Metropolitan Borough of Solihull

The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands, in west-central England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG32) and is one of seven boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region. Much of the large residential population in the north of the borough centres on the communities of Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Fordbridge, Kingshurst, Marston Green and Smith's Wood. In the south are the towns of Solihull and Shirley.

Since 2011, Solihull has formed part of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership along with neighbouring authorities Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Redditch, Tamworth and Wyre Forest.

History

Solihull probably derived its name from a 'miry or muddy' or soily hill. The parish church was built on a hill of stiff red marl, which turned to sticky mud in wet weather.

In 1894, Solihull (including the parishes of Shirley, Baddesley Clinton, Barston, Lapworth, Balsall, Bushwood, Elmdon, Knowle, Nuthurst, Packwood and Tanworth-in-Arden) was made into the Solihull Rural District in the county of Warwickshire. In 1932 some of its rural areas were taken away when the RDC was succeeded by Solihull Urban District Council. Expansion continued and Queen Elizabeth II granted a charter in 1954 making Solihull into a Municipal Borough; ten years later it was given the status of County Borough. Reorganisation of boundaries and council responsibilities in 1974 created the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull by the merger of the Solihull County Borough and most of the Meriden Rural District, which forms the main rural part of the borough and county. It included Balsall Common, Barston, Berkswell, Bickenhill, Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Elmdon, Fordbridge, Hampton in Arden, Hockley Heath, Kingshurst, Knowle, Marston Green, Meriden, Olton, Smiths Wood, Solihull, Shirley and Temple Balsall.

In 1986 the Solihull borough effectively became a unitary authority when the West Midlands County Council was abolished. It remains part of the West Midlands for ceremonial purposes, and for functions such as policing, fire and public transport. There is some support to return the borough to Warwickshire for ceremonial purposes, as was the case when the County of Avon was abolished and Bath was returned to Somerset.

Geography

The borough is bordered by the M6 and the M40 and split by the M42 which divides the urban centre of the borough from the rural south and east. The borough’s transport links have led to a number of established large businesses being based in the borough, such as Land Rover, the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham Airport. A short automatic light transport system links the airport to the nearby Birmingham International railway station. Around three quarters of the borough is greenbelt and a large proportion of that is worked farmland. The borough shares its boundaries with Birmingham to the west and north, Coventry to the east, Warwickshire to both the north and south and Worcestershire to the south west. The borough contains a sizeable rural area known as the Meriden Gap (after the village of Meriden) which serves as a green belt separating the Birmingham conurbation from the city of Coventry.

Council

Year	Conservative	Liberal Democrat	Labour	Green	Independent	UKIP
2015	32	6	1	9	1	2

Coat of arms

The constituent parts of the borough's coat of arms are:

Battlements, sickles and an oak tree with golden acorns, which represent the rural and agricultural nature of the Forest of Arden.
The Black Griffin is taken from the arms of the Earls of Aylesford, who are associated with Meriden.
The Silver Fleur-de-lys comes from the Digby family, who were associated with Fordbridge.
The Black Greyhound is taken from the arms of the Greswolds, the family who built the 15th century house called the Manor House in the High Street, Solihull.

A stylised version of the coat of arms can be seen on the top left of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council's website pages, and the official, heraldic version appears on a dedicated page on the same site - external links below.

Economy

Solihull is regarded as having one of the strongest subregional economies in the West Midlands, with a significantly higher nominal GVA per capita and Silhillians enjoying considerably higher disposable income rates than both regional and UK averages.^[2]^[3]

Analysis also shows Solihull as having the lowest (and fastest falling) claimant count for Jobseeker's Allowance in the region.^[4]

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Solihull at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added⁴	Agriculture¹	Industry²	Services³
1995	1,929	12	496	1,421
2000	2,959	8	870	2,082
2003	4,023	8	1,121	2,893

^1 includes hunting and forestry

^2 includes energy and construction

^3 includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

^4 Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Settlements in Solihull

See also List of areas in Solihull

Localities in the borough include:

