Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/2009 local government structural changes task force

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Welcome to the 2009 local government structural changes task force. This task force has been set up to centralise and coordinate the changes to wikipedia brought about by the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. Discussion about the topics covered by this taskforce is found on the relevant talk page.

Scope

The affected areas

Seven counties within England are affected by changes to local government structures to be introduced on 1 April 2009. The following two tables (taken from the wikipedia article) list the counties and the changes that are being made:

Single authorities

In the following areas, the existing non-metropolitan county will also become a non-metropolitan district and the existing non-metropolitan districts will be abolished.

Ceremonial county	Non-metropolitan districts abolished in 2009	New unitary authority from 2009	Existing unitary authorities from 1990s reforms
Cornwall	Penwith Kerrier Carrick Restormel (Borough) Caradon North Cornwall	Cornwall	Isles of Scilly †
Durham	Durham (City) Easington Sedgefield (Borough) Teesdale Wear Valley Derwentside Chester-le-Street	Durham	Hartlepool Darlington Stockton-on-Tees (part)
Northumberland	Blyth Valley Wansbeck Castle Morpeth (Borough) Tynedale Alnwick Berwick-upon-Tweed (Borough)	Northumberland	none
Shropshire	North Shropshire Oswestry (Borough) Shrewsbury and Atcham (Borough) South Shropshire Bridgnorth	Shropshire	Telford and Wrekin
Wiltshire	Salisbury West Wiltshire Kennet North Wiltshire	Wiltshire	Swindon

† sui generis unitary authority since 1890

Multiple authorities

In the following areas, the existing non-metropolitan county will be abolished. The two new non-metropolitan districts in Cheshire (resulting from amalgamations of the existing districts) will each also be a non-metropolitan county. In Bedfordshire the new Central Bedfordshire non-metropolitan district (resulting from the amalgamation of two existing districts) will be also a non-metropolitan county, whilst the existing Bedford non-metropolitan district will gain non-metropolitan county status.

Ceremonial county	Non-metropolitan districts abolished in 2009	New unitary authorities from 2009	Existing unitary authorities from 1990s reforms	Map	Pre-2009 locator map	Post-2009 locator map
Bedfordshire	Mid Bedfordshire South Bedfordshire	1. Bedford ‡ 2. Central Bedfordshire	3. Luton
Cheshire	Ellesmere Port and Neston (Borough) Chester (District and City) Crewe and Nantwich (Borough) Congleton (Borough) Macclesfield (Borough) Vale Royal (Borough)	1. Cheshire West and Chester^[1]^[2] 2. Cheshire East	3. Warrington 4. Halton

‡ existing district

Although it appears that some of the changes needed (the writing of new articles) on Wikipedia are already in progress, there are other more tricky side-effects of these changes that need attention. The To Do section will expand on these.

The relevant wikiprojects and article pages

Overall

Area Specific

Wikipedia:WikiProject Bedfordshire, Bedfordshire
Wikipedia:WikiProject Cheshire, Cheshire
Wikipedia:WikiProject Cornwall, Cornwall
Wikipedia:WikiProject North East England, County Durham, Northumberland
Wikipedia:WikiProject West Midlands, Shropshire
Wiltshire - no obvious county-specific or region-specific project. Please add if you know of one.

Participants

DDStretch (talk) 16:19, 17 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
--Jza84 | Talk 17:08, 17 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Jolly Ω Janner 14:51, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Lozleader (talk) 21:14, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Major_Clanger (talk) 22:40, 15 January 2009 (UTC) (Wiltshire)[reply]
David (talk) - Shropshire & Cheshire
Coldmachine^Talk 11:31, 19 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Bleaney (talk) 12:01, 21 February 2009 (UTC) - Bedfordshire[reply]
Owain (talk) 14:21, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

To Do List

0. Task Force Adminstrative List

Identify the wikiprojects that have within their scope the areas affected
Alert members of them to the changes that are going to happen and invite them to join this task force to coordinate action in identifying the specific changes needed, make the changes, and record them so that we can monitor the overall task force's work towards its completion.

1. District maps

The pink series of maps used for county and local authority areas require updating. Most are found at Category:Maps of England, or else their daughter categories.

2. England locator maps

Cheshire locator map in use from 2007. This is typical of the type of content that will be outdated in 2009

The replacement 2009 map, which simply required airbrushing out the former district boundaries. You can help!

Some templates, most notably Template:Infobox UK place use a series of locator maps developed in 2007. They are all listed and displayed at Template_talk:Infobox_UK_place/maps#English_County_Maps. The maps that will be redundant simply require some district boundaries airbrushing out, and the saving to a new location ready for April 2009.

Done All locator maps are completed. Unless provisions have already been made, these will not display unless the "(2009)" versions are specified in templates or image markups. --Jza84 | Talk 20:44, 19 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

3. Template:Infobox UK place

This infobox will require its syntax updating so that the new authority areas are displayed, and they maintain the system of automatically displaying other fields, such as maps and public services.

4. Categories

Many of Wikipedia's categories will require significant restructing. For example, the content of Category:Vale Royal will broadly require moving into a new Category:Cheshire West and Chester. The article Vale Royal and the former category will then need to be placed into Category:Former non-metropolitan districts and Category:2009 disestablishments.

5. Prose

All articles about the former districts will need updating, with a particular need to use past tense once they have been abolished.

The prose within Wikipedia will need significant rewriting. For example, Bradford on Avon should say it was part of West Wiltshire in its Governance section and possibly in the Lede (see WP:UKCITIES).

6. Infoboxes

The former district articles, such as South Bedfordshire, should have their infoboxes changed to Template:Infobox historic subdivision. This is inline with existing practice, such as that at Beverley (borough).

Counties that have become a single unitary authority area in 2009, or else consist wholly of unitary districts should not use Template:Infobox historic subdivision, but rather keep using Template:Infobox England county (although that template may need amendments to reflect the structural changes). This is inline with existing practice, such as that at Berkshire.

7. Schools and other services

Where unitary authorities take on functions as the Local Education Authority and provider of other services then downstream articles such as individual school articles will also need to be edited to take into account the changes.

8. Settlement articles about cities, towns, villages, and so on within the changed areas

All these will have to be identified and text altered to reflect the changed administrative arrangements for the settlement. Details about the old districts that have been abolished or otherwise altered by the changes can be added to the relevant history sections of the articles. This point is closely related to point 4.6.5, above, but because of its importance, it can stand being restated here.

Articles affected

The following is a list of categories containing articles that are likely to be affected by the structural changes:

Notes

^ BBC News, 25 July 2007 - County split into two authorities. Retrieval Date: 25 July, 2007.
^ Macclesfield borough council press release 25 July 2007. Retrieval Date: 25 July, 2007.

[1] BBC News, 25 July 2007 - County split into two authorities. Retrieval Date: 25 July, 2007.

[2] Macclesfield borough council press release 25 July 2007. Retrieval Date: 25 July, 2007.

[1]

[2]