1.
West Yorkshire
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West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in England. It is an inland and in relative terms upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in moors of the Pennines and has a population of 2.2 million, West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. West Yorkshire consists of five boroughs and shares borders with the counties of Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire. In the heart of the county is Leeds Bradford International Airport, West Yorkshire County Council was abolished in 1986 so its five districts became effectively unitary authorities. However, the county, which covers an area of 2,029 square kilometres, continues to exist in law. West Yorkshire includes the West Yorkshire Urban Area, which is the most built-up, West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council inherited the use of West Riding County Hall at Wakefield, opened in 1898, from the West Riding County Council in 1974. Since 1987 it has been the headquarters of Wakefield City Council, the county initially had a two-tier structure of local government with a strategic-level county council and five districts providing most services. In 1986, throughout England the metropolitan county councils were abolished, the functions of the county council were devolved to the boroughs, joint-boards covering fire, police and public transport, and to other special joint arrangements. Organisations such as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive continue to operate on this basis, although the county council was abolished, West Yorkshire continues to form a metropolitan and ceremonial county with a Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and a High Sheriff. Wakefields Parish Church was raised to cathedral status in 1888 and after the elevation of Wakefield to diocese, Wakefield Council immediately sought city status and this was granted in July 1888. However the industrial revolution, which changed West and South Yorkshire significantly, led to the growth of Leeds and Bradford, Leeds was granted city status in 1893 and Bradford in 1897. The name of Leeds Town Hall reflects the fact that at its opening in 1858 Leeds was not yet a city, the county borders, going anticlockwise from the west, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. It lies almost entirely on rocks of carboniferous age which form the southern Pennine fringes in the west, in the extreme east of the metropolitan county there are younger deposits of magnesian limestone. The Bradford and Calderdale areas are dominated by the scenery of the slopes of the Pennines, dropping from upland in the west down to the east. There is a conjunction of large scale industry, urban areas. The dense network of roads, canals and railways and urban development, the carboniferous rocks of the Yorkshire coalfield further east have produced a rolling landscape with hills, escarpments and broad valleys. In this landscape there is evidence of both current and former industrial activity. There are numerous derelict or converted mine buildings and recently landscaped former spoil heaps, the scenery is a mixture of built up areas, industrial land with some dereliction, and farmed open country
2.
City of Leeds
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The City of Leeds is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Leeds City Council, with the status of a city and metropolitan borough. The metropolitan district includes the administrative centre Leeds and the ten towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell, Wetherby and Yeadon. The current city boundaries were set on 1 April 1974 by the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, for its first 12 years the city had a two-tier system of local government, Leeds City Council shared power with the West Yorkshire County Council. Thc City of Leeds is divided into 31 civil parishes and an unparished area. In 1626 a charter was granted by Charles I, incorporating the parish as the Borough of Leeds. The parish and borough included the chapelries of Chapel Allerton, Armley, Beeston, Bramley, Farnley, Headingley cum Burley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Leeds, Potternewton, the borough was located in the West Riding of Yorkshire and gained city status in 1893. When a county council was formed for the riding in 1889, Leeds was excluded from its area of responsibility and formed a county borough. A review of local government arrangements completed in 1969 proposed the creation of a new district centred on Leeds, occupying 317,000 acres. The proposed area was reduced in a 1971 white paper. The new district gained borough and city status, as had been held by the county borough, and forms part of the county of West Yorkshire. The district extends 15 miles from east to west and 13 miles from north to south, with over 65% covered with green belt land. The highest point, at 1,115 feet, is at its western extremity on the eastern slopes of Rombalds Moor, better known as Ilkley Moor. To the north and east Leeds is bordered by North Yorkshire, Harrogate district to the north, the remaining borders are with other districts of West Yorkshire, Wakefield to the south, Kirklees to the south west, and Bradford to the west. Leeds City Council is the authority of the district. The council is composed of 99 councillors, three for each of the citys wards, elections are held three years out of four, on the first Thursday of May. One third of the councillors are elected, for a four-year term,2004 saw all seats up for election due to boundary changes. It is currently run by a Labour administration, before the 2011 election, the council had been under no overall control since 2004. The Chief Executive of Leeds City Council is Tom Riordan while the Leader of the Council is Councillor Judith Blake of the Labour Party, West Yorkshire does not have a county council, so Leeds City Council is the primary provider of local government services
3.
