1.
Welwyn Hatfield (UK Parliament constituency)
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Welwyn Hatfield is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Grant Shapps, a Conservative. The seat was called for by the periodic review of Westminster seats. Its changes were made in time for the first 1974 general election resulted in a temporary minority administration on a hung parliament. Other than this the seat has elected a Conservative as its MP, the second MP later became the politically neutral Lord Speaker, Baroness Hayman. Grant Shapps was appointed the Minister of State for Housing and Local Government for the first two years of the UK coalition government 2010 before being appointed to chair his party, following the Conservative victory in 2015, he was appointed Minister of State at the Department for International Development. 1974-1983, The Urban District of Welwyn Garden City, and the Rural Districts of Hatfield, 1997-present, The District of Welwyn Hatfield except the ward of Northaw. List of Parliamentary constituencies in Hertfordshire Notes References
2.
Non-metropolitan district
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Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially shire districts, are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties in a two-tier arrangement, in the 1990s, several non-metropolitan counties were created that are unitary authorities and also have non-metropolitan district status. A third category is the districts of Berkshire, which are districts that are unitary authorities. Non-metropolitan districts are subdivisions of English non-metropolitan counties which have a structure of local government. Most non-metropolitan counties have a county council, and also have several districts, many districts have borough status, which means the local council is called a Borough Council instead of District Council and gives them the right to appoint a Mayor. Borough status is granted by charter and, in many cases, continues a style enjoyed by a predecessor authority. Some districts such as Oxford or Exeter have city status, granted by letters patent, by 1899, England had been divided at district level into rural districts, urban districts, municipal boroughs, county boroughs and metropolitan boroughs. This system was abolished by the London Government Act 1963 and the Local Government Act 1972, non-metropolitan districts were created by this act in 1974 when England outside of Greater London was divided into metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties. Metropolitan counties were sub-divided into metropolitan districts and the counties were sub-divided into non-metropolitan districts. The metropolitan districts had more powers than their non-metropolitan counterparts, initially, there were 296 non-metropolitan districts in the two-tier structure, but reforms in the 1990s and 2009 reduced their number to 201. A further 55 non-metropolitan districts are now unitary authorities, which combine the functions of county, in Wales, an almost identical two-tier system of local government existed between 1974 and 1996. In 1996, this was abolished and replaced with a unitary system of local government. Since the areas for Wales and England had been enacted separately and there were no Welsh metropolitan areas, a similar system existed in Scotland, which in 1975 was divided into regions and districts, this was also abolished in 1996 and replaced with a fully unitary system. In England 200 out of the 201 non-metropolitan district councils are represented by the District Councils Network, special interest group which sits within the Local Government Association. The network’s purpose is to “act as an informed and representative advocate for districts to government and other bodies, based on their unique position to deliver for ‘local’ people. ”This is a list of non-metropolitan counties. Some non-metropolitan districts are coterminous with non-metropolitan counties, making them unitary authorities and these are excluded from this list as is Berkshire which has no county council. For a full list of districts of all types including unitary authorities, metropolitan districts and London boroughs and this is a list of former two-tier districts in England which have been abolished, by local government reorganizations such as the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. It does not include districts that still exist after becoming an authority or those that transferred from one county to another
3.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
4.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards
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East of England
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The East of England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999 and it includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region and its population at the 2011 census was 5,847,000. Bedford, Luton, Basildon, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, the southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt. The region has the lowest elevation range in the UK, North Cambridgeshire and the Essex Coast have most of the around 5% of the region which is below 10 metres above sea level. The Fens are partly in North Cambridgeshire which is notable for the lowest point in the country in the land of the village of Holme 2.75 metres below sea level which was once Whittlesey Mere. The highest point is at Clipper Down at 817 ft, in the far corner of the region in the Ivinghoe Hills. In the late 1960s, the Roskill Commission considered Thurleigh in Bedfordshire, Nuthampstead in Hertfordshire, the East of England succeeded the standard statistical region East Anglia. The East of England civil defence region was identical to todays region, England between the Wash and Thames Estuary has since post-Roman times been and continues to be known as East Anglia, including the county traversing the west of this line, Cambridgeshire. Essex, despite meaning East-Saxons, previously formed part of the South East England, as did Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, the earliest use of the term is from 1695. Charles Davenant, in An essay upon ways and means of supplying the war, wrote, The Eleven Home Counties, then cited a list including these four. The term does not appear to have used in taxation since the 18th century. East Anglia is one of the driest parts of the United Kingdom with average rainfall ranging from 450 mm to 750 mm. This is usually because low pressure systems and weather fronts from the Atlantic have lost a lot of their moisture over land by the time they reach Eastern England, however the Fens in Cambridgeshire are prone to flooding should a strong system affect the area. Northerly winds can also be cold but are not usually as cold as easterly winds, westerly winds bring milder and, typically, wetter weather. Southerly winds usually bring mild air but chill if coming from further east than Spain, spring is a transitional season that can be chilly to start with but is usually warm by late-April/May. The weather at this time is often changeable and occasionally showery, summer is usually warm and continental air from mainland Europe or the Azores High usually leads to at least a few weeks of hot, balmy weather with prolonged warm to hot weather. The number of storms from the Atlantic, such as the remnants of a tropical storm usually coincides with the location of the jet stream
6.
