On Aug 7, 10:50*pm, wrote:

In article oWh7o.113034$Ds3.96847@hurricane, (Roy
Badami) wrote:

On 07/08/10 18:45, Roland Perry wrote:
The county has been optional for a long time.

Ok, Wikipedia tells me the county has been optional since 1996. *I
was sure the change was more recent than that, but apparently not.

I'm still curious as to in which places the county wasn't
traditionally written, even prior to 1996. *I'm guessing Nottingham
would be another example since "Nottingham, Notts." would be
somewhat odd, as you say.

1996 is a logical date for the change. It's when the estuarial counties
created in 1974 (Avon, Humberside & Cleveland) were abolished, as far as
local government was concerned anyway.

Yes, although local government still has concerns with organisations
that cover those former counties, in the form of fire and police
forces for example...

(Ah, local government - isn't it confusingly, bemusingly fun!)