Richard J. wrote:
Clive D. W. Feather wrote:
In article m,
Martin Underwood writes
Ask a resident which county they live in and they'll
say "Berkshire" not "Windsor and Maidenhead" or "Bracknell Forest".
According to Simon Gardner who regularly posts in
uk.local.thames-valley, the strictly correct, hair-splitting answer
to the question would be "I don't" - because Bracknell Forest etc
aren't even counties - they are Unitary Authorities.

I haven't checked the case of Bracknell Forest, but the correct
titles of two other unitary authorities are the County of
Peterborough and
the County of Southend-on-Sea.

I don't think that's strictly true. There is a County of
Southend-on-Sea (and also a County of Thurrock), and those areas are
no longer part of the (administrative) county of Essex. But these
new counties do not have councils. The relevant unitary authority
for Southend is still Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. Indeed there
is no mention of the "County of Southend-on-Sea" on
www.southend.gov.uk .

And the situation is similar for Peterborough. The functions of
Cambridgeshire County Council in respect of Peterborough were transferred to
the *city* council, i.e. the unitary authority.

I don't know why it was necessary to create these new formal counties.
Presumably the original legislation creating the unitary authorities was
botched. Why didn't they just re-create County Boroughs?
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)