Non-metropolitan county
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A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.4 million, the term shire county is, however, an unofficial usage. Many of the non-metropolitan counties bear historic names and most end in the suffix -shire such as Wiltshire or Staffordshire, of the remainder, some counties had the -shire ending and have lost it over time, such as Devon and Somerset. Shire county is, strictly, a dual-language tautology since the French-derived county means the same as the older Anglo-Saxon word shire, prior to 1974 local government had been divided between single-tier county boroughs and two-tier administrative counties which were subdivided into municipal boroughs and urban and rural districts. The Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, divided England outside Greater London, each county was divided into anywhere between two and fourteen non-metropolitan districts. As originally constituted, the counties were largely based on existing counties. Some counties were based on areas surrounding large county boroughs or were formed by the mergers of smaller counties, examples of the first category are Avon and Cleveland. Examples of the category are Hereford and Worcester and Cumbria. The Royal Mail adopted the counties for purposes in most areas. A Local Government Commission was appointed in 1992 to review the structure of the non-metropolitan counties. It was anticipated that a system of unitary authorities would entirely replace the two-tier system, the Commission faced competing claims from former county boroughs wishing to regain unitary status and advocates for the restoration of such small counties as Herefordshire and Rutland. The review led to the introduction of local government in some areas. In the majority of unitary authorities an existing district council took over powers from the county council, the 1972 Act required that all areas outside Greater London form part of a non-metropolitan county, and that all such counties should contain at least one district. Accordingly, the instruments that effected the reorganisation separated the unitary districts from the county in which they were situated and constituted them as counties. An exception was made in the case of Berkshire, which was retained with its boundaries in spite of the abolition of its county council. This was done in order to preserve its status as a royal county, with the creation of numerous new non-metropolitan counties, the areas used for lieutenancy and shrievalty began to diverge from local government areas. This led to the development of counties for these purposes. A further wave of unitary authorities were created in 2009 under the terms of the Local Government, while a number of new county counties were created, several of the new authorities continued to have the boundaries set in 1974
7.
Hertfordshire
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Hertfordshire is a county in southern England, bordered by Bedfordshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Greater London to the south. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region, in 2013, the county had a population of 1,140,700 living in an area of 634 square miles. Four towns have between 50,000 and 100,000 residents, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford and St Albans. Hertford, once the market town for the medieval agricultural county derives its name from a hart. Elevations are high for the region in the north and west and these reach over 240m in the western projection around Tring which is in the Chilterns. The countys borders are approximately the watersheds of the Colne and Lea, hertfordshires undeveloped land is mainly agricultural and much is protected by green belt. The countys landmarks span many centuries, ranging from the Six Hills in the new town of Stevenage built by local inhabitants during the Roman period, Leavesden filmed much of the UK-based $7.7 Bn box office Harry Potter film series and has the countrys studio tour. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill and his martyrs cross of a yellow saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire is well-served with motorways and railways, providing access to London. The largest sector of the economy of the county is in services, Hertfordshire was the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913. Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing, the name Hertfordshire is first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011. Deer feature in many county emblems, there is evidence of humans living in Hertfordshire from the Mesolithic period. It was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age and this was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age. 293 the first recorded British martyrdom is believed to have taken place. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill. His martyrs cross of a saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag. He is the Patron Saint of Hertfordshire, with the departure of the Roman Legions in the early 5th century, the now unprotected territory was invaded and colonised by the Anglo-Saxons. By the 6th century the majority of the county was part of the East Saxon kingdom
8.
Welwyn Garden City
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Welwyn Garden City /ˈwɛlɪn/ is a town in Hertfordshire, England. It is located approximately 20 miles from Kings Cross, London, Welwyn Garden City was the second garden city in England and one of the first new towns. It is unique in being both a city and a new town and exemplifies the physical, social and cultural planning ideals of the periods in which it was built. Welwyn Garden City was founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the 1920s following his previous experiment in Letchworth Garden City, Howard had called for the creation of planned towns that were to combine the benefits of the city and the countryside and to avoid the disadvantages of both. On 29 April 1920 a company, Welwyn Garden City Limited, was formed to plan and build the garden city, louis de Soissons was appointed as architect and town planner, C. B Purdom as finance director and Frederic Osborn as secretary. The first house was occupied just before Christmas 1920, the town is laid out along tree-lined boulevards with a neo-Georgian town centre. It has its own environmental protection legislation, the Scheme of Management for Welwyn Garden City, every road has a wide grass verge. The spine of the town is Parkway, a mall or scenic parkway. The view along Parkway to the south was described as one of the worlds finest urban vistas. Commercial pressures have since ensured much more competition and variety, during World War II the Special Operations Executive had a research department in the town, and the Inter-Services Research Bureau developed the Welrod pistol and the Welgun sub-machinegun there. Station IX was a secret SOE factory making commando equipment at the Frythe Hotel, in 1948, Welwyn Garden City was designated a new town under the New Towns Act 1946 and the Welwyn Garden City company handed its assets to the Welwyn Garden City Development Corporation. Louis de Soissons remained as its planning consultant and that year The Times compared Welwyn Garden City with Hatfield. Welwyn, though far from perfect, made the New Towns Act possible, just as Hatfield, by its imperfection, in 1966, the Development Corporation was wound up and handed over to the Commission for New Towns. The housing stock, neighbourhood shopping and green spaces were passed to Welwyn Hatfield District Council between 1978 and 1983. There was a general hospital in the town, the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital. A new hospital, completed in June 2015, offers outpatient, diagnostic, a shopping mall, the Howard Centre, was built in the 1980s, incorporating the original railway station. Roman baths are preserved in a vault underneath junction 6 of the A1 and are open to visitors. The local civic society, which aims to preserve and conserve the garden city ethos, is the Welwyn Garden City Society, the international ecumenical Focolare movement has its British headquarters at Welwyn Garden City
9.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
10.
Grant Shapps
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Grant Shapps is a British Conservative Party politician, former Minister of State at the Department for International Development. A former co-chairman of the Conservative Party, he is the member of parliament for Welwyn Hatfield in England and he first won the seat as Grant V Shapps in the general election of 5 May 2005. Shapps was returned to parliament in the May 2010 election with a majority of 17,423, on 9 June 2010, Shapps was appointed as a Privy Counsellor. On 4 September 2012, he was appointed Conservative Party Co-Chairman, replacing Baroness Warsi and his salary was paid by the party. On 28 November 2015, he stood down from his appointment due to allegations of bullying within the Conservative Party. Shapps was born in Croxley Green, Watford, Hertfordshire, to a Jewish family and he was educated at Yorke Mead Primary School, Watford Grammar School for Boys, and Cassio College. He completed a business and finance course at Manchester Polytechnic, Shapps was also National President of the Jewish youth organisation BBYO. In 1989, according to Shapps, he was in a car crash in Kansas, United States and he married Belinda Goldstone in 1997 and they have three children. In 1999 Shapps was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy recovering from cancer by the following year, as a result of the effects of chemotherapy, his children were conceived by IVF. Shappss brother, Andre Shapps, is a musician, between 1994 and 1998, Andre Shapps was a member of Big Audio Dynamite, playing keyboards. The Shappses cousin, Mick Jones, was a key figure in British punk rock of the late 1970s, Shapps unsuccessfully contested the seat of North Southwark and Bermondsey during the 1997 election as the Conservative Party candidate. Shapps stood for the Welwyn Hatfield constituency in the 2001 election and he was reselected to fight Welwyn Hatfield in 2002 and continued his local campaigning over the next four years. Shapps stood again in the 2005 election and was elected as the Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield, defeating the Labour MP and Minister for Public Health, Melanie Johnson. He received 22,172 votes and had a majority of 5,946, Shapps publicly backed David Camerons bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party, seconding Camerons nomination papers. Upon Camerons election as party leader Shapps was appointed chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for campaigning. He was a member of the Public Administration Select Committee between May 2005 and February 2007, in the 2010 election, he was re-elected with a further 11. 1% swing and a majority of 17,423, taking 57% of the vote. Shapps was opposed to the UKs withdrawal from the European Union prior to the 2016 referendum, in June 2007, Shapps became shadow housing minister, outside the shadow cabinet, but entitled to attend its meetings. He was shadow housing minister during the period of the last four Labour government housing ministers, in April 2009, Shapps launched the Conservative partys ninth green paper on policy, Strong Foundations
11.
Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans
12.
UTC0
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UTC±00,00 is the following time, Coordinated Universal Time, the basis for the worlds civil time. Time used there is 2 hours and 12 minutes ahead of time in the summer. The easternmost settlement where UTC with DST is applied is Lowestoft in Suffolk, East Anglia, note that Ireland uses the term standard time in reference to the summer months and winter time during what the rest of the time zone calls standard time. This is the reverse of the practice of most countries in the EU, see also Time in Antarctica The westernmost point where UTC with no DST is applied is Bjargtangar, at the northwest peninsula of Iceland. Time used there is 1 hour and 38 minutes ahead of physical time and this is the greatest deviation from physical time for UTC with no DST. The easternmost locale where UTC with no DST is applied is Bouvet Island, of Norwegian jurisdiction, at the South Atlantic Ocean
13.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
14.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
15.
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
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Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001, increasing to 39,201 at the 2011 Census, the settlement is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, is the nucleus of the old town, Hatfield was one of the post-war New Towns built around London and has much modernist architecture from the period. The University of Hertfordshire is based there, Hatfield is 20 miles north of London and is connected to the capital via the A1 and direct trains to London Kings Cross, Finsbury Park and Moorgate. As a result, the town has seen a recent increase in commuters who work in London moving to the area. In the Saxon period Hatfield was known as Hetfelle, but by the year 970, No other records remain until 1226, when Henry III granted the Bishops of Ely rights to an annual four-day fair and a weekly market. The town was then called Bishops Hatfield, Hatfield House is the seat of the Cecil family, the Marquesses of Salisbury. Elizabeth Tudor was confined there for three years in what is now known as The Old Palace in Hatfield Park. Legend has it that it was here in 1558, while sitting under an oak tree in the Park and she held her first Council in the Great Hall of Hatfield. In 1851, the route of the Great North Road was altered to avoid cutting through the grounds of Hatfield House, the town grew up around the gates of Hatfield House. Old Hatfield retains many buildings, notably the Old Palace, St Etheldredas Church. The Old Palace was built by the Bishop of Ely, Cardinal Morton, in 1497, during the reign of Henry VII, and the only surviving wing is still used today for Elizabethan-style banquets. St Etheldredas Church was founded by the monks from Ely, in 1930 the de Havilland airfield and aircraft factory was opened at Hatfield and by 1949 it had become the largest employer in the town, with almost 4,000 staff. It was taken over by Hawker Siddeley in 1960 and merged into British Aerospace in 1978, in the 1930s it produced a range of small biplanes. During the Second World War it produced the Mosquito fighter bomber and developed the Vampire, after the war, facilities were expanded and it developed the Comet airliner, the Trident airliner, and an early bizjet, the DH125. British Aerospace closed the Hatfield site in 1993 having moved the BAe 146 production line to Woodford Aerodrome, the land was used as a film set for Steven Spielbergs movie Saving Private Ryan and most of the BBC/HBO television drama Band of Brothers. It was later developed for housing, higher education, commerce, today, Hatfields aviation history is remembered by the names of certain local streets and pubs as well as The Comet Hotel built in the 1930s. The de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre, at Salisbury Hall in nearby London Colney, preserves and displays many historic de Havilland aeroplanes, the Abercrombie Plan for London in 1944 proposed a New Town in Hatfield
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East Coast Main Line
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The East Coast Main Line is a 393-mile long railway link between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Darlington and Newcastle, electrified along the whole route. Services north of Edinburgh to Aberdeen and Inverness use diesel trains, the main franchise on the line is operated by Virgin Trains East Coast. The route forms a key artery on the side of Great Britain and is broadly paralleled by the A1 trunk road. It links London, the South East and East Anglia, with Yorkshire and it also carries key commuter flows for the north side of London. It is important to the health of several areas of England and Scotland. It also handles cross-country, commuter and local services. The route has ELRs ECM1 - ECM9, the line was built by three railway companies, each serving their own area, but with the intention of linking up to form the through route that became the East Coast Main Line. In 1923 the three companies were grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway and this later became part of British Railways in 1948. The Selby Diversion was opened in 1983 and diverged from the original ECML at Temple Hirst Junction, north of Doncaster, the ECML has been the backdrop for a number of famous rail journeys and locomotives. The line was worked for years by Pacific locomotives designed by Gresley, including the famous steam locomotives Flying Scotsman. Mallard achieved a record speed for a steam locomotive, at 126 miles per hour. It made the run on the Grantham-to-Peterborough section, on the descent of Stoke Bank, steam locomotives were replaced by Diesel electrics in the early 1960s, when the purpose-built Deltic locomotive was developed by English Electric. The prototype was successful and a fleet of 22 locomotives was built, the Class 55s were powered by two Napier Deltic engines originally developed for fast torpedo boats, with the three crankshaft triangular configuration of the engines giving the Deltic name. Their characteristic throaty exhaust roar and chubby body outline made them unmistakable, the Class 55 was for a time the most powerful diesel locomotive in service in Britain, at 3,300 hp. Just after the Deltics were introduced, the first sections of the East Coast Main Line were upgraded to allow 100 miles per hour running. The first length to be cleared for the new higher speed was a 17 miles stretch between Peterborough and Grantham on 15 June 1965, the second was 12 miles between Grantham and Newark. A prototype of the HST, the Class 41 achieved 143 mph on the line in 1973, a secondary factor was that the signalling technology of the time was insufficient to allow detection of two broken rails on the line on which the train was operating. Locomotives have operated on the ECML at speeds of up to 161.7 mph in test runs. 3A equipment and this included the Hertford Loop Line
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A1 road (Great Britain)
