Dudley Council has its main offices in Dudley town centre (where Dudley Council House is located), along with additional smaller offices throughout the borough. The council is made up of 72 councillors representing 24 wards.
On its formation in 1974, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley was controlled by the Labour Party. Since then the controlling party has frequently changed, sometimes with no political party having a clear majority.[5]
The Conservative Party currently have control of Dudley Council as a majority run administration. After a no overall control result in the previous local elections, they gained control of Dudley council in the 2021 local elections.[6][7]
Mayor
The Mayor of the Borough acts as the Borough's first citizen attending many civic and ceremonial functions to represent the Council. They are elected at the Annual Meeting of the Council and serves for the whole of the Municipal Year until the next Annual Meeting.[8]
Source: ONS 2021 Census data via www.https://www.allaboutdudley.info/[10]
At the 2021 Census, the total population of Dudley Metropolitan Borough was 323,488, an increase of 10,563 from the 2011 Census. The population density was 3,320.4 residents per square km compared to the West Midlands region population density was 457.8 residents per square km.[11]
84.9% of Dudley's population identified as White, with 82.4% identifying as White British, 0.3% as White Irish, and 2.1% as Other White. The second largest ethnic group was Asian and British Asian, making up 8.4% of the population (an increase from 2011 where the figure was 6.1%). Black and Black British people comprised 2.5% of the population of the borough (an increase from 2011 where the figure was 1.5%).[12]
Statistics on religious beliefs show that 49.3% of the population identify as Christian (65.3% in 2011), with the second largest religious group being Muslim, at 6.2% (4.1% in 2011). 36% identified as having no religion.[13]
Unemployment amongst those aged 16 and over in the borough stood at 3.8%, slightly higher than the national average of 3.5%. 41.1% of those aged 16 and over were economically inactive, consisting of 24.3% retired, 5.2% looking after homes or family, 4.5% long-term sick or disabled, 4.2% students and 3.0% other economically inactive.[14]
Source: ONS 2021 Census data via www.https://www.allaboutdudley.info/[10]
Economy
A part of the Black Country, Dudley traditionally has been an industrial centre of manufacturing, quarrying, and mining, although this has declined in more recent years, with a shift in focus towards the service sector (accounting for 79.1% of employment)[15] and tourism. Despite this, there are still numerous large industrial sites around the borough, such as the Pensnett Trading Estate, with the manufacturing industries making up 15.3% of employment.[15]
Tourism is of increasing importance to the local economy, with approximately 6,600 people employed within the sector.[15] Attractions such as the Black Country Living Museum and Dudley Zoo bring in hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.[16]
Dudley borough has an increasing tourism offer, with attractions such as the Black Country Geopark being recognised in 2020[19] and the Stourbridge Glass Museum due to open in 2022.[20] Tourism and the visitor economy is an important sector to the borough, supporting approximately 8,000 jobs.[21]
Many of the borough's tourist attractions draw on the industrial heritage of the area. For example, the Red House Glass Cone is an original structure from the 18th Century glass making industry in Stourbridge.[22] The site includes designer-maker studios, galleries and hot glass studio. The Stourbridge Glass Quarter locality is also home to The Lace Guild, Glasshouse Heritage Centre[23] and hosts the International Festival of Glass[24] every 2 years, most recently in 2019 with the 2021 festival postponed to 2022[25] due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The Caste Hill area of Dudley is also a hub of visitor attractions including the Black Country Living Museum and the Canal and Tunnel Trust.[26]Dudley Zoological Gardens, which is also in this area, is the second most visited paid visitor attraction in the West Midlands.[27] The Archives and Local History Centre is now also the home of the council run Dudley Museum.[28] The museum is also the headquarters of the Black Country Geopark.[29]
Despite not being in the bounds of Dudley borough, Himley Hall and Park is owned and run by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. In addition to the 180 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland, the Hall has a gallery exhibition space[32] and is a wedding venue.
Regeneration
Large public and private sector developments have taken place in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley since its creation in 1974.