Yorkshire and the Humber
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Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It comprises most of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire and it does not include Middlesbrough or Redcar and Cleveland. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000, regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Scammonden Dam, is the highest dam in UK at 73 metres, sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe claims to be longest place name in England. In the Yorkshire and the Humber region, there is a close relationship between the major topographical areas and the underlying geology. The Pennine chain of hills in the west is of Carboniferous origin, the North York Moors in the north-east of the county are Jurassic in age, while the Yorkshire Wolds and Lincolnshire Wolds to the south east are Cretaceous chalk uplands. The highest point of the region is Whernside, in the Yorkshire Dales, the region is drained by several rivers. In western and central Yorkshire, the many rivers empty their waters into the River Ouse, the most northerly of the rivers in the Ouse system is the River Swale, which drains Swaledale before passing through Richmond and meandering across the Vale of Mowbray. Next, draining Wensleydale, is the River Ure, which joins the Swale east of Boroughbridge, the River Nidd rises on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and flows along Nidderdale before reaching the Vale of York. The Ouse is the given to the river after its confluence with the Ure at Ouse Gill Beck. The River Wharfe, which drains Wharfedale, joins the Ouse upstream of Cawood, the Rivers Aire and Calder are more southerly contributors to the River Ouse. The most southerly Yorkshire tributary is the River Don, which flows northwards to join the river at Goole. The River Derwent rises on the North York Moors, flows south then westwards through the Vale of Pickering and it empties into the River Ouse at Barmby on the Marsh. In the far north of the county, the River Tees flows eastwards through Teesdale, the smaller River Esk flows from west to east at the northern foot of the North York Moors to reach the sea at Whitby. To the east of the Yorkshire Wolds, the River Hull flows southwards to join the Humber Estuary at Kingston upon Hull, the western Pennines are served by the River Ribble, which drains westwards into the Irish Sea close to Lytham St Annes. The lower stretches of the River Trent flow through North Lincolnshire and meet the Ouse at Trent Falls, the largest freshwater lake in the region is Hornsea Mere in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Weather conditions vary from day to day as well as season to season. Between depressions, there are often small mobile anticyclones that bring periods of fair weather, in winter anticyclones bring cold dry weather
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
6.
West Yorkshire Police
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West Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing West Yorkshire in England. It is the fourth largest force in England and Wales by number of officers, West Yorkshire Police was formed in 1974, when part of the West Yorkshire Constabulary was amalgamated with the Leeds City Police and Bradford City Police, under the Local Government Act 1972. The force was known as the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police. Some older signs around the Force area, such as the one in the reception of Millgarth Police Station in Leeds city centre read West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police, the Metropolitan from the police title was dropped in 1986 when the Metropolitan counties were abolished. These plans are currently under review and not expected to place in the foreseeable future. On 12 December 2006, Sir Norman Bettison was announced as the new Chief Constable, replacing Colin Cramphorn and he was replaced by Temporary Chief Constable John Parkinson until the appointment of Mark Gilmore as Chief Constable on 1 February 2013. For operational purposes West Yorkshire Police is divided into five geographic divisions known within the force as ‘policing districts’, each district is made up of Partnership Working Areas which consist of an Inspector and three teams of sergeants, police constables, special constables and PCSOs. The Sir Alec Jeffreys Building in the Calder Park Business Estate houses the Yorkshire, West Yorkshire Police is the lead force for scientific support and provides such services for North Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Police and Humberside Police. The current estate of police stations and other buildings is changing with certain buildings closing, as of 2014 there are three PFI projects completed and as a result of these new buildings a number of police stations have closed and been sold. Wakefield District police headquarters is now located on Havertop Lane, Normanton, the total area is 11,500 metres squared and provides office accommodation as well as a 35-cell custody suite. As its now operational, the following Police stations are in the process of being closed and/or sold, Castleford Police Station, Castleford The new headquarters for the newly formed Leeds District is operational on Elland Road, Beeston, Leeds. The total area is 12,500 metres squared and provides office accommodation as well as a 40-cell custody suite, now operational, the Leeds District HQ will replace the following stations, Millgarth Police Station, Leeds city centre. The existing Operational Support facilities at Carr Gate, Wakefield have been expanded, the table below shows the divisional structure from 2008 –2014. The grid below outlines the mergers of the divisions to the eight operational divisions which ceased in April 2014
Alwoodley
