A quiet revolution is taking place in England as the remaining fake 1974 ‘counties’ face their upcoming demise. As part of the Government’s plan to create mayoral ‘Strategic Authorities’, most of the county councils are set to be split up into two or more unitary councils, though a few of the smaller ones may continue as single unitary councils.
No-one who cares about our real counties will mourn the passing of the fake 1974 ‘Cambridgeshire’. This council covers not only Cambridgeshire itself but most of Huntingdonshire too. The lieutenancy version of ‘Cambridgeshire’ also covers the Peterborough unitary council area, most of which is in Northamptonshire.
Fortunately, even the councils of the area seem keen to see an end to the bogus ‘Cambridgeshire’. All the councils have agreed on three possible structures for future unitary local government in the area. All three options envisage two unitary councils. Any notion of sticking with ‘Cambridgeshire’ seems to have been abandoned altogether!
Whilst an end to Cambridgeshire County Council is in itself a plus for the historic counties, the naming of the new councils and of the mayoral Strategic Authority is very important too. Names like ‘North Cambridgeshire’ or ‘West Cambridgeshire’ should not be used for any council area which includes Huntingdonshire or the Soke of Peterborough. ABC’s suggestions for possible names for the new councils are listed below alongside maps of each of the three options.
The mayoral Strategic Authority is currently called ‘Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’ and the police force is called the ‘Cambridgeshire Constabulary’, names which undermine the identity of Huntingdonshire altogether. A county-neutral name would be better for this area. The former constabulary name for this area, ‘Mid Anglia’, would be ideal.
The end of the fake 1974 ‘counties’ is also surely the time to separate the ceremonial offices of lord-lieutenant and sheriff from local government altogether and re-appoint them to the historic counties – throughout the UK.
The banner image is courtesy of Google Maps and shows the ‘Welcome to Cambridgeshire’ sign on the A663 as it enters Huntingdonshire near Keyston.
4 thoughts on “Farewell to fake ‘Cambridgeshire’?”
Why not re-establish the former (1965-74) county of Huntingdon and Peterborough?
Yes, that seems to be a permutation they didn’t think of! We suspect they had already decided on a two council model and they wanted the populations to be roughly the same.
I note the banner image of the Cambridgeshire sign. For your interest and amusement, this has reminded me that I managed to get Highways England (now reorganised to National Highways) to remove a rogue Cambridgeshire sign on the A1 Southbound which was in totally the wrong place (on a stretch of the A1 inside Rutland). The sign was removed a couple of years ago but it took 13 years of occasional reminders (when I had nothing better to do). I remember that the Highways England, at one point, wanted £10,000 for a lane closure so that they could safely remove the sign!
It took our friends in Somerset even longer to get the ridiculous ‘Welcome to Somerset’ sign removed from the M4 – 25 miles inside the county 🙂