Balsall, Balsall Common, Barston, Bentley Heath, Berkswell, Bickenhill, Blossomfield
Castle Bromwich, Catherine-de-Barnes, Chadwick End, Chelmsley Wood, Cheswick Green, Coleshill Heath, Copt Heath
Dickens Heath, Dorridge
Elmdon, Elmdon Heath
Fordbridge
Hampton-in-Arden, Hockley Heath
Kingshurst, Knowle
Lyndon
Marston Green, Meriden, Monkspath Street
Olton
Packwood
Sharmans Cross, Shirley, Silhill, Smith's Wood, Solihull
Temple Balsall, Tidbury Green
Whitlock's End

Notable people

Michael Buerk - BBC news presenter and journalist was born and educated in Solihull.
Jasper Carrott - Born and lived in the Solihull Area with his daughter Lucy Davis
Richard Hammond - Top Gear presenter and radio presenter was born in Solihull.
Martin Johnson - Rugby World Cup- winning England team captain and later their manager was born in Solihull.
John Wyndham - Science fiction author (The Day of the Triffids) was born in Dorridge in the Solihull area.

There is a longer list in the article for Solihull town.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Metropolitan Borough of Solihull.

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
The official tourism website for the Solihull Borough
Solihull's coat of arms
Solihull Observer, the local Solihull newspaper

Ceremonial county of West Midlands

Metropolitan districts	City of Birmingham City of Coventry City of Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough of Dudley Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough of Solihull Metropolitan Borough of Walsall

Major settlements	Aldridge Bilston Birmingham Blackheath Bloxwich Brierley Hill Brownhills Coventry Cradley Heath Darlaston Dudley Fordbridge Halesowen Oldbury Rowley Regis Smethwick Solihull Stourbridge Sutton Coldfield Tipton Walsall Wednesbury West Bromwich Willenhall Wolverhampton See also: West Midlands

Rivers	River Blythe River Cole River Penk River Rea Smestow Brook River Sherbourne River Sow River Sowe River Stour River Tame

Canals	Birmingham Canal Navigations Shropshire Union Canal Staffordshire & Worcestershire Worcester & Birmingham

Topics	Places Parliamentary constituencies SSSIs Country houses Grade I listed buildings Grade II* listed buildings Conservation areas History Lord Lieutenants High Sheriffs Museums Black Country Birmingham Airport Centro Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area West Midlands conurbation West Midlands Combined Authority

Districts of the West Midlands Region

Herefordshire	Herefordshire

Shropshire	Shropshire Telford and Wrekin

Staffordshire	Cannock Chase East Staffordshire Lichfield Newcastle-under-Lyme South Staffordshire Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stoke-on-Trent Tamworth

Warwickshire	North Warwickshire Nuneaton and Bedworth Rugby Stratford-on-Avon Warwick

West Midlands	Birmingham Coventry Dudley Sandwell Solihull Walsall Wolverhampton

Worcestershire	Bromsgrove Malvern Hills Redditch Worcester Wychavon Wyre Forest

Metropolitan districts of England

Districts	Barnsley Birmingham Bolton Bradford Bury Calderdale Coventry Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Kirklees Knowsley Leeds Liverpool Manchester Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale Rotherham Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside St Helens Stockport Sunderland Tameside Trafford Wakefield Walsall Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton

Councils	Barnsley Birmingham Bolton Bradford Bury Calderdale Coventry Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Kirklees Knowsley Leeds Liverpool Manchester Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale Rotherham Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside St Helens Stockport Sunderland Tameside Trafford Wakefield Walsall Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton

Local elections	Barnsley Birmingham Bolton Bradford Bury Calderdale Coventry Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Kirklees Knowsley Leeds Liverpool Manchester Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale Rotherham Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside St Helens Stockport Sunderland Tameside Trafford Wakefield Walsall Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton

Coordinates: 52°24′32″N 1°46′51″W / 52.40880°N 1.78092°W / 52.40880; -1.78092

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, March 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.