Stockton Councillor Ross Patterson's passionate campaign struck a chord with councillors, one of whom said: 'We never know ...

First there are the historic counties, which date as far back as the mid-Saxon period. Some, like Westmorland, no longer exist in an administrative sense.

Lord Heseltine has admitted he ripped up England’s historic counties after taking a light aircraft flight across the country and redrawing lines on a map. As local government minister under ...

For some, the historic counties of England represent the authentic divisions of the land. Others fervently press for the creation of an English parliament for the first time in centuries.

However, the historic counties of Scotland and Wales – now almost all formally abolished – were primarily just administrative units and never had the wider resonance of those in England.

Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has pledged to resurrect historic county names that stopped being used nearly 40 years ago as part of an effort to champion the “tapestry” of England.

Relative to European countries, England has a large local government system, hence there would be no clear benefit from an additional regional tier. 'With regional assemblies, historic counties like ...

He added: "There's 41 historic counties of England. They go back to the Middle Ages and the monarchy used them to run the country. In 1889 each of these counties was given a council that covered the ...