The closure of Round Oak Steelworks in December 1982 paved the way for the creation of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre on nearby farmland between 1985 and 1989. The Waterfront leisure and commercial complex was developed on the site of the steelworks itself between 1989 and 1995.
A major redevelopment of Halesowen town centre took place in 2007/08, when the bus station was rebuilt and a section of the 1960s shopping area demolished to make way for a new Asda superstore.
A similar redevelopment of Stourbridge town centre in 2011/12 saw most of the Crown Centre completely rebuilt to incorporate a new Tesco superstore.
There are currently several major regeneration projects throughout the borough. Significant infrastructure projects include the new Dudley Transport Interchange[33] and the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill West Midlands Metro extension.[34][35] The 11km metro extension will connect Dudley, Merry Hill and Brierley Hill with the metro network and so to the proposed HS2 line. The first phase to Dudley town centre is expected to open for passenger services in 2024.[36] The second phase will then extend to Brierley Hill, terminating in Cottage Street in the town centre following an additional £60million funding from central government.[37]
Regeneration projects around the Castle Hill area are combining innovation and education. The Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology opened in September 2021[38] and focuses delivery on higher level courses in manufacturing and engineering, medical engineering, modern construction methodologies and digital technologies. The Very Light Rail (VLR) National Innovation Centre will provide a research facility for the development of VLR technologies and projects. The centre will redevelop the former Dudley Railway Station and reconnect the town with the National Rail Network.[39]
The DY5 Business and Innovation Enterprise Zone was launched in 2017 with the ambition to create 7,000 new jobs over 25 years.[40] The zone is centred around the Brierley Hill area.
The Dudley Townscape Heritage programme is on ongoing programme of work improving historical buildings in Dudley town centre. Phase 1 ran from 2008-2015, phase 2 from 2017-2023.[41] Phase 2 started following a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £1.2 million.[42] As part of the programme historic buildings were identified, repaired or restored. Heritage trails and open days were also developed.[43] In addition, further development of the former Dudley Museum and Art Gallery site has been proposed as part of a £4million scheme.[44] The former Sessions Court in the same complext of buildings been converted into Brookes Bistro restaurant.[45] Named for Brooke Robinson[46] who was a former MP and coroner for Dudley and left a bequest which led to the building for the former Museum and Art Gallery, Town Hall and Coroners Court.
Housing
Relatively little new council housing has been built in the borough since the early 1980s, with almost all of the new social housing developments since then being built by housing associations. Most of the older private housing in the borough has been renovated rather than demolished during this time. However, there have been a number of redevelopment programmes involving 20th century council housing. In July 1999, four of the borough's tower blocks (two at Eve Hill in Dudley and two at Tanhouse in Halesowen) were demolished on consecutive weekends in controlled explosions. Two years later, two more tower blocks at Queens Cross in Dudley were demolished using the same method. Four tower blocks in Netherton are scheduled for demolition in 2017/18. In 2009, 266 homes on the predominantly 1930s Priory Estate in Dudley were demolished and the land later redeveloped with new housing. In the mid-1990s, the neighbouring Wren's Nest Estate underwent extensive refurbishment as well as improved community facilities in a multimillion-pound project funded by the EuropeanSingle Budget. Four blocks of low-rise flats on the estate were demolished as part of the regeneration.