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The A1 is the longest numbered road in the UK, at 410 miles. It connects London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom, with Edinburgh, the course of the A1 has changed where towns or villages have been bypassed, and where new alignments have taken a slightly different route. Several sections of the route have been upgraded to motorway standard, between the M25 and the A696 the road has been designated as part of the unsigned Euroroute E15 from Inverness to Algeciras. The A1 is the latest in a series of north from London to York. It was designated in 1921 by the Ministry of Transport under the Great Britain road numbering scheme, the earliest documented northern routes are the roads created by the Romans during the period from AD43 to AD410, which consisted of several itinera recorded in the Antonine Itinerary. A combination of these were used by the Anglo-Saxons as the route from London to York, Ermine Street later became known as the Old North Road. Part of this route in London is followed by the current A10, by the 12th century, because of flooding and damage by traffic, an alternative route out of London was found through Muswell Hill, and became part of the Great North Road. A turnpike road, New North Road and Canonbury Road, was constructed in 1812 linking the start of the Old North Road around Shoreditch with the Great North Road at Highbury Corner, the A1 route was modified in 1927 when bypasses were built around Barnet and Hatfield. In the 1930s bypasses were added around Chester-le-Street and Durham, in 1960 Stamford, Biggleswade and Doncaster were bypassed, as were Retford in 1961 and St Neots in 1971. Baldock was bypassed in July 1967, during the early 1970s plans to widen the A1 along Archway Road in London were abandoned after considerable opposition and four public inquiries during which road protesters disrupted proceedings. The scheme was dropped in 1990. The Hatfield cut-and-cover was opened in 1986, few of the surviving coaching inns can be seen while driving on the A1, because the modern route now bypasses the towns with the inns. The A1 runs from New Change in the City of London at St. Pauls Cathedral to the centre of Edinburgh, the road skirts the remains of Sherwood Forest, and passes Catterick Garrison. It shares its London terminus with the A40, in the City area of Central London and it runs out of London through Islington, up Holloway Road, through Highgate, Barnet, Potters Bar, Hatfield, Welwyn, Stevenage, Baldock, Biggleswade, Sandy and St Neots. Scotch Corner, in North Yorkshire, marks the point where before the M6 was built the traffic for Glasgow, as well as a hotel there have been a variety of sites for the transport café, now subsumed as a motorway services. Most of the English section of the A1 is a series of alternating sections of dual carriageway and motorway, from Newcastle upon Tyne to Edinburgh it is a trunk road with alternating sections of dual and single carriageway. The table below summaries the road as motorways and non-motorways sections, A 13-mile section of the road in North Yorkshire, neolithic remains and a Roman fort were discovered. The total cost of works was some £50 million
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London Borough of Enfield
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The London Borough of Enfield is a London borough in north London with some districts within the borough straddling north-east London, England. It borders the London Boroughs of Barnet, Haringey and Waltham Forest, the districts of Hertsmere, Welwyn Hatfield and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, the local authority is Enfield Council. The feld would have been a reference to an area cleared of trees within woodland that would become known as Enfield Chase. Enfield Town used to be a market town in the county of Middlesex on the edge of the forest about a days walk north of London. As London grew, Enfield Town and its surrounds eventually became a residential suburb, the current borough was created in 1965 from the former areas of the Municipal Borough of Southgate, the Municipal Borough of Enfield and the Municipal Borough of Edmonton. The armorial bearings of three boroughs were also merged. The heraldic beast on the shield of the Enfield coat of arms is known in heraldry as an Enfield, in Roman times, Enfield was connected to Londinium by Ermine Street, the great Roman road which stretched all the way up to York. Artefacts found in the early 1900s reveal that there were Roman settlements in the areas that are now Edmonton, in 790 King Offa of Mercia was recorded as giving the lands of Edmonton to St Albans Abbey. The area became important as East Anglia was taken over by the Danes. In the 790s strongholds were built by men loyal to King Alfred the Great, after the Norman Conquest, both Enfield and Edmonton were mentioned in Domesday Book. Both had churches, and Enfield had 400 inhabitants, Edmonton 300, Enfield is also described as having a parc. This parc—a heavily forested area for hunting—was key to Enfields existence in the Middle Ages, wealthy Londoners came to Enfield first to hunt, and then to build houses in the green, wooded surroundings. In 1303, Edward I of England granted Enfield a charter to hold a weekly market, Enfield Grammar School with its Tudor Old Hall stands next to the Enfield Town Market Place and St. Andrews Church, the school having been extended several times since 1586. A new hall and further additions were completed shortly before World War II, nearby historically was the palace of Edward VI, where Elizabeth I lived while a princess, including during the final illness of Henry VIII. Later Elizabeth held court there when she was queen, Enfield has a history of armaments manufacture—see Royal Small Arms Factory. The Lee–Enfield.303 rifle was standard issue for the British Army until 1957, other firearms manufactured there include the Bren and Sten machine guns—the en in both cases denoting the place of manufacture. The worlds first solid state circuitry colour televisions were manufactured by Ferguson at their now closed plant in Enfield, the first dishwasher to be mass-produced was in Hotpoints now closed Enfield plant. This historical event was marked by a plaque on the wall of the bank
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Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)
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In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an urban district council, which shared local government responsibilities with a county council. In England and Wales, urban districts and rural districts were created in 1894 as subdivisions of administrative counties and they replaced the earlier system of urban and rural sanitary districts the functions of which were taken over by the district councils. The district councils also had powers over local matters such as parks, cemeteries. An urban district contained a single parish, while a rural district might contain many. Urban districts were considered to have problems with public health than rural areas. Urban districts usually covered smaller towns, usually with populations of less than 30,000, originally there were 1013 urban districts. Under the Local Government Act 1929206 urban districts were abolished, many were merged with surrounding rural districts, and so many urban districts often covered some rural areas as well. Larger towns became municipal boroughs which had a higher status. Many parish councils in England were created for towns previously covered by urban districts, in Wales, all urban and rural areas are now covered by communities. In Ireland urban districts were created in 1898 by the Local Government Act 1898 based on the sanitary districts created in 1878. Urban districts had powers greater than towns with town commissioners but less than the municipal boroughs preserved by the Municipal Corporations Act 1840 or created subsequently, a few places were promoted or demoted between these three categories in subsequent decades. After the partition of Ireland in 1920–22 urban districts continued in both the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, the rural and urban districts in Northern Ireland were abolished in 1973, and replaced with a system of unitary districts. In the Republic, while rural districts were abolished in 1925 and 1930, urban districts continued to exist but were renamed simply towns under the Local Government Act 2001
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Welwyn
