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City of Sunderland

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City of Sunderland
Sunderland
Geography
Status: Metropolian Borough, City (1992)
Region: North East England
Ceremonial county: Tyne and Wear
Traditional county: County Durham
Area:
- Total 		Ranked 219th
137.46 km²
Admin. HQ: Sunderland
ONS code: 00CM
Demographics
Population:
- Total (2004 est.)
- Density 		Ranked {{English district rank

/ km²
Ethnicity: 98.1% White
1.0% S.Asian
Politics
200px
City of Sunderland Council
http://www.sunderland.gov.uk
Leadership: Leader & Cabinet
Executive:
MPs: Bill Etherington, Sharon Hodgson, Fraser Kemp, Chris Mullin
The City of Sunderland is in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear in North East England. The district had a population of 280,807 at the 2001 census. [link] The people of Sunderland are known as Mackems.

The city is unparished, except for Hetton-le-Hole which is a civil parish, and which has a town council.

Contents

History

The metropolitan borough was formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 by the merger of several districts of County Durham - Washington Urban District, Houghton-le-Spring Urban District and Hetton Urban District - with the County Borough of Sunderland. In population and area it is the biggest citybetween Leeds and Edinburgh.

The metropolitan borough was granted city status in 1992, the 40th anniversary of the Queen's accession. At the Queen's Golden Jubilee the city petitioned to be allowed a Lord Mayor, but was unsuccessful. Although the city does not have a Cathedral, as it is located in the diocese of Durham, it does have a Minster.

HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy's biggest warship, is Sunderland's adopted ship. In March 2004 it was granted the freedom of the City. St Benedict Biscop was adopted as the City's Patron Saint in March 2004.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Sunderland at current basic prices [published] (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
Year
1995 2,582 4 1,094 1,483
2000 3,116 4 1,281 1,832
2003 3,769 4 1,328 2,437

Note 1: includes hunting and forestry

Note 2: includes energy and construction

Note 3: includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Note 4: Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Twinning

Sunderland's twin towns are:

City government

Boundary review 2004

Like all metropolitan authorities, the city is divided into a number of wards or electoral districts. Each has three councillors elected for a four-year term. One third of councillors face re-election each year, and no city elections are held in the fourth year of the election cycle - this was when each ward's sole metropolitan county councillor was elected, prior to the county council's abolition in 1986.

The City has 25 such wards. When the boundaries of these wards were set in 1982, each ward had a roughly equal population. By 2004 there had been a considerable shift in population. In particular, the east and south east – the old parish of Sunderland and the mining village of Ryhope – had lost population to the "New Town" of Washington. As a result the boundaries were redrawn; Sunderland lost one ward and Washington gained one. Elections for all 75 councillors were held on 10 June 2004.

Functions

The Local Government Act 1972 created two different two-tier systems for local administration, with different division of functions. As a metropolitan authority, Sunderland retained responsibility for waste collection, although disposal of the garbage was a county function, and for education. In 1986, when Tyne and Wear Metropolitan County Council was abolished, most county functions became the responsibility of the constituent districts, whilst new joint boards assumed the co-ordinating roles in the county. Thus control over economic development, of the Museums and Archive Service, of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Civil Defence Authority and of the Passenger Transport Authority is exercised not by committees of directly elected county councillors but by nominees chosen by the elected members of the five district authorities.

Sunderland has not had a separate police force since 1967, when the Borough of Sunderland Police merged with Durham Constabulary. The City is now part of the Northumbria Police Force area. This force was set up in 1974, and covers the whole of Tyne and Wear plus the much larger but much less densely populated county of Northumberland.

Political Structure

The City has had a Labour controlled council since 1974, and often before that. After the elections of May 2003 the political structure was 63 Labour, 9 Conservative, and 1 independent. The only Liberal Party councillor sat with the only Liberal Democrat as a "Liberal/Democrat" group. Three Councillors resigned from the Labour Party following disputes over the selection of candidates for the 2004 elections. Two became independent members; one joined the Liberal Democrat party, becoming group leader after the 2004 municipal elections.

The reorganisation of electoral areas saw major changes in all but two wards, but the elections of 10 June 2004, the first fought under the new boundaries, saw little change in the political representation of the City as a whole, with 61 Labour, 12 Conservative, and 2 Liberal Democrat councillors elected.

The Conservative party won all three seats in a new ward whose boundaries spanned several old wards. The Liberal Democrats stronghold ward was abolished entirely, and became part of four new wards, and the Liberal Democrat councillors elected in 2004 were from two very different areas.

Parliamentary Constituencies

There are three constituencies wholly within the city, and one constituency partially in Sunderland and partially in Gateshead:

The Boundary Commission for England has proposed reducing the number of MPs in Tyne and Wear by one. It is therefore recommending substantial boundary changes, creating Sunderland Central, Sunderland North & Washington and Sunderland South & Houghton seats. This would concentrate the city's Conservative support into a single Parliamentary seat, Sunderland Central, making it a marginal constituency by some estimates, including that of Sunderland South MP Chris Mullin. Under these changes, all of Washington would be included in the Sunderland North & Washington seat, rather than being shared with Gateshead as the Gateshead East and Washington West constituency.

The whole City of Sunderland is within the North East England European Parliamentary constituency.

Education

See also

External links

News

Education

Sunderland Regeneration

Local Information

Local Interest

Culture and Heritage

Photographs

Travel Links


Districts of North East England

Alnwick - Berwick-upon-Tweed - Blyth Valley - Castle Morpeth - Chester-le-Street - Darlington - Derwentside - Durham - Easington - Gateshead - Hartlepool - Middlesbrough - Newcastle upon Tyne - North Tyneside - Redcar and Cleveland - Sedgefield - South Tyneside - Stockton-on-Tees - Sunderland - Teesdale - Tynedale - Wansbeck - Wear Valley

Counties with multiple districts: County Durham - Northumberland - Tyne and Wear


 
Places with City status in England

Bath | Birmingham | Bradford | Brighton & Hove | Bristol | Cambridge | Canterbury | Carlisle | Chester | Chichester | Coventry | Derby | Durham | Ely | Exeter | Gloucester | Hereford | Kingston upon Hull | Lancaster | Leeds | Leicester | Lichfield | Lincoln | Liverpool | London (City of London and Westminster) | Manchester | Newcastle upon Tyne | Norwich | Nottingham | Oxford | Peterborough | Plymouth | Portsmouth | Preston | Ripon | Saint Albans | Salford | Salisbury | Sheffield | Southampton | Stoke-on-Trent | Sunderland | Truro | Wakefield | Wells | Winchester | Wolverhampton | Worcester | York

 

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