History of local government in Yorkshire

Yorkshire in 1832

Yorkshire originated in antiquity as the Kingdom of Jórvík. It was traditionally divided into West, North and East ridings. The term originates from Old Norse þriðing, "third part", a legacy of the area's 9th century Scandinavian settlers. Each of the ridings was then further subdivided into smaller units called Wapentakes, which were administered by an early form of democratic representation termed a "Thing". Later the wapentakes were used as the basis for administration. In about 1823 the wapentakes were:

Apart from these was the Ainsty wapentake to the west of the City of York.[8]

1904 map of Yorkshire

The borough corporations of Beverley, Doncaster, Kingston upon Hull, Leeds, Pontefract, Richmond, Ripon, Scarborough and York were reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. In 1889, as part of the Local Government Act 1888, Yorkshire was divided into administrative counties (each with a county council) and county boroughs. The administrative counties closely followed the ancient ridings, with the exclusion of the large towns of Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Kingston upon Hull, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Sheffield and York. Yorkshire continued to be classed as a single county under the act, although each of the ridings retained their own lieutenancies and shrievalties. York became associated with the West Riding for this purpose. In 1894 the remainder of the county, that was not a county borough or municipal ('non-county') borough, was divided into urban and rural districts by the Local Government Act 1894. Several new county boroughs were created from 1889 to 1974:

The North Riding gained 6,252 acres (25.30 km²) from County Durham when the Teesside county borough was created in 1968.[10]

Local government in England was reformed in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972.[13] Under the act, the ridings lost their lieutenancies and shrievalties and the administrative counties, county boroughs and their councils were abolished.[4] The area of Yorkshire was divided between a number of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties:[14]

The reform sought to amalgamate the urbanised parts of the West Riding in the South and West Yorkshire metropolitan counties.[15] The other counties, known as non-metropolitan or shire counties,[15] recognised the urbanised areas that had developed around the River Tees and the Humber, leaving North Yorkshire as a predominantly rural county. The metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties also became counties for purposes such as lieutenancy.[4]

A review of local government took place during the 1990s which made a number of changes to the counties created in 1974.[3] As part of the review, Cleveland[17] and Humberside[18] were abolished in 1996 and their districts were reconstituted as unitary authorities. In addition to becoming a unitary authority, the East Riding of Yorkshire was reintroduced as a county for the purposes of lieutenancy and shrievalty (also including Hull) and North Yorkshire gained territory for this purpose; the changes to the ceremonial counties were reconfirmed by the Lieutenancies Act 1997. The unitary districts created are as follows:

In 2003 the government put forward further proposals to restructure local government in North Yorkshire as part of proposals for regional assemblies. This was to replace the two-tier North Yorkshire council structure with a single tier of unitary authorities within a directly elected regional assembly, and would also address the drastic loss of population of Ryedale council where 50% of its population had been absorbed into an enlarged York.[19]

Proposed options

Single unitary county council

Two unitary authorities

Two unitary authorities

Three unitary authorities

With the proposals for larger unitary district councils Selby council would have been merged with the unitary East Riding of Yorkshire council. The City of York council had become an expanded unitary council in 1996.

In the first stage of consultations, North Yorkshire County Council supported the unitary county option, with the districts all arguing for the status quo, though with Scarborough acknowledging strengths of merging with Ryedale.

After initial consultation, the government adopted the single unitary county council option for second stage consultation. In part due to the unpopularity of the regional assembly that would also go with any reorganisation, the proposals were dropped. The proposals were revived in 2007, but after consultation were again dropped.[20][21]

The total area and population of Yorkshire from 1831 to 1991 is as follows. The area corresponds to the three ridings until 1971 and to West, North and South Yorkshire from 1981.[22]

From 1831 to 1991 there was a rise in population density from 0.4 to 1.4 people per acre.[22]

• History of local government in the United Kingdom