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Welwyn /ˈwɛlɪn/ is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the villages of Digswell and Oaklands, the name is derived from Old English welig meaning willow, referring to the trees that nestle on the banks of the River Mimram as it flows through the village. The name itself is an evolution from weligun, the form of the word. The nearby modern village of Digswell was originally called High Welwyn when first developed at the beginning of the 20th century. Settlement across the area seems to have become established during the Bronze Age according to various recovered artefacts and crop marks left by round barrows and burial mounds from that period. Iron Age remnants have not been detected until the Late Iron Age, the Belgae Celtic culture colonised much of South-Eastern England in the 1st century BC, with Welwyn in the area believed to have been settled by the Catuvellauni tribe. Separately, it can be shown that the line of the Roman road through Welwyn is in an alignment with the pre-Roman Belgic tribal centres of Verlamion. Following the Roman invasion, Welwyn was settled by the Romans, many Roman artifacts have been found in and around the village, including the remains of several Roman villas close by. The Welwyn Roman Baths have been preserved and are open to the public, one particular excavation revealed a large Roman cemetery very close to the site of the current church, which itself is known to date back to at least Saxon times. The church lies directly alongside the route of the Roman road, Welwyn was at the heart of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon Tewingas tribe and was the site of an early minster church. In 1990, a proposal was made to rename the village as Welwyn Minster to shake off the unpopular Old name. The massacre on St. Brices day on November 13,1002, a Norman church was built on the site of the Saxon church about 1190. The nave of the present church, was built in the 13th century, there are two medieval corbels at the east end of the south aisle. Patronage of the church passed through several hands until in 1549 it was sold to the Wilshere family, who lived at The Frythe until relatively recently. Much later, in the 17th century, as it lies on the old Great North Road, it became an important staging post, after the Great Northern Railway by-passed the village due to the objections of local landowners, Welwyn became less important. Having previously been seen as a town on par with Hatfield and Stevenage, the 20th century brought major expansion to the area, as estates to the south, west and north of the village were built up. Despite this long history, at the beginning of the 20th century Welwyn was regarded as a sleepy backwater, one writer wrote that Welwyn, a small town in the Maran Valley, can show little of interest beyond many quaint cottages, and the church. In 1870-72, John Marius Wilsons Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Welwyn thus, WELWYN, a village, a parish, Danesbury and Frythe are chief residences
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Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
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Green belt
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A green belt or greenbelt is a policy and land use designation used in land use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighbouring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges which have a linear character, in essence, a green belt is an invisible line designating a border around a certain area, preventing development of the area and allowing wildlife to return and be established. The green belt has many benefits for people, Walking, camping, contiguous habitat network for wild plants, animals and wildlife. Cleaner air and water Better land use of areas within the bordering cities, the effectiveness of green belts differs depending on location and country. The Old Testament outlines a proposal for a belt around the Levite towns in the Land of Israel. Moses Maimonides expounded that the plan from the Old Testament referred to all towns in ancient Israel. In the 7th century, Muhammad established a green belt around Medina and he did this by prohibiting any further removal of trees in a 12-mile long strip around the city. In 1580 Elizabeth I of England banned new building in a 3-mile wide belt around the City of London in an attempt to stop the spread of plague, however, this was not widely enforced and it was possible to buy dispensations which reduced the effectiveness of the proclamation. Green belt policy was then pioneered in the United Kingdom, various proposals were put forward from 1890 onwards but the first to garner widespread support was put forward by the London Society in its Development Plan of Greater London 1919. Alongside the CPRE they lobbied for a belt to prevent urban sprawl. There are fourteen green belt areas, in the UK covering 16,716 km², or 13% of England, other notable examples are the Ottawa Greenbelt and Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt in Ontario, Canada. Ottawas 20,350 hectare greenbelt is managed by the National Capital Commission, the more general term in the United States is green space or greenspace, which may be a very small area such as a park. The dynamic Adelaide Park Lands, measuring approximately 7.6 km², on the fringe of the eastern suburbs, an expansive natural greenbelt in the Adelaide Hills acts as a growth boundary for Adelaide, cooling the region in the hottest months. The European Commissions COST Action C11 is undertaking Case studies in Greenstructure Planning involving 15 European countries. An act of the Swedish parliament from 1994 has declared a series of parks in Stockholm, the stated motivation and benefits of the green belt might be well-intentioned, but these benefits do not accrue as intentioned or claimed. Examples commonly cited are the Ottawa suburbs of Kanata and Orleans and this leads to other problems, as residents of these areas have a longer commute to work places in the city and worse access to public transport. It also means people have to commute through the green belt, not only is the merit of a green belt subverted, but the green belt may heighten the problem and make the city unsustainable. There are many examples whereby the actual effect of green belts is to act as a reserve for future freeways
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Commuter town
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A commuter town is a town whose residents normally work elsewhere, although they live, eat and sleep in these neighborhoods. The name also suggests that these communities have little commercial or industrial activity beyond a small amount of retail, oriented toward locals. A commuter town may also be known as an exurb, or a community, bedroom town or bedroom suburb. The phrase bedroom town has also adopted into the Japanese wasei-eigo word bed town. Suburbs and commuter towns often coincide, but not always, similar to college town, resort town, and mill town, the term commuter town describes the municipalitys predominant economic function. A suburb, in contrast, is a community of size, density, political power. A towns economic function may change, for example when improved transport brings commuters to industrial suburbs or railway towns in search of suburban living, commuter towns may be in rural or semi-rural areas, with a ring of green space separating them from the larger city or town. Where urban sprawl and conurbation have erased clear lines among towns and cities in large metropolitan areas, commuter towns can arise for a number of different reasons. Sometimes, as in Sleepy Hollow, New York or Tiburon, California, in other cases, a pleasant small town, such as Warwick, New York, over time attracts more residents but not large businesses to employ them, requiring denizens to commute to employment centers. Another cause, particularly relevant in the American South and West, is the growth of once-small cities. Owing largely to the creation of the Interstate Highway System. As a result, many cities were absorbed into the suburbs of these larger cities. Often, however, commuter towns form when workers in a region cannot afford to live where they work, the late 20th century dot-com bubble and United States housing bubble drove housing costs in Californian metropolitan areas to historic highs, spawning exurban growth in adjacent counties. For example, most cities in western Riverside County, California can be considered exurbs of Orange County, California and Los Angeles County, as of 2003, over 80% of the workforce of Tracy, California was employed in the San Francisco Bay Area. A related phenomenon is common in the towns of the American West that require large workforces, yet emphasize building larger single-family residences. In certain major European cites, such as Berlin and London, around London, several towns – such as Basildon, Crawley, Harlow, and Stevenage – were built for this purpose by the Commission for New Towns. In some cases, commuter towns can result from negative economic conditions, steubenville, Ohio, for instance, had its own regional identity along with neighboring Weirton, West Virginia until the collapse of the steel industry in the 1980s. In 2013, Jefferson County, Ohio was added to the Pittsburgh metropolitan area as part of its larger Combined Statistical Area, long-time residents may be displaced by new commuter residents due to rising house prices
