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The 'County of Avon' was a non-metropolitan county and ceremonial county in the west of England, named after the River Avon which ran through it. In 1996 the county was abolished and the area split between Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire unitary local authorities. The Avon area is still used for some purposes (see "Legacy" section), and today has a population of approximately one million people.

Contents

Creation

Demise

Legacy

See also

External links

References

Creation

Avon was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974. It took in the areas of the former county boroughs of Bristol and Bath, and areas from the administrative counties of Gloucestershire (Kingswood, Mangotsfield, and the rural districts of Warmley, Sodbury (most) and Thornbury (most)), and Somerset (Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Keynsham, Norton-Radstock, Portishead, and the rural districts of Bathavon, Long Ashton, Axbridge (much), and Clutton (much). Like most of the new counties created by the Act, its boundaries were substantially trimmed from its inception, with Frome and Bradford on Avon removed from the proposed area.
It had six districts. Bristol and Bath were taken in directly from the former county boroughs. In the north, the Gloucestershire side, the urban districts of Kingswood and Mangotsfield formed a single borough of Kingswood, with the rest becoming Northavon. In the south, there were two districts, Woodspring, on the coast, and Wansdyke, in the interior.
To the north it bordered Gloucestershire, to the east Wiltshire and to the south Somerset. In the west it had a coast on the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel.
The area of Avon was 1,347 square kilometres (520 sq mi) and its population in 1991 was 919,800. Cities and towns in Avon included (in approximate order of population) Bristol, Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Yate, Clevedon, Portishead, Midsomer Norton & Radstock, Bradley Stoke, Nailsea, Yatton, Keynsham and Thornbury.

Demise

Like some other English cities such as Liverpool, Plymouth and Newcastle, Bristol developed as a port city at the mouth of a river which separated historic counties, and expanded and developed economic linkages on both sides of the traditional boundary. In these cases, nearby communities have often retained sentimental attachments to their traditional counties, rather than to those cities on the edge of the historic counties with which they were associated in terms of work, shopping and cultural facilities.
The county did however have a fairly strong rational basis, being largely conterminous with the Bristol 'Travel to Work Area' defined since the 1950s and 1960s for planning purposes. In addition, people in the new county, but beyond the Bristol City boundary, were brought within convenient travelling distance of their main county council offices for the first time.
Avon was one of the counties in the "first tranche" of reviews conducted by the Banham Commission in the 1990s. The Commission recommended that it and its districts be abolished and replaced with four unitary authorities. The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995 was debated in the Commons on 22 February 1995.[1]
The Order came into effect on 1 April 1996. The four authorities that replaced Avon are:
#The City and County of Bristol
#South Gloucestershire – formed from Kingswood and Northavon districts.
#North Somerset – formed from Woodspring district.
#Bath and North East Somerset – formed from Bath and Wansdyke districts.
For ceremonial purposes, the post of Lord Lieutenant of Avon was abolished, Bristol regained its own Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff, while the other authorities were returned to their traditional counties. Suggestions to alter Bristol's boundaries (either by drawing new boundaries or by merely incorporating the mostly urbanised borough of Kingswood into it) were rejected.

Legacy

The demise of the County of Avon was the focus of a BBC documentary called ''The End of Avon'', produced by Linda Orr and Michael Lund and broadcast in 1996. In 2006 Adam Thomas (a BBC Somerset Sound presenter) investigated why Avon refuses to die, for the BBC One regional programme ''Inside Out West''. The county continues to be included in the databases of large corporations as part of addresses in the area, and in names such as Avon Wildlife Trust, the Avon and Somerset Constabulary, and Avon Fire and Rescue Service. Representatives from the organisations said they had no plans to change their names. However, the Royal Mail indicated that it was not necessary to include Avon as part of any address as it had abandoned the use of postal counties in 1996.
Some bodies still cover the area of the former county of Avon: for example, the Avon Fire Brigade, the Avon Coroner's District, the West of England Strategic Partnership, Intelligence West, and until 2006 the Avon Ambulance Service (now merged with the Gloucestershire and Wiltshire ambulance services to form the Great Western Ambulance Service). The former county and its southern neighbour form the area covered by Avon and Somerset Constabulary. Though there is no longer a single council, the four unitary authorities still cooperate on many aspects of policy, such as the Joint Local Transport Plan.^[1] Currently, the term "West of England" is used by some organisations to refer to the former Avon area.
The term ''CUBA'', the "County (or Councils) that Used to Be Avon", was coined to refer to the Avon area post-abolition of the county. The term Severnside is sometimes used as a euphemism for 'Avon',^[2] although the term can also be used to refer to the stretch of shoreline from Avonmouth north to Aust, or from Newport to Chepstow. 'Greater Bristol' is also used,^[3] although the use of this term is sometimes resented by those living in Bath, Weston-super-Mare, and other parts of historic Gloucestershire and Somerset.
The Forest of Avon is a community forest covering part of the area of the four local authorities. Other relics of Avon's existence include the 'Avon Cycleway' (first designed and promoted by Cyclebag), an 85 miles (137 km) circular route on quiet roads and cycle paths, which was a precursor of the National Cycle Network. Also, Avon County Council helped fund Sustrans' first cycleway, the Bristol and Bath railway path.

See also

★ Greater Bristol

★ List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Avon

★ UK topics

External links

★ Avon: the name that refuses to die

★ West of England Partnership

★ Intelligence West

★ Avon Scouts

References

1. B&NES, Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire Councils, 2005. Greater Bristol Joint Local Transport Plan 2006-2011
2. See for example the renaming of the Avon Valuations Tribunal to Severnside, in 1996 SI 1996/43
3. Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study