There were originally two civil parishes in Gateshead - Birtley and Lamesley, both from the Chester-le-Street RD. Birtley Town Council and parish were abolished on 1 April 2006.[2]
Governance
Parliamentary constituencies
In national government the borough contains two parliamentary constituencies, Gateshead and Blaydon. The Gateshead constituency covers the centre and east of the borough. The MP, first elected in 2010, is Ian Mearns. The Blaydon constituency covers the west of the borough and Birtley to the south. It is represented by Liz Twist. The Jarrow constituency takes in the very eastern tip of the borough, including Pelaw. It is represented by Kate Osborne.
Gateshead Council is Labour controlled. In total there are 54 Labour councillors and 12 Lib Dem councillors. In general, the Whickham area along with Low Fell tend to favour the Liberal Democrats. Pelaw, Ryton and Dunston Hill are more evenly matched between the two parties, and the rest of the borough is dominated by Labour, especially the East. UKIP were able to get 23% of the vote in Winlaton and High Spen in 2016, while the Liberal Party have one of their few strongholds in Birtley, where they once held. The Conservatives rarely get more than 10%, polling best in Bridges and Saltwell wards; both of these have large Jewish communities.[3]
General
Gateshead has hosted two major political conferences. The first of these was Labour's spring conference, ahead of the 2005 general election.[4] The Conservatives also held a conference at the Sage Gateshead in March 2008. The Conservatives do not have any councillors in Gateshead and at the time only had one MP in the whole of the north east region. That conference was seen as an attempt to connect to voters in the area.[5]
Gateshead has a number of schools across the borough at both primary and secondary level. Results are well above average, with a number of outstanding schools.[6] Gateshead has amongst the best primary and secondary schools in the country overall.[7] A range of schools are present in Gateshead, including Jewish, Roman Catholic, Church of England, Methodist, and non-religious state schools. There is one independent school in the borough, Chase school in Whickham.[8] Further independent schools can be found in Newcastle, Sunderland, and Tynedale.
Gateshead has a variety of landscapes, urban and industrial areas include the town itself, Whickham and Blaydon in the west, with more semi-rural and rural locations in the west including Ryton and Rowlands Gill. Overall though, it is a fairly green area with over half of the borough being green belt or countryside.[10] Most of this is located away from built up Tyneside to the south of the borough into Derwentside/Chester-le-Street and to the west into Tynedale.
In total, there are over twenty countryside sites in the borough, from ancient meadows and woodland to local nature reserves.[11]
Notable features of Gateshead's countryside include Ryton Willows, found at Old Ryton Village on the banks of the Tyne at Ryton. Ryton Willows is 43 hectares of locally rare grassland and ponds located near to an affluent village with Georgian and Victorian houses. Because of this it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[12][13]
The Derwent Valley, in the south/south west of the borough, offers panoramic views and pleasant walks. It was in the Derwent Valley, near Rowlands Gill, that the Northern Kites Project re-introduced red kites. This was part of a national project to introduce the birds, that were once so commonplace across the country, back into the wild. This scheme has proven to be a success, with birds being spotted across the west of the borough, from Crawcrook to Rowlands Gill itself.[14][15]
The borough also contains one National Trust site, the expansive Gibside estate near Rowlands Gill, containing a stately home and a chapel, parts of its grounds have also been given SSSI status.[16]
Even in the more urban areas of the borough, in Gateshead itself and to the east, efforts have been made to maintain green spaces and wildlife sites. One such project is Bill Quay Community Farm, east of the borough. Offering a rural experience within an urban setting, it provides an important educational tool for local schools.[17]
The 2011 census, stated that the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead was 67.0% Christian, 0.9% Muslim, 1.5% Jewish, 23.9% were not religious and 5.7% of the population refused to state their religion.[19]
Economy
The area was once dependent on heavy industry such as steel making in the Derwent Valley and coal mining (across the borough). Shipbuilding on the Tyne was also a major source of employment. However, with the decline of these industries, Gateshead has attempted to re-invent itself. Although there are significant areas of deprivation in the borough, particularly in the centre and east, a number of towns and villages in the borough are popular with commuters and professionals who are employed in the service industry and well paid areas of the secondary sector such as engineering (which remains a major source of employment). Such commuter areas include Ryton, Rowlands Gill, Whickham and Low Fell. The borough is host to Tyne Yard, a major rail freight yard serving the North East.
