Kirklees

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Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees
Geography
Status:	Metropolitan borough
Region:	Yorkshire and the Humber
Ceremonial county:	West Yorkshire
Historic county:	Yorkshire (West Riding)
Area: - Total	Ranked 115th 408.60 km²
Admin. HQ:	Huddersfield
ONS code:	00CZ
Demographics
Population: - Total (2005 est.) - Density	Ranked 8th 394,600 966 / km²
Ethnicity:	85.6% White 11.4% S.Asian 1.4% Afro-Carib.
Politics
Coat of arms of Kirklees http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/
Leadership:	Leader and Cabinet
Executive:	Conservative (council NOC)
MPs:	Mary Creagh, Shahid Malik, Kali Mountford, Barry Sheerman, Mike Wood

Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 390,000 and includes Batley, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Huddersfield, Marsden, Meltham, Mirfield and Slaithwaite.

Contents 1 Structure 2 Notable features 3 Local government 3.1 2006 election 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Structure

The borough was formed under the Local Government Act 1972 on April 1, 1974, by a merger of the county boroughs of Dewsbury and Huddersfield along with the municipal boroughs of Batley and Spenborough and the urban districts of Colne Valley, Denby Dale, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Kirkburton, Meltham and Mirfield. It was named after the Kirklees Estate, which is situated mid way between Huddersfield and Dewsbury. The grounds were the location of Kirklees Priory.

Most of Kirklees consists of old mill towns although there are a few country villages, such as Denby Dale and Emley. The combination of the two county boroughs (which only happened in three other metropolitan districts: Wirral, Sefton and Sandwell) resulted in a borough with no clear centre. Graham Riddick, MP for Colne Valley, campaigned in the early 1990s for it to be split into two ^{[1] [2]}, an ambition also mentioned by Elizabeth Peacock MP for Batley and Spen in 1991. ^[3], but no review of the borough was undertaken by the Banham Commission or its successors.

[edit] Notable features

Kirklees is the most populated borough or district in England not to have city status. In an unofficial referendum held by the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, the population of Huddersfield did not support city status. Kirklees council did not apply for that status in either the 2000 or 2002 competitions.

One attraction in Kirklees is Kirklees Light Railway. The border of Kirklees borough with Derbyshire (High Peak district) runs across the summit of the significant hill named Black Hill.

The last remaining colliery in West Yorkshire is at Scissett; the mine was so small that it was never nationalised and has always been in private hands.

Dewsbury and Batley have been made into a special E.U. transformation area to address their problems of deprivation.

[edit] Local government

The borough is divided into 23 wards and each is represented on the borough council by three councillors. Each councillor is normally elected on a first past the post basis for a four-year period which is staggered with the other councillors of that ward so that only one councillor per ward is up for election at any one time. Exceptions to this include by-elections and ward boundary changes.

For example, in 2004, the boundaries were changed, resulting in one less ward and, therefore, three less councillors. The local government election in June 2004 was for all seats of the council. The electorate were given three votes each to fill the three seats of each ward. The candidate with the most votes was elected for the standard four years, the candidate with the second highest number of votes was elected for three years and the candidate with the third highest number of votes was elected for two years; their seat therefore being up for re-election in 2006.

All three seats currently held by the Green Party represent Newsome ward.^[4] The ward was the first ever win by the party on the council when Nicholas Harvey won it in the late 1990s. Since then, the ward has consistently elected Green Party councillors. The ward is centred on Newsome village, but also includes Lowerhouses, Lockwood, Berry Brow, Hall Bower, Taylor Hill, Primrose Hill, Armitage Bridge, Ashenhurst and Salford. Also included in the ward is the majority of Huddersfield town centre, the university campus, halls of residence and other student accommodation. The Greens' success may therefore be due to the high proportion of students compared with the more permanent residents.

[edit] 2006 election

The table below summarises the results of the 2006 local government election. Each party is ordered by number of votes registered. No party won the 35 or more seats required for overall control, though the Conservatives won the most seats.

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the April 2006 Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council election results

Parties		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net Gain/Loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/-
	Labour	20	3	1	+2	29.0	25.2	31,103	-3.1%
	Conservative	21	1	2	-1	30.4	23.6	29,200
	Liberal Democrats	20	1	5	-4	29.0	19.8	24,445
	British National	3	2	0	+2	4.3	18.5	22,914
	Green	3	0	0	0	4.3	8.3	10,300	-1.4%
	Save Huddersfield NHS	1	1	0	+1	1.4	2.3	2,827	N/A
	Independent	1	0	0	0	1.4	1.9	2,312
	English Democrats	0	0	0	0	0	0.4	436	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	0	0	0	0	0	0.1	66	0.0%
Total		69						123,603

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Kirklees Council Website
• Multimap location