Since 2017 small developments of council housing have been built, including bungalows, housing and low-rise flats.[47][48] Some properties have been designed to accommodate those with specific physical needs or those in need of supported living. The homes have been built across the borough (Brierley Hill, Coseley, Dudley, Halesowen, Kingswinford, Lower Gornal, Sedgley and Stourbridge). During this period Dudley Council have also built a number of homes for private sale.[49]
In November 2021 Dudley Council was named homebuilder of the year[50] (organisations with 16,000 homes or more category) at the Inside Housing UK Housing Awards.[51]
There are two further education colleges in the Dudley Borough: Dudley College of Technology, Halesowen College. The borough is also home to the King Edward VIsixth form college in Stourbridge, originally a grammar school established in 1552, converting to a sixth form centre in 1976. A small number of secondary schools in the borough offer sixth form facilities, while several others did so until the beginning of the 1990s when the local authority decided to concentrate post-16 education in further education colleges.[52]
In March 2011 Eton College and Star Academies announced their intention to open one of three sixth form colleges in Dudley, subject to funding through the Department for Education’s Free Schools Programme.[53]
Since the University of Wolverhampton closed its Dudley campus in 2002, the metropolitan borough is the largest district in the UK without its own university.[54] Several projects in the Castle Hill area of the Dudley are now linking with local universities.[55] The Black Country & Marches Institute of Technology opened in September 2021, with a focus on higher level engineering courses, it partners Dudley College of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, University of Worcester, In-Comm Training Services Limited and Avensys UK Limited.[56] A Higher Education Centre for Health & Care is proposed as a partnership between Dudley College of Technology and University of Worcester and expected to be open for Autumn 2024.[57]
There are 104 Dudley Council schools: 78 Primary, 40 of which include a Nursery Unit (24 Primary Academy); 19 Secondary (of which 15 are Secondary Academy Schools) and 7 Special Schools.[58] Pupils transfer to secondary school at the age of 11, although between 1972 and 1990 pupils in the north of borough transferred to secondary school at the age of 12, and from 1972 to 1982 there was a three-tier education system in Halesowen where pupils entered first school at 5, middle school at 9 and secondary school at 13.[59]
The borough had well over 30 secondary schools on its creation, although this was quickly reduced as a result of the introduction of the comprehensive system a year later, which resulted in a number of schools being merged or closed.
By September 1990, however, the number of secondary schools in the borough had fallen to 22 as a result of the closure of Gilbert Claughton and Mons Hill Schools and the merger of High Park and Longlands Schools in Stourbridge to form Ridgewood High. A year earlier, Castle High had been formed in the town centre of Dudley from a merger of The Dudley School and Blue Coat School; this new school also took in some of the former Gilbert Claughton and Mons Hill pupils. The 1980s had also seen the closure of some the borough's less popular and smaller primary schools, with the older buildings mostly being demolished and the more modern ones being converted for community use.
The closure of Cradley High School in Halesowen in July 2008 saw the number of secondary schools in the borough fall to 21, and the total has remained at 20 since the closure of Pensnett High School in July 2012.
When the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley was formed, many primary schools were existed as separate infant and junior or first and middle schools, but by 1990 virtually all of the separate schools had been merged to create full circle primary schools, the last separate infant and junior schools to merge being Red Hall in Lower Gornal in January 1997.
There are no grammar schools in the borough, with all state schools being comprehensive, a system which has been universal in the borough since the mid-1970s. The Former grammar schools in the borough were Dudley's Boys Grammar and Girls High Schools (merged with Park Secondary Modern School in 1975 to form The Dudley School, which in turn merged with The Blue Coat School to form Castle High in 1989), Sir Gilbert Claughton Grammar School in Dudley (which adopted comprehensive status in 1975 before closing in 1990), Brierley Hill Grammar School (actually situated in Kingswinford; it has been known as the Crestwood School since adopting comprehensive status), King Edward VI Boys Grammar School in Stourbridge (which is now a mixed sixth form college), Stourbridge Girls High School (which merged with the Boys Grammar School and Valley Road Secondary Modern School to form Redhill School), Halesowen Grammar School (which merged with Halesowen Technical School to form Earls High School) and High Arcal Grammar School in Sedgley (which survives as a comprehensive school).
The main NHS hospital serving the borough is Russells Hall Hospital, situated to the south of Dudley town centre. Following a major expansion of the hospital in 2005, all inpatient services were transferred to the site from smaller hospitals around the borough, resulting in the closure of Wordsley Hospital, and the downgrading of the Guest Hospital and Corbett hospitals into outpatient centres.
The following people, military units and Organisations and Groups have received the Freedom of the Borough of Dudley. The Roll of Freeman is displayed in the Council House on wood panelling at the entrance to the Council Chamber.