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Digswell Viaduct
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The Digswell Viaduct, also called Welwyn Viaduct, is a railway viaduct that carries the East Coast Main Line over the River Mimram and is a locally important landmark. It is located between Welwyn Garden City and Digswell and it is just to the south of Welwyn North railway station. The viaduct is a Grade II* listed structure, the viaduct is around 1,560 feet long and comprises forty arches of 30 ft span, and is 100 ft high from ground level to trackbed. It was designed by William Cubitt and styled after a Roman aqueduct and it was officially opened by Queen Victoria on 6 August 1850, but she was so frightened of its height that she refused to travel across it. The train carrying her had to stop, upon which she left the train and she then re-entered the train at the other end of the viaduct and continued her journey. The viaduct carries the East Coast Main Line, which has to narrow from four tracks to two to cross the viaduct, making it a bottleneck restraining capacity over this strategic transport route. This problem is exacerbated by Welwyn North railway station situated at the end of the viaduct. Several ideas to overcome the limitations of the viaduct and station without damaging the viaducts essential historic character, the line was electrified in the 1970s
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Labour Party (UK)
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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Labour later served in the coalition from 1940 to 1945. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan. The Labour Party was last in government from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179. Having won 232 seats in the 2015 general election, the party is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the party also organises in Northern Ireland, but does not contest elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party, the first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the Southwark by-election of 1870. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party. In the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates, Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardies roots as a lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, the meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations—trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates. This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and it had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 Khaki election came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively, only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful, Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, the judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. In their first meeting after the election the groups Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name The Labour Party formally, the Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, the Peoples History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries. Also within the museum is the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, the governing Liberals were unwilling to repeal this judicial decision with primary legislation
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Liberal Democrats (UK)
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The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1988 as a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, at the 2015 general election, the party was reduced to eight MPs. Nick Clegg resigned as leader and Tim Farron won the subsequent leadership election, the party currently has nine MPs, following the Richmond Park by-election. The Alliance was led by David Steel and Roy Jenkins, Jenkins was replaced by David Owen, the two parties had their own policies and emphases, but produced a joint manifesto for the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following disappointing results in the 1987 election, Steel proposed to merge the two parties, although opposed by Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of both parties, and they formally merged in March 1988, with Steel and Robert Maclennan as joint interim leaders. The new party was initially named Social and Liberal Democrats with the short form The Democrats being used from September 1988. The name was changed to Liberal Democrats in October 1989. The new party logo, the Bird of Liberty, was adopted in 1989, the party is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and Liberal International. The then-serving Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown was elected leader in July 1988, at the 1989 European Elections, the party received only 6% of the vote, putting them in fourth place after the Green Party. They failed to gain a single Member of the European Parliament at this election, over the next three years, the party recovered under Ashdowns leadership. They performed better at the 1990 local elections and in by-elections—including at Eastbourne in 1990, Ribble Valley in 1991, the Lib Dems did not reach the share of national votes in the 1990s that the Alliance had achieved in the 1980s. At their first election in 1992, they won 17. 8% of the vote, in the 1994 European Elections, the party gained its first two Members of European Parliament. The election was, however, something of a point for the Liberal Democrats. Ashdown retired as leader in 1999 and the party elected Charles Kennedy as his replacement, the party improved on their 1997 results at the 2001 general election, increasing their number of seats to 52 and their share of the vote to 18. 3%. The party won seats from Labour in by-elections in Brent East in 2003 and Leicester South in 2004, under Kennedys leadership the majority of Pro-Euro Conservatives, a group of former members of the Conservatives, joined the Liberal Democrats on 10 December 2001. At the 2005 general election, the Lib Dems gained their highest share of the vote since the SDP–Liberal Alliance and won 62 seats. Many had anticipated that this election would be the Lib Dems breakthrough at Westminster, party activists hoped to better the 25% support of the 1983 election, or to reach 100 MPs. Much of the apparent lack of success resulted from the first-past-the-post electoral system, controversy became associated with the campaign when it became known that Michael Brown had donated £2.4 million to the Liberal Democrats
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Northaw and Cuffley
