Talk:Rutland

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The current UK geography collaboration of the month is Rutland. If you see ways in which this article can be improved please edit it. You may get ideas from the talk page or the WikiProject UK geography.

OpenStreetMap held a mapping party in this area on 14-15 October, 2006 to make a creative commons licensed map that may be used in Wikipedia articles. Thanks to all those wikipedians that took part. See http://www.openstreetmap.org for details of other planned mapping parties.

I have added a self-taken photo of Oakham Castle in response to the image request. I'll leave it to others more expert to add it to the page if/as they see fit. It is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Oakham_Castle.jpg Njjh201 21:07, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I have removed the assertion that Rutland is "too small to have its own M.P." on the basis that although true, the comment is not very meaningful, because UK electoral boundaries do not tie in with county boundaries in any case. (I think I'm right to say that they are calculated in terms of population and that each parliamentary constituency area is an accumulation of parishes). So although Rutland by itself is too small to form a parliamentary constituency itself, the county is by no means exclusive in its position of not having a 'county MP'. Njjh201 23:11, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

The source for the assertion that Rutland was originally part of Nottinghamshire is 'Muirs Historical Atlas'. Rutland Weekend Television is personal recollection - though the only detail I can offer is that the station logo was a cow (rather than a conventional globe) whose markings formed a map of the world.Alan Peakall 15:22 Oct 18, 2002 (UTC)

• Um, actually I've since learnt that Rutland was chosen as the name of Rutland Weekend Television because the idea of the smallest county having a whole TV station especially for the weekend was rather funny - so the name Rutland was deliberately chosen due to a specific characteristic of the county - I think there is probably enough of a relationship to be worth a mention. 80N 22:40, Feb 13, 2005 (UTC)

As far as I know, Rutland Weekend Television has absolutely no connection with the county of Rutland. I suggest this reference be removed. 80N 15:06, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I was about to suggest the same. It doesn't even qualify as misc trivia.--JBellis 16:16, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] By popular demand?

"The four district councils were abolished, and the administrative county was made a non-metropolitan district of Leicestershire in the local government reorganisation of 1974. It was restored to top-level authority status by popular demand on 1 April 1997, as part of the local government reform."

Reading this, one could be forgiven for thinking that the people of Rutland were united in their desire to have Rutland's unitary status restored. It might have been sought by some (such as Rutland's councillors), but I think you will find that a significant number of Rutlanders had little interest in pursuing the matter. And who would have blamed them given the extortionate council tax prices the people of Rutland must pay as a result of this change in status, among the highest in the country.

And for what? Have the people of Rutland been provided with green recycling bins and boxes as residents in neighbouring counties have been? Are the roads kept in a good state of repair? How many years has Oakham waited for a bypass? Is Oakham town centre slowly being killed off by the recent arrival of a certain supermarket who seems to be going out of its way (as usual) to be top dog? Healthy competition is good, but when the supermarket prices undercut the local butchers/green grocers/stationary shop/chemist so substantially, that just isn't fair play (but that's another debate entirely!)

Buffy the Vampire Bat 10:38, 17 August 2006 (UTC)