Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about districts

This is a project guideline for the structure of Wikipedia articles about the 317 local government districts in England, namely the 32 London boroughs, 36 metropolitan boroughs, 192 non-metropolitan districts, 55 unitary authorities, Isles of Scilly and City of London. This guideline originated in 2004.

Naming conventions

The article naming policy, particularly WP:Common name and WP:Precise, indicates that we should use the name commonly used in reliable sources, and that if we need to disambiguate that we use a natural title if possible before we resort to brackets. We also have the Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) guideline, which for administrative subdivisions suggests "do what English does". For example, Hundreds should be written and titled as Hundred of Foo, Foo Hundred, or simply Foo (if unique), rather than Foo (hundred).

Isles of Scilly and City of London are unique
London boroughs take the form London Borough of Hackney
Royal boroughs take the form Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (overrides London borough)
Metropolitan boroughs without ambiguity are just the name, such as Trafford
Metropolitan boroughs with ambiguity take the form Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
Non-metropolitan districts (including unitary authorities) without ambiguity are just the name, such as Allerdale or Thurrock
Non-metropolitan districts with local ambiguity depend on the district/borough status, such as Bolsover District (with no status) or Borough of Bedford (with borough status)
Non-metropolitan districts with non-local ambiguity have the county name suffixed as in High Peak, Derbyshire
Unitary districts with local ambiguity with no status take the form Shropshire (district)
A district that has city status is named City of Westminster or City of Salford (overrides all the above) except Brighton and Hove
In around 38 cases where the district is regarded as occupying an area similar to that of a settlement, the article name follows the WP:UKPLACE convention for settlements, with one combined article for the district and settlement (this overrides all the above):

Metropolitan boroughs (6) : Birmingham, Coventry, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Wolverhampton

Unitary authorities: (11) : Bristol, Derby, Kingston upon Hull, Leicester, Luton, Nottingham, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent

Non-metropolitan districts (20) : Cambridge, Cheltenham, Crawley, Eastbourne, Exeter, Gloucester, Gosport, Harlow, Hastings, Ipswich, Lincoln, Norwich, Oxford, Redditch, Stevenage, Tamworth, Watford, Woking, Worcester, Worthing

Sui generis (1) : City of London

Abolished districts: Bath, Somerset, Bournemouth (unitary), Christchurch, Dorset, Gillingham, Kent, Great Grimsby, Hereford, Northampton, Poole (unitary)

Overlap

Districts that are also settlements

In most cases two articles are used. The district takes the form as outlined above and the settlement takes the name according to normal naming conventions. Single articles are generally created where the settlement/district matches most of the following criteria:

The built-up area closely matches the boundaries of the district with little or no rural hinterland
There is a lack of other distinct settlements in the district
The ONS population for the settlement is roughly the same, or larger than the district
The current boundaries of the district are long-established and predate reforms in 1974
There are very few or preferably no civil parishes in the district

Some tables can be found at User:Crouch, Swale/District split for some controversial/borderline ones.

Sometimes the district is not named for the largest settlement, such as Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley and Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in which case two articles should be used. Where one article is used, WP:UKCITIES gives guidance about article structure.

Districts that are also counties

Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, County Durham, Dorset, East Riding of Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, City of London, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Somerset and Wiltshire are special cases as they are ceremonial counties as well as districts. WP:UKCOUNTIES gives guidance for those articles. Other unitary authorities should be dealt with in a similar fashion to other districts. Buckinghamshire (district), County Durham (district), Dorset (district), North Yorkshire (district), Shropshire (district) and Wiltshire (district) have separate articles to their ceremonial counties, while Cornwall, East Riding of Yorkshire and Somerset currently do not, though their councils may have articles (e.g. Somerset Council). Bristol, Herefordshire, Isle of Wight, City of London, Northumberland and Rutland have the same area as their ceremonial counties and do not need separate articles.

Article structure

A variety of infoboxes have been used in the past. However, all district articles should be using {{Infobox settlement}}.

Reconstituted districts

Most districts' boundaries date from 1974 (or 1965 for London boroughs) meaning that is the start date for the scope of the article. However, some districts were reconstituted with exactly the same boundaries or only minor changes, when this is the case the article's scope should deal with the previous district as well. Examples:

Borough of Chorley and Municipal Borough of Chorley, major boundary changes so current borough only from 1974, if older district doesn't have a separate article it should redirects to the settlement namely Municipal Borough of Wokingham goes to Wokingham not Borough of Wokingham, unparished area category given to settlement Chorley
Borough of Blackpool, no changes in 1974 so older County Borough of Blackpool redirects to current district and thus does not get a separate article, unparished area category given to district
Borough of Slough, changes in 1974 that may qualify as major so Municipal Borough of Slough exists, there were some changes in 1995 but stayed as a non-metropolitan district so 1 article from 1974-present, unparished area category given to settlement Slough
City of Gloucester, no changes in 1974 but Quedgeley parish moved in 1991, if split district should deal with the pre-1974 County Borough of Gloucester as well however the settlement should deal with the unparished area (the pre-1991 boundaries) and should have the unparished area category
Epsom and Ewell, no changes in 1974 so deals with the older Municipal Borough of Epsom and Ewell as well and is given the unparished area category
Blaby District, same boundaries as older Blaby Rural District so deals with pre-1974 as well
Stevenage, no major changes in 1974 so if split would also deal with the older urban district

As noted above many reconstituted districts such as Eastbourne are combined with the settlement but this point deals with how the article should be structured if it is decided to split. Some like "Epsom and Ewell" are not settlements but are still reconstituted.

An exception is York since the 1995 order said "The existing city of York shall be abolished" when the boundary changes and unitary status came in. This means election articles prior to 1996 should link to the settlement (or older district) not the post 1996 City of York.

Local authorities

When district articles become large enough, details about the local authority (council) often get moved to a separate article. This should be avoided until there is enough content to support two articles as they can easily become forks or mirrors of each other (for example Colchester Borough Council redirects to Borough of Colchester) unless like Eastbourne/Eastbourne Borough Council (see above) the district doesn't have a separate article.