Association of British Counties

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ABC map of counties, based approximately on "reputed boundaries" from first edition Ordnance Survey maps

The Association of British Counties (ABC) is one of a small number of outsider pressure groups in the United Kingdom dedicated to promoting the traditional counties of Britain. Its current president is the astrologer Russell Grant. The chairman of the Association is Peter Boyce.

The significance of ABC is hard to ascertain, there being no data on membership published on its website, and no evidence of widespread coverage in the British news media.

No mainstream political parties have a current manifesto commitment to support the group or adopt its cause. The United Kingdom Independence Party has said it would "dismantle regional government and return powers to traditional county and borough councils" in its local-issues manifesto [link], but the national manifesto does not mention the word "traditional" so this might be a reference to administrative, not geographic, counties^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}. ABC has declared that it does not want further local government reorganisation [link]. Instead it would rather see an official distinction made between current administrative units known as counties, and those areas known as counties prior to the Local Government Reforms of 1974, which it claims still have an informal, non-administrative existence .

The "traditional counties movement" as a whole does claim some successes. These include the restoration of traditional counties such as Herefordshire and Rutland to local government and ceremonial status, and the abolition of unpopular administrative counties such as Avon, Cleveland and Humberside. However, there is no evidence of ABC's role in these.

Contents

1 Claims
2 Other policies
3 Successes
4 See also
5 References
6 External link

Claims

ABC claims that the traditional counties are an important part of Britain's cultural heritage and as such should be preserved and promoted. To this end it has produced a postal directory putting British place names in the corresponding traditional county with respect to the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, in addition to cross-referencing this with various other administrative areas, noting alternatives where the correct county is debatable and providing detailed discussion of these instances where they occur. The boundaries and designations of counties have changed a number of times in British history, so the designation of the asserted boundaries as "historic" or "traditional" is itself contentious. For example, the historic county of Fife, in Scotland, might more justifiably be characterised as the historic Kingdom of Fife.

It also seeks to bring about an official change in government terminology to bring it in line with its interpretation of the Local Government Act 1888 — the original piece of legislation which created the modern administrative counties of England and Wales, though there have since been several further changes. The Act specifically called them "administrative counties", and the ABC wishes to see this terminology consistently used to describe them. Also it wishes to see the term 'county' stripped from the unitary authorities that use it, a measure which it claims will remove what it sees as confusion resulted from the status of various entities termed counties since 1889. In particular, ABC uses scare quotes around the word 'county' when not referring to the traditional counties.

Other policies

Other policies include:

Compelling the Ordnance Survey to mark the county borders it espouses on their maps
Lobbying for the erection of boundary signs at these boundaries
Making the ceremonial counties match the historic ones
That the English regions should be redefined in to order ensure that counties 'be brought wholly within one region or another'

The last point would mean various local authorities would need to be changed, a change for which there is no evidence of current political will. Currently the border between the London region and the South-East and East regions straddles numerous former county borders - so these regions would probably need to be merged. Some areas not part of Yorkshire and the Humber would be moved to a different local authority in order that they could be part of this region, as region boundaries never split authorities. Also North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire would become part of the East Midlands Region, where the administrative county of Lincolnshire is located. This policy is mainly designed to safeguard the local attachment and identification with the historic counties, should England be split in regional assemblies. Otherwise, the ABC fears ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}, having a single historic county falling within more than one region could have an adverse effect on people's cultural ties to their home county . This point is debatable since the British population is quite mobile and also includes a number of ethnic and social sub-groups, so cultural identification with counties is not universal, although there is evidence of county identification in natives of counties with long-standing rivalries such as Yorkshire and Lancashire.

However, it also states on its FAQ:

Q. Does ABC seek further local government reorganisation ?

A. No, but we do wish to see reforms to certain parts of local government terminology.

Successes

Successes for the "traditional counties movement" are claimed to include:

Successfully lobbying the Royal Mail to have traditional counties included in the Postcode Address File's Alias record, which now gives the ability to determine the traditional county for any UK postcode.
The erection of signs marking the traditional boundary between Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire on the A59. [link]

Two minor political parties, the English Democrats Party and the UK Independence Party, have in the past included measures apparently supportive of the traditional counties movement in their local or national manifestos, but neither party has a current manifesto commitment as of March 2006. A third party, the recently formed Popular Alliance, does have current manifesto commitments supportive of the movement.

The role of ABC in achieving these is not known.

References

Local Government Act 1888

External link

[ABC web site]

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