| Humberside | |
|---|---|
 Humberside within England in 1974 | |
| Area | |
| • 1974 | 867,755 acres (3,511.68 km2)[1] |
| Population | |
| • 1973 | 847,230[2] |
| • 1981 | 843,280 |
| • 1991 | 858,040 |
| History | |
| • Origin | Humber Estuary and environs |
| • Created | 1974 |
| • Abolished | 1996 |
| • Succeeded by | |
| Status | Non-metropolitan county |
| ONS code | 27 |
| Government | Humberside County Council |
| • HQ | Beverley |
| • Motto | United we Flourish |
 Coat of arms of the county council | |
Humberside (/ˈhʌmbərsaɪd/) was anon-metropolitan andceremonial county inNorthern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of theHumber, created from portions of theEast Riding of Yorkshire,West Riding of Yorkshire, and the northern part ofLindsey, Lincolnshire. The county council's headquarters wasCounty Hall atBeverley, inherited fromEast Riding County Council. Its largest settlement and only city wasKingston upon Hull. Other notable towns includedGoole, Beverley,Scunthorpe,Grimsby,Cleethorpes andBridlington. The county stretched fromWold Newton at its northern tip to a differentWold Newton at its southernmost point.
Humberside borderedNorth Yorkshire to the north and west,South Yorkshire andNottinghamshire to the south-west, andLincolnshire to the south. It faced east towards theNorth Sea.
On 1 April 1996, Humberside was abolished, and replaced with four unitary authority areas:North Lincolnshire,North East Lincolnshire,Kingston upon Hull, andEast Riding of Yorkshire.[3] The name has continued in use as a geographical term, mainly in the media, and in the names of institutions such asHumberside Police andHumberside Fire and Rescue Service. These institutions did not change their names mainly due to costs. There were proposals to merge the police force with other Yorkshire forces and then change all the forces' names accordingly.[4] However, these proposals were later ruled out.[5]
Humber Enterprise Zone was launched in 2012 to encourage industrial development at 16 sites around the estuary.[6]
The name "Humberside" was very rarely used, as an informal name and a geographical term, for the area surrounding theHumber before the creation of theceremonial county.[7] However, by the mid-20th century the industrial development of both sides of the Humber Estuary was becoming increasingly integrated, and "Humberside" was being widely applied to the ports of Hull,Grimsby andGoole and their hinterland.[8] The use of the term to unify the two sides of the river was also driven by the desire of the local authorities in the area to promote the construction of asuspension bridge.[9]
Unlike "Merseyside", which was used colloquially, "Humberside" was adopted as an official term in 1964, when the planning region ofYorkshire and The Humber was created. It consisted of the majority of the formerEast Riding of Yorkshire and some eastern parts of the formerWest Riding of Yorkshire andParts of Lindsey fromLincolnshire.[10] From that time onwards "Humberside" was actively used to market the area.[11] In 1971 the newly launched localBBC radio station was namedRadio Humberside, but since the abolition of the county the broadcasters have referred to people of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.
The county was created under theLocal Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974. It covered the formercounty boroughs ofGrimsby andKingston upon Hull. From Lindsey it incorporated the boroughs ofCleethorpes andScunthorpe, the urban districts ofBarton-upon-Humber andBrigg, and therural districts ofGlanford Brigg,Grimsby and theIsle of Axholme. From the East Riding it took the boroughs ofBeverley,Bridlington andHedon, the urban districts ofDriffield,Haltemprice,Hornsea andWithernsea, and the rural districts ofBeverley,Bridlington (part),Driffield,Holderness,Howden andPocklington. From the West Riding it took both the borough ofGoole and the rural district ofGoole.[12]
TheRedcliffe-Maud Report that preceded the Local Government Act 1972 had not proposed any directly analogous area. Instead it proposed making the part north of the Humber one unitary authority, and the part south of it another. The White Paper that followed the Report did not include a cross-Humber authority either, having named the northern part "East Yorkshire" and kept the southern area in Lincolnshire. Humberside had emerged in the Local Government Bill as introduced to Parliament, which also gave it its name for the first time.[13]
Paul Bryan, the MP forHowden, moved an amendment to the Bill that would have created a county of East Yorkshire, covering the rural area of northern Humberside along withSelby andYork (and alsoFlaxton Rural District), leaving a Humberside including Haltemprice, Hull, Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Goole, while Cleethorpes andGrimsby Rural District would have been kept in Lincolnshire. The amendment was rejected by the House.[14]
At this time there was very little connecting its two parts, aside from ferries and a circuitous journey via Goole (a road journey from Grimsby to Beverley, the headquarters, being something just under 100 miles). It was promised by the government that theHumber Bridge would make it a more viable unit. By 1975 the bridge was planned to open in 1977.[15] The bridge was finally opened on 24 June 1981, providing a permanent link between North and South, and cutting the journey from Grimsby to Beverley to a mere 30 or so miles, but it did not secure Humberside's future.
