City Boundaries in The United Kingdom
In the UK, city boundaries are more difficult to define, since British cities are defined as any town, regardless of size, that has been granted letters patent. In smaller cities, such as Wells (pop. approx. 10,000) or Gloucester (pop. approx. 100,000), the boundary will be that governed by the city council. In the case of larger cities, such as Birmingham (pop. approx. 1,000,000), a specific metropolitan borough will make the definition. Ironically, London the largest city is perhaps the most difficult to define, as different people have different definitions ranging from just The City of London, to anywhere inside the M25 motorway.
Although British city boundaries are often important for defining local services such as refuse collection, schools, libraries and planning (zoning), they play little or no role in law enforcement or hospitals. Police jurisdiction and local services are generally defined by county boundaries, and people in one county may usually decide to use hospitals, libraries, and schools in another without incurring any fees.
There is no concept of local taxation in the UK, other than minor differences between Northern Ireland, Scotland and England and Wales. Local government councils derive their income from council tax and business rates, which are based on the values of buildings.
Planning (zoning) law around British cities is generally determined by green belt laws, which prevent building on the countryside immediately surrounding large and medium-sized towns and cities.
Read more about this topic: City Limits
Famous quotes containing the words city, boundaries, united and/or kingdom:
“Paradoxically, the freedom of Paris is associated with a persistent belief that nothing ever changes. Paris, they say, is the city that changes least. After an absence of twenty or thirty years, one still recognizes it.”
—Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)
“Whereas the Greeks gave to will the boundaries of reason, we have come to put the will’s impulse in the very center of reason, which has, as a result, become deadly.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.””
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 1:30-33.