This week marks fifty years since the Local Government Act 1972 came into force in 1974 which attempted to redraw the cultural fabric of England, but dividing Historic Counties from into a new local and regional government structure. The consequences are that for a quarter of a century there are no longer any clear geographical boundaries in our country, with administrative and ceremonial boundaries conflicting with the historic counties that had defined our historical, geographical and cultural identities within England since the middleages. My constituency of Romford fell victim to this too, earlier on in 1965 – still a proud market town in Essex, but administratively imprisoned into ‘Greater London’ presenting a profound dilemma of identity for Romfordians and those from the Essex towns that were incorporated. The same thing happened much earlier in 1898 to Middlesex. That’s when this muddle actually began! The problem is that the Administrative Counties that were created were not based on the boundaries of our Historic Counties. Then, to further complicate the issue, we have Ceremonial Counties, a codification of the 1972 Act which appointed Lord Lieutenancies to the newly formed administrative areas. There are three definitions of what a ‘county’ actually is, which has caused much confusion and dismay for so long. Today, I am calling on His Majesty’s Government to take the action necessary to sort out the mess. We should merge our Historic and Ceremonial Counties together once again and ensure that the term ‘county’ is only used in this context and not when referring to local government administrative bodies – the two are not coterminous. For example, ‘Greater London,’ is not a county, the true counties in the region are Essex, Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, and Hertfordshire. Michael Heseltine had no regard for the importance of the ancient historical identities of our wonderful British Counties, each with their own character, history, and geography. It’s time to put things right!
Andrew Rosindell MP
Chairman of the British Historic Counties Committee
British Heritage APPG