Humberside was anon-metropolitan county governed byHumberside County Council and 9 non-metropolitan district councils. Elections to the county council took place every four years, with the first election taking place in 1973 and the final elections taking place in 1993.[16]
The county was divided into ninenon-metropolitan districts:
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Humberside County Council held a competition to design acoat of arms for the new county. The winning design was by a Mr E. H. Cook fromThorngumbald.Letters patent granting the arms were issued by theCollege of Arms on 28 July 1976.
The shield formed an heraldic map of the county. At the top was a gold ducal coronet from the arms of the city of Hull between two white Yorkshire roses, while at the bottom of the shield were two goldfleurs-de-lis representing Lincolnshire. Across the centre of the shield was a blue and silver wave for the River Humber.
The crest was a blue eagle, taken from the arms of the former East Riding County Council, risingphoenix-like from flames, suggesting a new authority emerging from the ashes of the old. The eagle's wings bore gold droplets standing forNorth Sea Oil and held in its beak a sword representing the Scunthorpe steel industry.
The supporters on either side were a silver dolphin bearing a terrestrial globe and supporting an anchor, representing worldwide trade; andCeres, goddess of harvests, for the county's agriculture. They stood upon a compartment depicting the countryside and coastline of Humberside.
The blazon (technical description) of the arms is:
Per fess Sable and Gules on a Fess wavy Argent between in chief a Coronet Or between two Roses Argent barbed and seeded proper and in base two Fleurs de Lis Or a Bar wavy Azure and for a Crest on a Wreath Or and Gules rising from Flames proper a demi-Eagle Azure Goutté d'Or armed also Gold holding in the beak a Sword point downwards proper hilt and pommel Or.
And for Supporters on the dexter a Dolphin Argent finned Or charged on the shoulder with a Terrestrial Globe Azure the land masses Or supporting an Anchor proper and on the sinister a Female Figure habited representing Ceres with Cornucopia all proper upon a Compartment per pale Water barry wavy Azure and Argent and a Grassy Field proper.[17]
Themotto wasUnited We Flourish.[18]
On the abolition of the county council in 1996 the arms became obsolete. However, theHumberside Fire and Rescue Service continues to use a version of the shield as its badge.[19]
Humberside was not well-loved: to quoteJames Cran, MP forBeverley, "almost the day after the decision was announced a campaign began to have Humberside abolished".[20] North Wolds Borough Council changed its name to East Yorkshire Borough Council and Beverley Borough Council formally included "East Yorkshire" in its name. According to Cran, there was a campaign in 1987 to get Humberside County Council to change its name to something like "East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire". The county's boundary signs, particularly in the East Riding of Yorkshire, continually suffered vandalism,[21][22] to the extent that Humberside County Council had boundary signs reading "Welcome to England's Newest County" removed in 1990 to deter vandals and save costs on producing replacement signs.[23]
This attitude was reported as less common in the port towns of the county. For example,The Times noted in 1974 that Hull and Grimsby "regard the advantages of unification as an exciting prospect".[24]
In 1982 theLocal Government Boundary Commission for England advised theSecretary of State for the Environment,Michael Heseltine, that "a review of the Humberside county boundary [was] warranted".[25] The Local Government Boundary Commission reviewed the existence of Humberside from 1985 to 1988, but found that "Humberside County Council could not be shown to have failed". In 1989 theSecretary of State for the Environment called for a further review, which resulted in a proposal made in November 1990 to transfer the four districts south of the Humber to the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire, which would have left the remaining part north of the Humber free to change its name to include "Yorkshire".[26] A report prepared for the Commission in 1990 indicated that 63 per cent of respondents thought that the creation of Humberside was "bad" and only 14 per cent thought that it was "good".[27]
However, before the proposal could be implemented, a generallocal government review for England was announced. This was conducted with an eye to creating unitary authorities, and Humberside was one of the areas that the commission was expecting "early wins" in, and was in the first tranche of reviews. The Commission recommended that the county and its districts be abolished and replaced with four unitary authorities, a proposal that the government accepted. The Order for abolition and replacement was debated in theHouse of Commons on 28 February 1995 and in theHouse of Lords on 6 March 1995, and it came into effect on 1 April 1996.[28]
There were questions raised as to whether the boundaries of Hull should be expanded, given that they had been set many decades before and never altered despite continuous urbanisation in the neighbouring area, the former urban district ofHaltemprice).
Michael Brown, the Conservative MP forBrigg and Cleethorpes, was particularly vociferous in support of the Order, saying in the debate regarding abolition: "I want to see the word 'Humberside' expunged from the English language".[29]
Few voices were heard in defence of Humberside.Elliot Morley, Labour MP forGlanford and Scunthorpe, claimed that "young people who were born in Humberside and have an affinity with Humberside identify with it," but he agreed that the council was a "flawed idea".