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Northaw and Cuffley is a civil parish in the Welwyn Hatfield borough of Hertfordshire, England. Located approximately 13.5 miles north of central London and adjacent to the Greater London boundary, Northaw and Cuffley is a recent renaming of the ancient parish of Northaw, covering the settlements of Northaw and Cuffley. The local council is Northaw and Cuffley Parish Council, Northaw was an ancient parish in the Cashio Hundred of the county of Hertfordshire. It formed part of the Hatfield Rural District from 1894, when the council was created. The Hatfield Rural District was abolished in 1974 and the become part of the Welwyn Hatfield district. The parish was renamed Northaw and Cuffley in 1982, in 1994 there was a change to the boundary with Greater London when some land was gained from the London Borough of Enfield and the boundary became aligned to the M25 motorway. The parish was removed from the Metropolitan Police District in 2000, following a successful petition by the district council, in 2005 Welwyn Hatfield became a borough and the district council became a borough council. The local council is Northaw and Cuffley Parish Council, the parish council offices are located on Maynard Place, Cuffley. Eight councillors are elected to the council, Northaw and Cuffley is a ward of the borough of Welwyn Hatfield and elects three councillors to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. For elections to Hertfordshire County Council, the parish is within the Hatfield Rural county division, for elections to the European Parliament it is part of the East of England constituency. Although the rest of Welwyn Hatfield forms a constituency for elections to the UK Parliament, Northaw, the civil parish is located approximately 13.5 miles north of central London and is adjacent to the Greater London boundary to the south. It is within the Metropolitan Green Belt and has sections of protected open land. The parish includes the settlements of Northaw and Cuffley, for postal addresses, the parish is within the EN6 postcode district of the Potters Bar post town. The parish had a population of 5,190 according to the 2001 census, media related to Northaw and Cuffley at Wikimedia Commons
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Broxbourne (UK Parliament constituency)
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Broxbourne is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Charles Walker of the Conservative Party. 1983-1997, The Borough of Broxbourne, the District of East Hertfordshire wards of Great Amwell, Little Amwell, and Stanstead, 1997–present, The Borough of Broxbourne, and the District of Welwyn Hatfield ward of Northaw. The constituency was created in 1983 from the seat of East Hertfordshire. Broxbourne is, on the winning candidates share of the vote, list of Parliamentary constituencies in Hertfordshire Notes References nomis Constituency Profile for Broxbourne — presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics
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Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk
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Borough of Broxbourne
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The Borough of Broxbourne is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Cheshunt, other towns include Broxbourne, Hoddesdon, the eastern boundary of the district is the River Lea. The borough covers 20 square miles in south east Hertfordshire having a population of about 96,000, the borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Cheshunt and Hoddesdon urban districts. In Broxbourne borough, the Metropolitan Green Belt protects the surrounding countryside, the west of Broxbourne borough extends over well-wooded countryside to include Goffs Oak and the popular Lee Valley Park which marks the eastern boundary. Although urbanised with industrial and commercial activity, the area retains much of its rural character and is liked by people commuting to London. Most of Broxbourne is classified as part of the Greater London Urban Area, the borough is twinned with the Sicilian city of Sutera. There are 600 companies in the borough, with warehousing and distribution sectors being particularly well represented, the main industrial areas are around Waltham Cross and the Essex Road area of Hoddesdon. Employing 200 people on a 23-acre site to produce 86,000 newspapers per hour on each of its printing presses. Broxbourne Council Broxbourne population change through time
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Dacorum
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The Borough of Dacorum is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and the western part of Kings Langley. The district, which was formed in 1974, had a population of 137,799 in 2001 and its name was taken from the old hundred of Dacorum which covered approximately the same area. The name Dacorum comes from Latin and it means hundred of the Dacians, the latter word was used mistakenly in the Middle Ages for Danes. This happened because of a legend asserting that certain tribes from Dacia had migrated to Denmark. The hundred of Dacorum was first recorded in 1196, although it has existed since the 9th and 10th centuries, in 1086, the Domesday Book records the hundreds of Tring and Danais in places that became parts of the hundred of Dacorum. In 1974, the district of Dacorum was formed under the Local Government Act 1972. The district was granted borough status in 1984, Hemel Hempstead had maintained Charter Trustees from 1974 to 1984. The amalgamation of the local authorities was symbolised in the seven oak leaves which surround a tudor rose on the Dacorum coat of arms. The borough is parished, apart from Hemel Hempstead. Dacorum Borough Council consists of 51 elected members, representing twenty-five electoral wards,14 of the wards elect two councillors each. Six, indicated below, elect three councillors each, five, also shown below, elect one each. The council is controlled by the Conservatives, who hold 46 of the 51 seats. The Liberal Democrats hold 3, and Labour hold 2, wards electing three members are denoted with an asterisk. Those electing one member are denoted with an obelus, primary schools in Dacorum The Dacorum Heritage Trust The Trust is the museum organisation for the Borough of Dacorum. Dacorum Borough Council - official website Dacorum Emergency Night Shelter - Night Shelter, Day Centre, Foodbank, Rent Aid, warehouse
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East Hertfordshire
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East Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council has offices in Bishops Stortford and Hertford, the other main towns in the district are Ware, Buntingford, and Sawbridgeworth. Of these five towns, all except Buntingford fall within the parliamentary constituency of Hertford and Stortford. Buntingford is part of the North East Hertfordshire constituency, East Herts, as its council is officially known, is bordered by North Hertfordshire, Stevenage, Welwyn Hatfield, and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, and by Epping Forest, Harlow, and Uttlesford in Essex. By area it is the largest of the ten local government districts in Hertfordshire, in the 2006 edition of the Channel 4 Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK, East Hertfordshire was rated the seventh best district to live in. In 2012 Halifax voted East Herts the 9th best place to live, the district contains only one motorway - a small stretch of the M11 at Bishops Stortford. The major roads within the district include, A10 - from London to Cambridge, enters after Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, a414 - from Welwyn to Harlow, through Hertford, where it forms the Hertford by-pass. A602 -, connecting at A10 at Ware with the A1 at Stevenage, a120 - connecting the A10 at Standon with the M11 at Bishops Stortford. None of the roads are classified as trunk roads. Therefore, they are maintained by Hertfordshire County Council while responsibility for the M11 rests with the Highways Agency, stansted Airport is just beyond the edge of the district near Bishops Stortford, but officially sits within Uttlesford district in neighbouring Essex. Many of the towns have rail services into London at Kings Cross, Moorgate. The districts biggest employer is the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, which has a research, the company also has large offices in neighbouring Stevenage and Harlow. See List of civil parishes in Hertfordshire
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Hertsmere
