By George! England's traditional counties can return to English roads

[-:Undertaker:-]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/b...englands-roads

By George! England's traditional counties can return to English roads

Eric Pickles (far on the right) holding the flag of Lancashire.

To mark St George’s Day, Eric Pickles today (23 April 2014) announced a new initiative to support the ‘tapestry’ of traditional English counties, including getting rid of a Whitehall ban on the names of traditional counties being displayed on street and road signs. The government is also publishing a new online interactive map of England’s county boundaries.

England’s traditional counties date back over a thousand years of English history, but many of the counties have been sidelined by Whitehall and municipal bureaucrats in recent decades, including the municipal restructuring by Edward Heath’s government in 1972. By contrast, this government is championing local communities continuing to cherish and celebrate such traditional ties and community spirit.

Mr Pickles announced today that planning rules have been changed to allow for councils to put up boundary signs marking traditional English counties – including the likes of Cumberland, Huntingdonshire, Westmorland and Middlesex.

In addition, the government is shortly to propose changes to highways regulations to allow traditional county names to appear on boundary road signs. The current rules prevent unitary councils like Blackpool from having a road sign saying ‘Lancashire’, or Poole saying ‘Dorset’ – since they confusingly are not considered to be part of an ‘administrative county’.

No council is being forced to make any change or put up unnecessary street clutter, but the intention is to free councils from Whitehall red tape, support local tourism and to cherish local ties and traditions. Local communities will be able to lobby their councils for the restoration of traditional boundary signs, including campaigns by public subscription.

This is part of a series of steps to champion England’s national identities; the government has previously changed Whitehall rules to allow local and county flags to be flown without planning permission, and supported the Flag Institute in encouraging a new wave of county and community flags to be designed and flown by local communities.

Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said:

"The tapestry of England’s counties binds our nation together, and is interwoven with our cultural fabric – from our cricket to our ales. Previous governments have tried to wipe the counties off the map, imposing bland administrative structures or alien euro-regions.

But I believe we are stronger as a nation when we cherish and champion our local and traditional ties. This government is proud to wave the flag of St George alongside both our county flags. Whatever one’s class, colour or creed, we should have pride in our English identities within the United Kingdom’s Union that binds us together."

Russell Grant, television personality and founder of the Association of British Counties, added:

"This is great news for counties like my own, Middlesex. We lost our county council in 1965, but our county continues to exist. Some London boroughs like Hounslow have actively supported Middlesex signs on their boundaries, and Brentford Chamber of Commerce are keen to proclaim the town as the historic county town of Middlesex. These common sense changes will give local councils and communities the confidence to promote historic local heritage and identity."

A small step in the right direction although I would like to see the pre-Edward Heath 1972 changes to local government in England reversed one day and the proper English boundaries restored to their rightful place as well as local government made local again. I will never accept, as somebody from Liverpool, that I live in an invented place called 'Merseyside', I live in Lancashire... And why? I place much more value of a thousand years of history over that traitor Heath and recent awful governments. The same applies to the EU regions they've tried imposing on us: 'North West', 'North East', 'South East' - hopefully when we've left the EU they'll also be consigned to the dustbin too.

It's time to reverse the damage that the native culture-haters have done over the last 50 years.

Thoughts?

[Chippiewill]

I dream of the day when we can abolish Norfolk of its evil modern name and restore it to it's Iceni glory days.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I dream of the day when we can abolish Norfolk of its evil modern name and restore it to it's Iceni glory days.

Yeah, that's real history as opposed to the loser of Edward Heath in the 1970s trying to centralise local government with invented counties. Thankfully though a lot of people agree with me hence why you'll often see letters to Liverpool still with 'Lancashire' underneath. It was a false change that the Heath government made, and thankfully people are refusing to adopt it fully.

Way to miss the point completely but there you have it.

[The Don]

Yeah, that's real history as opposed to the loser of Edward Heath in the 1970s trying to centralise local government with invented counties. Thankfully though a lot of people agree with me hence why you'll often see letters to Liverpool still with 'Lancashire' underneath. It was a false change that the Heath government made, and thankfully people are refusing to adopt it fully.

Way to miss the point completely but there you have it.

All countries are invented

[-:Undertaker:-]

All countries are invented

Most countries are not made up lines on a map. They are cultural, political and social frontiers. That's not invented.

Engage your brain next time before making such a thoughtless/silly comment, or you might just end up looking & sounding like John Lennon.

[The Don]

Most countries are not made up lines on a map. They are cultural, political and social frontiers. That's not invented.

Engage your brain next time before making such a thoughtless/silly comment, or you might just end up looking & sounding like John Lennon.

You're talking about culture now. All countries are invented, that is a fact. Not all countries have a long, historic past or strong culture, and I am not disputing that, but every single country has been invented by man. Is the United States not a country because it's only been around for less than 300 years?

[-:Undertaker:-]

You're talking about culture now. All countries are invented, that is a fact. Not all countries have a long, historic past or strong culture, and I am not disputing that, but every single country has been invented by man.

But a country is culture. A country is simply a political representation of a culture on the world stage.

You could argue that all things are essentially man-made (in that a country's borders are imaginary lines that can't be found geographically) but that doesn't remove the fact that it seperates different people and often isn't invented. Maybe i've just an issue with your use of invented as it simply reminds me of those fake countries that politicians created in the last century (see below).

Is the United States not a country because it's only been around for less than 300 years?

A country isn't always defined how long it's been around. Being around a long time though certainly helps.

Not all countries are countries though, some are false: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia etc.......

[GommeInc]

Is this a northern thing? Can't say I've noticed it or that it's a problem down south.

[Chippiewill]

A country isn't always defined how long it's been around.

Neither are counties.

[Kardan]

Is this a northern thing? Can't say I've noticed it or that it's a problem down south.

It must be, we don't have these issues in the midlands either.