City of Wakefield

This article discusses the metropolitan borough and district named the City of Wakefield. For information on the city itself, see Wakefield, the district's principal settlement, from which it takes its name.

Related Topics:
Metropolitan borough - Wakefield

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wakefield is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In addition to the city of Wakefield, the district covers a wide area including seven other towns. The "Five Towns" commonly grouped together are Normanton, Pontefract, Featherstone, Castleford and Knottingley. The other two towns are Ossett, to the west of Wakefield, and Hemsworth, to the south-east. There are also several large villages: Horbury, Crigglestone, Ackworth, South Kirkby, Upton and South Elmsall. It is lies between Leeds and Sheffield.

Related Topics:
City - Metropolitan borough - West Yorkshire - England - Wakefield - Normanton - Pontefract - Featherstone - Castleford - Knottingley - Ossett - Hemsworth - Horbury - Crigglestone - Ackworth - South Kirkby - Upton - South Elmsall - Leeds - Sheffield

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The district was, for a long time, the council on which the Labour Party held more seats than anywhere else in the country. It is now placed third, behind Rotherham and Newham, in this rank. The district is mainly made out of old coal-mining towns, although other industries include wool, chemicals, machine tools, shoddy goods , glass and other forms of manufacturing. When Margeret Thatcher came to power in 1979, there were 24 pits in the district. When the strike began in 1984, there were 18. By 1995, only two remained: "Prince of Wales" at Pontefract closed in 2002 and "Kellingley" at Knottingley is now the sole remainder of the industry that dominated the district.

Related Topics:
Labour Party - Rotherham - Newham - Coal-mining

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some of the old mining villages and towns have been totally transformed in recent years, so that many of the residents commute to well-paid jobs in Leeds. Whilst unemployment was amongst the highest in the country for most of the 1980s and 1990s, the district now has below-average unemployment. An odd change is that the city of Wakefield itself was once considerably more affluent than the surrounding towns and villages, but the reverse is now the case. The "Wakefield East" ward had 4.7% unemployment in May,2005 - which was more than 1% higher than any other ward. The eastern half of the district remains slightly less prosperous than the western half.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A decision was made, in 2004, to sell the district's extensive council housing to a private 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. The new owners have indicated that they plan to demolish most of their new stock in Fitzwilliam and Hemsworth, which had become very run-down.

Related Topics:
2004 - Council housing - Fitzwilliam - Hemsworth

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The present boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, when the county borough of Wakefield merged with various other settlements in the West Riding.

Related Topics:
1974 - Local Government Act 1972 - County borough - West Riding

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~