Lord Heseltine has admitted that he ripped up England’s historic counties after taking a flight over the country and redrawing the lines – a move that today would be open to judicial review.
As local government minister in the early 1970s, Heseltine’s unusual method saw Manchester and Liverpool taken out of Lancashire and Yorkshire’s ridings abolished.
Six major new metropolitan authorities were created – Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Tyne and Wear, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and West Midlands – straddling old county boundaries.
Heseltine admitted he has wanted to scrap county councils altogether.