Example of the panelling which lists the Roll of Freeman in Dudley Council House
Individuals
William Humble, Earl of Dudley: 10 January 1899
Brooke Robinson: 11 September 1906
Sir Gilbert Henry Claughton, Baronet: 9 November 1912
West Midlands is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the larger West Midlands region of England. A landlocked county, it is bordered by Staffordshire to the north and west, Worcestershire to the south, and is surrounded by Warwickshire to the east. The largest settlement is the city of Birmingham.
Dudley is a market town in the West Midlands, England, 6 miles (9.7 km) southeast of Wolverhampton and 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the 2011 census, it had a population of 79,379. The Metropolitan Borough, which includes the towns of Stourbridge and Halesowen, had a population of 312,900. In 2014, the borough council adopted a slogan describing Dudley as the capital of the Black Country., a title by which it had long been informally known.
Oldbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It is the administrative centre of the borough. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 13,606, while the 2017 population of the wider built-up area was estimated at 25,488. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, which defines Oldbury Town as consisting of the wards of Bristnall, Langley, Oldbury, and Old Warley, gave the population as 50,641 in 2011.
Halesowen is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of West Midlands, England.
Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 2011 UK census recorded the town's population as 63,298.
Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, 3 miles south of Dudley and 1 mile north of Stourbridge. Part of the Black Country and in a heavily industrialised area, it has a population of 13,935 at the 2011 census. It is best known for glass and steel manufacturing, although the industry has declined considerably since the 1970s. One of the largest factories in the area was the Round Oak Steelworks, which closed down and was redeveloped in the 1980s to become the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. Brierley Hill was originally in Staffordshire.
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for Dudley metropolitan borough. It is more commonly known as Dudley Council or Dudley MBC.
Kingswinford is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands, situated 5 miles (8.0 km) west-southwest of central Dudley. In 2011 the area had a population of 25,191, down from 25,808 at the 2001 Census.
Amblecote is an affluent urban village in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England. It lies immediately north of the historic town of Stourbridge on the southwestern edge of the West Midlands conurbation. Historically, Amblecote was in the parish of Oldswinford, but unlike the rest of the parish it was in Staffordshire, and as such was administered separately.
Pensnett is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) south-west of central Dudley. Pensnett has been a part of Dudley since 1966, when the Brierley Hill Urban District, of which it was a part, was absorbed into the County Borough of Dudley, later the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley from 1974.
Cradley Heath is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, 8 miles (13 km) west of Birmingham. The town was known for the manufacture of chains in the first half of the twentieth century.
Dudley South is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Mike Wood of the Conservative Party.
Halesowen and Rowley Regis is a constituency in the West Midlands represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by James Morris, a Conservative.
Wordsley is a suburban area of Stourbridge in the West Midlands, England. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and falls into the Stourbridge (DY8) postcode and address area, being just north of the River Stour. Wordsley is part of the Dudley South Parliamentary constituency. It is bordered by open Staffordshire countryside to the west, Kingswinford to the North, Brierley Hill to the East and Stourbridge to the South.
The County Borough of Dudley was a local government district in the English Midlands from 1865 to 1974. Originally a municipal borough, it became a county borough in 1889, centred on the main town centre of Dudley, along with the suburbs of Netherton and Woodside. Although surrounded by Staffordshire, the borough was associated with Worcestershire for non-administrative purposes, forming an exclave of the county until 1966, when it was transferred to Staffordshire after an expansion of the borough boundaries. Following local government reorganization in 1974, Dudley took in the boroughs of Halesowen and Stourbridge to form the present-day Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the newly formed West Midlands county.
Old Hill is a village in Rowley Regis in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands, England, situated around 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Halesowen and 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Dudley. Initially a separate village it is now part of the much larger West Midlands conurbation.
This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. For details of currently operating schools in the area, please see: List of schools in Dudley.
The 2016 Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 5 May 2016 to elect a third of the members of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections.
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