The area is also an important retail hub, with the largest shopping centre in the European Union, and second largest in Europe as a whole, the MetroCentre, situated adjacent to the A1 trunk road. Further retail, and a significant number of engineering companies are located in the Team Valley Trading Estate, which at one time was the largest industrial estate in Europe.[citation needed]
The Shipley Art Gallery, housing outstanding collections of contemporary craft, studio ceramics, paintings and decorative art, is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Gateshead Council. Gateshead is a library authority and within its Central Library is a large venue facility called the Caedmon Hall.[22]
Gateshead is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Millennium Bridge, The Sage, and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, and has on its outskirts the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture.
Blaydon is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, and historically in County Durham. Blaydon, and neighbouring Winlaton, which Blaydon is now contiguous with, form the postal town of Blaydon-on-Tyne. The Blaydon/Winlaton resident population in 2011 was 13,896.
Blaydon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons since 2017 by Liz Twist of the Labour Party.
A civil parish is a country subdivision, forming the lowest unit of local government in England. There are 10 civil parishes in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear, most of the county being unparished; North Tyneside and South Tyneside are completely unparished. It is the County of England with the least count of civil parishes. At the 2001 census, there were 41,044 people living in the 10 parishes, accounting for 3.8 per cent of the county's population.
Rowlands Gill is a town situated along the A694, between Winlaton Mill and Hamsterley Mill, on the north bank of the River Derwent, in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. Within Gateshead's greenbelt, the town has a picturesque setting with much open space and views across the valley to Gibside Estate, now owned by the National Trust.
Ryton is a village in Tyne and Wear, England. It is in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, formerly governed under the county of Durham. In 2011, the population of the Ryton, Crookhill and Stella ward was 8,146. It is 5.8 miles (9.3 km) west of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Crawcrook is a semi-rural village close to the western border of the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear in England. Traditionally an independent village in County Durham, it was incorporated into the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead on 1 April 1974. The population taken at the 2011 Census of the Gateshead ward had increased to 8,841.
Dunston is a western area of the town of Gateshead on the south bank of the River Tyne, in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, North East England. Dunston had a population of 18,326 at the 2011 Census.
Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council elections are generally held three years out of every four, with a third of the council being elected each time. Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority for the metropolitan borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England.
Greenside is a village in the extreme west of the Metropolitan County of Tyne and Wear, England. Once an independent village in County Durham, it became incorporated into Tyne and Wear in 1974 and then the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in 1986.
Pelaw is a residential area in Gateshead, located around 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Newcastle upon Tyne, 11 miles (18 km) from Sunderland, and 17 miles (27 km) from Durham. In 2011, Census data for the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council ward of Heworth and Pelaw recorded a total population of 9,100.
Chester-le-Street was a county constituency centred on the town of Chester-le-Street in County Durham. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1983.
Sunniside is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, which is located around 5.5 miles (9 km) from Newcastle upon Tyne. Prior to the creation of the county of Tyne and Wear in 1974, it was part of Whickham Urban District, which in turn formed a part of County Durham.
The Tyneside Passenger Transport Executive was the operations arm of the Tyneside Passenger Transport Authority, created by the Transport Act 1968. and came into operation on 1 January 1970.
The 1973 Tyne and Wear County Council election was held on 12 April 1973 as part of the first elections to the new local authorities established by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales. 104 councillors were elected from 95 electoral divisions across the region's five boroughs. Each division returned either one or two county councillors each by First-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. The election took place ahead of the elections to the area's metropolitan borough councils, which followed on 10 May 1973.
The ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear has returned 12 MPs to the UK Parliament since 2010. It was created under the Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, comprising the urban areas around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear, previously parts of the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham.
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