Harrogate (borough)

Harrogate District
—  Borough  —

Arms of Harrogate Borough Council
Shown within North Yorkshire
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
Region Yorkshire and the Humber
Ceremonial county North Yorkshire
Founded
Admin. HQ Harrogate
Government
 • Type Harrogate Borough Council
 • Leadership: Leader & Cabinet
 • Executive: Conservative
 • MPs: Nigel Adams,
Andrew Jones,
Julian Smith
Area
 • Total 505 sq mi (1,308 km2)
Area rank 15th
Population (2010 est.)
 • Total 158,700
 • Rank Ranked 115th
 • Density 314.2/sq mi (121.3/km2)
Time zone Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
 • Summer (DST) British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Postcode
ISO 3166-2
ONS code 36UD
OS grid reference
NUTS 3
Ethnicity 96.9% White
1.0% Mixed
0.8% S.Asian
0.8% Chinese or other
0.6% Black[1]
Website harrogate.gov.uk

Harrogate is a local government district and borough of North Yorkshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Harrogate but it also includes surrounding towns and villages. The district is part of the Leeds City Region.

The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the Masham and Wath rural districts, and part of Thirsk Rural District, from the North Riding of Yorkshire, along with the boroughs of Harrogate and the city of Ripon, the Knaresborough urban district, Nidderdale Rural District, Ripon and Pateley Bridge Rural District, part of Wetherby Rural District and part of Wharfedale Rural District, all in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

On 1 April 1996 the parishes of Nether Poppleton, Upper Poppleton, Hessay and Rufforth were transferred from the district to become part of the new York unitary authority. According to the 2001 census these parishes had a population of 5,169.

Contents

Politics

Elections to the borough council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the 54 seats on the council being elected at each election. After being under no overall control from the 2006 election, the Conservative party gained a majority at the 2010 election.

Following the United Kingdom local elections, 2011, the political composition of Harrogate is as follows:

Year Conservative Liberal Democrat Liberal Party (UK, 1989) Independent
2011 34 17 1 2

Towns

By population:
1. Harrogate
2. Ripon
3. Knaresborough
4. Boroughbridge
5. Pateley Bridge
6. Masham

Etymology

The name possibly means place at the road to the cairn or heap of stones from the Old Norse haugr plus gata.[2]

Historical sites

References