The
City of Wakefield ( ) is a local government district of
West Yorkshire, England
, with the
status of a city
and metropolitan
borough. In addition to Wakefield
, the district's administrative centre, the city covers
a wider area which encompasses other towns. The "Five Towns"
commonly grouped together are Normanton
, Pontefract
, Featherstone
, Castleford
and Knottingley
. Other towns include Ossett
, Hemsworth
, South Kirkby & Moorthorpe
and South
Elmsall
. It lies between Leeds
and Sheffield
. Wakefield is ranked as the 88th
largest city in the European Union.
Economy
In recent
years, the economic and physical condition of several of the former
mining towns and villages in Wakefield District have started to
improve due to the booming economy of Leeds
- and an
increase in numbers of commuters to the city from the sub-region -
and a recognition of undeveloped assets. For instance Castleford
, to the North East of Wakefield is seeing extensive
development and investment because of the natural asset of its
outlook on to the River
Aire
, its easy access to the national motorway network
and the availability of former mining land for
house-building. In Ossett, house prices have risen from an
average of £50,000 in 1998 to £130,000 in 2003.
Although unemployment was amongst the highest in the country for
most of the 1980s and 1990s, Wakefield District now has
below-average unemployment. The "Wakefield East" ward had 4.7%
unemployment in May 2005 (source:
Office for National
Statistics) - which was more than 1% higher than any other
ward. The eastern half of the district remains considerably less
prosperous than the western half, with several deprived wards
History
The district is mainly made out of old
coal-mining towns, although other industries
include
wool,
chemicals,
machine
tools,
glass and other forms of
manufacturing.
Horbury
is something
of an anomaly in having had a large steel
works. When
Margaret
Thatcher came to power in 1979 there were 21 pits in the
district. By the time the
1984 Strike began this
had decreased to 15, however it still had more colleries than
another district in the country. At the time of
privatisation in November 1994, only two
remained: the
Prince of Wales at Pontefract, which closed
in 2002, and
Kellingley at Knottingley which is now the
sole remainder of the industry that once dominated the district.
Most of the district's pits had been very hardline during the 1984
strike.
The former Borough of Wakefield was raised to
city status by
letters patent in 1888. It became a
county borough in 1913, taking it out of the
jurisdiction of the West Riding County Council.
The
present boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, when
the county borough of Wakefield
merged with the West Riding
municipal boroughs of Castleford
, Ossett
and Pontefract
, the urban districts
of Featherstone
, Hemsworth
, Horbury
, Knottingley
, Normanton
and Stanley
, along with Wakefield Rural District and parts of
Hemsworth
Rural District
and Osgoldcross Rural District
. The new
metropolitan district's city status
was reconfirmed by letters patent in 1974.
Local government
The
Council's main headquarters are County Hall
, originally built for the West Riding County
Council and acquired by Wakefield in 1989.
The district is divided into 21
wards and each is represented on the
district council by three councillors. Each councillor is elected
on a
first past the post
basis, normally for a four-year period which is staggered with the
other councillors of that ward so that only one councillor per ward
is up for election at any one time. Exceptions to this include
by-elections and ward boundary
changes.
The city was the safest Labour council in England in 2003, but
there has been a huge swing against Labour in recent years. After
the 2008 election results the Labour Party had a majority of just
one. However the recent death of Labour councillor Graham Phelps
means that the authority is now in
No Overall
Control.
The table below summarises the results of the 2008 local government
election. Each party is ordered by number of votes
registered.
- Tables exclude the death of Labour Councillor Graham Phelps on
18 November 2009
Social aspects
Crime is generally lower in this district than in the rest of
West Yorkshire. Other problems
typical of such an area include rates of
suicide that are consistently amongst the highest in
the country and a
heroin problem that saw addiction rise by an
incredible 3361% between 2000 and 2004.
A decision was made, in 2004, to transfer the district's extensive
council housing to Wakefield and
District Housing (WDH), an 'independent' housing association, who
would be more efficient with repairs and maintaining decent
accommodation; as council housing represented almost 30% of the
district, this was the second-largest stock transfer in British
history. WDH are investing over £700 million to regenerate the
District and working with partners, such as WMDC, are investing in
new housing within the District.
References