The abolition of the county thus resulted in four successorunitary authorities:
There was some debate as to the fate of Goole and the surrounding area, historically part of the West Riding. The Secretary of State,John Gummer, initially proposed that Goole should be "incorporated inSelby ofNorth Yorkshire",[30] but it was decided to associate it with the rest of North Humberside.
The offices ofLord Lieutenant of Humberside andHigh Sheriff of Humberside were also abolished. The Yorkshire part became theceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, which includes Hull, while the Lincolnshire part reverted to Lincolnshire for ceremonial purposes. The whole of the area once covered by the former non-metropolitan county of Humberside, including the Lincolnshire parts, is part of thegovernment office region ofYorkshire and the Humber (originally Yorkshire and Humberside).
TheRoyal Mail did not adopt Humberside as apostal county, instead dividing the area intoNorth Humberside andSouth Humberside for purposes of directing mail with effect from 1 July 1975.[31] Under the Royal Mail'sflexible addressing policy,[32] in force since 1996, users may add a county – not necessarily the (former) Postal County – to an address as long as the post town and postcode are included, but it is not required to include one. The policy allows for the use of either the "former postal", "traditional" or "administrative" county. ThePostcode Address File Code of Practice does not allow for changes in the former postal county.[33] In 2008 thePostal Services Commission (Postcomm) announced that it was holding a public consultation into the code. Accordingly, local council leaders andmembers of parliament asked that Postcomm recommend the deletion of North and South Humberside from postal databases. The recommendations were expected to be issued in late summer 2009[34] and a decision made by the end of the year.[35]in August 2013 local MPGraham Stuart brought the issue back to the fore when joint submissions and pleas from other MPs and councillors across the area for the term 'Humberside' to be dropped were made to PostComm. Graham Stuart stating "We are proud to live in the East Riding of Yorkshire, not Humberside.[36]
The campaign was stepped up on 22 November 2013 after MP Graham Stuart stated that the head of the newly privatised Royal Mail had refused to meet him to discuss the matter. A new sticker campaign was launched which encouraged people to return any mail which was incorrectly addressed.[37]
On 2 October 2014 the Royal Mail agreed to remove Humberside from its databases following residents continued protests taken up by Graham Stuart. Royal Mail's CEO Moya Greene stated "Royal Mail can confirm the technical change required to suppress the automatic reference to North and South Humberside as a Former Postal County on postcode address file products supplied to customers was implemented from July as part of a pilot scheme. "This now means no former postal county details will be shown for all postcodes previously tagged with a Humberside reference.[38]
Finally more than 18 years after the county was abolished 'Humberside' as a postal destination ceased to exist.
Despite the county's abolishment, the term "Humberside" has not fallen out of use as a geographic designation within some organisations. On 2 October 2014, following the Royal Mail's decision to remove Humberside from its address database, the BBC came under public pressure to remove the name from its website and its local radio station. Both the police and the fire service stated that the reason for not pursuing a name change was cost in the present economic environment.[39] There is still aHumberside Police (and aHumberside Police and Crime Commissioner), aHumberside Airport (roughly halfway betweenScunthorpe andGrimsby), aHumberside Fire Service, Humberside Scouts[40] andBBC Radio Humberside (founded in 1971).
The former Humberside county was also the basis for the Hull and Humber Ports City Region, an area whose economic development is supported by the Humber Economic Partnership (HEP), a sub-regional economic development partnership. This sub-region comprises the four districts of the former county of Humberside. The City Region has a population of 887,500, of whom 380,000 work in 30,000 businesses. It is one of eight city regions defined in the 2004 documentMoving Forward:The Northern Way, a collaboration between the three northernRegional Development Agencies which is a part of the 20 year governmentstrategy to grow theeconomy ofNorthern England.[41] The Hull and Humber Ports City Region Development Plan vision for the City region is of a global gateway with a thriving, outward-looking sustainable economy building on its unique assets of location, the estuary, ports connectivity, and physical environment.[42]
Humber Enterprise Zone, anenterprise zone initiated by Humber Local Enterprise Partnership, was announced by the government in 2011,[43] and launched in April 2012. It contains 16 sites around the Humber Estuary,[6] with a total area of 484 hectares (1,200 acres).[44] The zone has a focus on marine engineering and offshore, renewable energy, and was designed in two tiers. Four of the sites offer enhanced capital allowances, aimed at large manufacturers.[43] These sites areGreen Port Hull,Queen Elizabeth Dock,Paull andAble Marine Energy Park.[44] The remaining sites offer reduced business rates aimed at businesses in the supply chain of the larger manufacturers.[43] These include thePort of Grimsby.[6]
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