local Government Act 1888
ABC response to Government white paper 'Your Region, Your Choice: Revitalising the English Regions'
ABC response to Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales review of preserved counties

External link

ABC web site (generally does not work after midnight UK time)

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ABC claims that the traditional counties are an important part of Britain's cultural heritage and as such should be preserved and promoted. To this end it has produced a postal directory putting British place names in the corresponding traditional county with respect to the [[Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844]], in addition to cross-referencing this with various other administrative areas, noting alternatives where the correct county is debatable and providing detailed discussion of these instances where they occur.  It should be noted that the boundaries and designations of counties have changed a number of times in British history, so the designation of the asserted boundaries as "historic" or "traditional" is itself contentious.  For example, the ''historic county of Fife'' might more justifiably be characterised as the ''historic Kingdom of Fife''.
-It also seeks to bring about an official change in government [[terminology]] to bring it in line with its interpretation of the [[Local Government Act 1888]] &mdash; the original piece of legislation which created the modern [[administrative counties of England]] and Wales, though there have since been several further changes. This Act specifically called them "administrative counties", and the ABC wishes to see this terminology consistently used to describe them. Also it wishes to see the term "county" stripped from the unitary authorities that use it, a measure which it claims will remove what it sees as confusion resulted from the status of various entities termed counties since 1889.  In particular, ABC uses [[scare quotes]] around the word 'county' when not referring to the traditional counties.
+It also seeks to bring about an official change in government [[terminology]] to bring it in line with its interpretation of the [[Local Government Act 1888]] &mdash; the original piece of legislation which created the modern [[administrative counties of England]] and Wales, though there have since been several further changes. They aledge the Act specifically called them "administrative counties", and the ABC wishes to see this terminology consistently used to describe them. Also it wishes to see the term "county" stripped from the unitary authorities that use it, a measure which it claims will remove what it sees as confusion resulted from the status of various entities termed counties since 1889.  In particular, ABC uses [[scare quotes]] around the word 'county' when not referring to the traditional counties.
 ==Other policies==