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Hertsmere is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Borehamwood, other towns in the borough include Bushey, Elstree, Radlett and Potters Bar. The name Hertsmere was invented for the new district by combining the common abbreviation of Hertfordshire with mere, the name is reflected in the councils coat of arms, which shows a hart upon the battlements of a boundary wall. The district was awarded borough status by Royal Charter in 1977, the borough was originally in the Metropolitan Police District, despite being outside the modern Greater London boundaries. It was transferred to Hertfordshire Constabulary in 2000, Hertsmere is the location of Elstree Studios, which produces such shows as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Dancing on Ice, and is the location for the Big Brother house. Hertsmere is also the location for BBC Elstree, the site of EastEnders, the area was also home to other TV and film studios, including MGM, until this was demolished for residential development, and is now an area called Studio Way. In the 2011 census, Hertsmere polled as the second most Jewish local authority in England, the borough council currently consists of 39 elected councillors, with a third being elected at each election. As of the 2014 election there are 34 Conservative and 5 Labour councillors, until 1983 the borough was included in the parliamentary constituency of Hertfordshire South. In 1983 the constituency was renamed Hertsmere, Hertsmere had been represented in Parliament by Conservative, James Clappison since 1992. He succeeded Cecil Parkinson who had been Member of Parliament for the area since 1974 and it is now represented by the Conservative, Oliver Dowden. The areas of the former Bushey and Potters Bar urban districts are unparished
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St Albans City and District
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St Albans City and District is a local authority district in Hertfordshire in the East of England region. The main urban settlements are St Albans and Harpenden, the council offices are in St Albans. The municipal borough had had city status since 1877 and it was granted to the district by letters patent on 9 July 1974. The largest urban settlement is St Albans, followed in size by Harpenden, with settlements at Redbourn, Wheathamstead, London Colney, Chiswell Green. The M1 motorway, the M25 motorway, the A414 road, there are rail routes to London St Pancras from St Albans City railway station and to Watford from St Albans Abbey railway station. Local government responsibilities are divided among Hertfordshire County Council, St Albans City and District Council, Hertfordshire County Council is responsible for education, transport, fire and public safety, social care and libraries. Parish council responsibilities include allotments, youth projects, leisure facilities, open spaces, traffic calming, the main offices of St Albans City and District Council are in St Albans. There are 58 elected councillors, representing twenty electoral wards,18 wards elect three councillors each, two elect two each. There is currently no overall control of the council by any political party and its present composition is, Conservative -30, Liberal Democrats -16, Labour -8, Green Party -1, Independent -3. The party group leaders are, Conservatives – Cllr Julian Daly, Liberal Democrats – Cllr Chris White, Labour – Cllr Roma Mills, Independent, the wards electing two members are denoted with an obelisk. Elections to the council are held in three out of four years, with one third of seats on the council being elected at each election. Since the first election in 1973, the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats have had periods in control, the Conservatives had a majority from 1973 to 1984, and then again from 1998 to 1991 after a period of no overall control. The Liberal Democrats won control in 1994 but lost their majority in 1999 and they had control from 2006 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2011. In the 2011 election the Conservatives took half the seats, with 29 councillors, St Albans has had a Mayor for over 450 years since the Charter of 1553. Under modern arrangements, there is an Executive Cabinet of eight senior councillors, a list of past Mayors is available on the St Albans City and District Council website. There are parish councils in Colney Heath, Harpenden, Harpenden Rural, London Colney, Redbourn, St Michael, St Stephen, Sandridge, the town of St Albans is unparished but local affairs are overseen by a City Neighbourhoods Committee. The City and District of St Albans has a local economy, is an excellent location for rail, road and airports. The District also benefits from the proximity of the University of Hertfordshire, based close by at Hatfield, St Albans has a highly skilled workforce, with the 4th highest proportion of managers, senior officials and professional occupations in the country
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Stevenage
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Stevenage /ˈstiːvənᵻdʒ/ is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated to the east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1, Stevenage is roughly 32.9 miles north of central London. Its population has increased significantly over the last century, the population was 1,430 in 1801,4,049 in 1901,79,715 in 2001 and 83,957 in 2011. The largest increase occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, after Stevenage was designated a new town under the New Towns Act of 1946, the current population is now estimated to be around 84,000. Two films were set in and around Stevenage, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, spy Game was partly filmed in Stevenage but set in Washington, D. C. The 1959 film Serious Charge was also filmed in Stevenage, Stevenage may derive from Old English stiþen āc / stiðen āc / stithen ac meaning the stiff oak. The name was recorded as Stithenæce, c.1060 and Stigenace in 1086 in the Domesday Book, Stevenage lies near the line of the Roman road from Verulamium to Baldock. Some Romano-British remains were discovered during the building of the New Town, the most substantial evidence of activity from Roman times is Six Hills, six tumuli by the side of the old Great North Road – presumably the burial places of a local family. A little to the east of the Roman sites the first Saxon camp was made in a clearing in the woods where the church, manor house, settlements also sprang up in Chells, Broadwater and Shephall. In the Domesday Book the Lord of the Manor was the Abbot of Westminster Abbey, the settlement had moved down to the Great North Road and in 1281 it was granted a Royal Charter to hold a weekly market and annual fair. The earliest part of St Nicholas Church dates from the 12th century, the known list of priests or rectors is relatively complete from 1213. The remains of a moated homestead in Whomerley Wood is an 80-yard-square trench almost 5 feet wide in parts. It was probably the home of Ralph de Homle, and both Roman and later pottery has been found there, around 1500 the Church was much improved, with decorative woodwork and the addition of a clerestory. In 1558 Thomas Alleyne, a rector of the town, founded a grammar school for boys, Alleynes Grammar School. Francis Cammaerts was headmaster of the school from 1952 to 1961, the school, which was a mixed comprehensive school and is now an Academy as of 2013, still exists on its original site at the north end of the High Street. It was intended to move the school to Great Ashby, Stevenages prosperity came in part from the North Road, which was turnpiked in the early 18th century. Many inns in the High Street served the stage coaches,21 of which passed through Stevenage each day in 1800, in 1857 the Great Northern Railway was constructed, and the era of the stage coach had ended. Stevenage grew only slowly throughout the 19th century and a church was constructed at the south end of the High Street
