North end of High Street, Ibstock - geograph

North West Leicestershire is a

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 census was 93,348. Its main towns are

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire ...

Castle Donington Castle Donington is a market town and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, on the edge of the National Forest and close to East Midlands Airport. History The name 'Donington' means 'farm/settlement connected with Dunna'. Another sugge ...

Coalville Coalville is an industrial town in the district of North West Leicestershire, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, with a population at the 2011 census of 34,575. It lies on the A511 trunk road between Leicester and Burton upon Tr ...

and

Ibstock Ibstock is a former coal mining town and civil parish about south of Coalville in North West Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish was 5,760 at the 2001 census increasing to 6,201 at the 2011 census. The town is on the ...

. The district contains

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is () to the south and Lincoln () nort ...

, which operates flights to the rest of Britain and to various places in Europe. It is also notable as the location of

and

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

, a grand-prix circuit and a major venue for music festivals. The district is represented in the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

by the constituency of the same name. The area has a long history of mineral extraction, with

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

, brick clay, gravel and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

amongst the products. All the deep

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s in the area have closed, but opencast mining still continues. The district was formed in 1974 by a merger of

Ashby de la Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire ...

Urban District, Ashby Woulds Urban District,

Urban District,

Ashby de la Zouch Rural District Ashby de la Zouch Rural District was a rural district in England, near Ashby de la Zouch (which was an urban district). It was formed in 1894 along with most other rural districts. In 1974 it was abolished under the Local Government Act 197 ...

, Castle Donington Rural District and

from the

Market Bosworth Rural District The rural district of Market Bosworth existed from 1894 to 1974 in Leicestershire, England. It was named after Market Bosworth, and was created under the Local Government Act 1894, based on the Market Bosworth rural sanitary district, and tha ...

Politics

Like many other shire districts, authority over North West Leicestershire is shared between the district council and the county council. Areas of responsibility of the district council include local planning,

building control Building automation (BAS), also known as building management system (BMS) or building energy management system (BEMS), is the automatic centralized control of a building's HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electrical, lighting, ...

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

, refuse collection,

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

, and some leisure services and parks. The district council is currently controlled by 38

councillors A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

who are

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population ...

every four years; the last election took place in May 2019 and saw the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

hold on to control. The current political make-up of the council is as follows: The council has a five-member executive known as the Cabinet which is made up of councillors who have special responsibilities and power. As the Conservatives won overall control of the council in 2007, they hold all of the seats on the cabinet.

Parishes

Appleby Magna Appleby Magna is a village and civil parish in Leicestershire, England. It includes the small hamlets of Appleby Parva and Little Wigston. The parish has a total collective population of 1,084 (2011) spread across 500 properties (2020), with ...

Acresford Acresford is a hamlet in North West Leicestershire, it shares civil parish authorities with Donisthorpe and Oakthorpe and forms part of the border with South Derbyshire South Derbyshire is a local government district in Derbyshire, Engla ...

, Ashby Woulds,

, * Bardon, Belton,

Breedon on the Hill Breedon on the Hill is a village and civil parish about north of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in North West Leicestershire, England. The parish adjoins the Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes ...

Charley Charley may refer to: Places *Charley, Leicestershire, a parish in England *Charley's Flat, alternate name for Dutch Flat, California *Charley's Motel, former name of Star Lite Motel, Minnesota, United States *Charley Ridge, West Virginia, United ...

Chilcote Chilcote is a village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. Until 1897 it was in Derbyshire. The parish had a population of 108 according to the 2001 census, including Stretton-en-le-Field and in ...

Coleorton Coleorton ( ) is a village and civil parish in North West Leicestershire, England. It is situated on the A512 road approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Ashby de la Zouch. Nearby villages include Newbold, to the north, Thringstone to the ...

Ellistown and Battleflat Ellistown and Battleflat is a civil parish in North West Leicestershire, England, just south of the unparished area of Coalville. Most of the parish's population lives in the village of Ellistown in the western part of the parish. The population o ...

* Heather,

Hugglescote and Donington le Heath Hugglescote and Donington le Heath is a civil parish in North West Leicestershire, England. It includes the villages of Hugglescote and Donington le Heath, each of which is about south of the centre of Coalville. The population of the civil pa ...

, Isley cum Langley *

Kegworth Kegworth () is a large village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, in the East Midlands region, England. It forms part of the border with Nottinghamshire and is situated 6 miles north of Loughborough, ...

* Lockington-Hemington,

Long Whatton and Diseworth Long Whatton and Diseworth, formerly just Long Whatton is a civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The parish includes the villages of Long Whatton and Diseworth. The population of the parish at the 2 ...

Measham Measham is a large village in the North West Leicestershire district in Leicestershire, England, near the Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire boundaries. It lies off the A42, 4½ miles (7.25 km) south of Ashby de la Zouch, in the Natio ...

Normanton le Heath Normanton le Heath is a village and civil parish situated between the parishes of Packington, Ravenstone and Heather in North West Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish was 131 at the 2001 census, rising to 165 at the 201 ...

Oakthorpe and Donisthorpe Oakthorpe and Donisthorpe or Oakthorpe, Donisthorpe and Acresford is a civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2336, increasing to 2,637 at the 2011 cens ...

Osgathorpe Osgathorpe is a small village which lies in a fold of the hills in North West Leicestershire, England, and is about a quarter of a mile from the A512 Coalville to Loughborough Road. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 411. Th ...

Packington Packington is a village and civil parish in the district of North West Leicestershire.OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) : It is situated close to the A42 road (England), A42 road and the towns of Ashby de la Zouch and Measha ...

* Ravenstone with Snibston *

Snarestone Snarestone is a small rural village in North West Leicestershire, England.OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) :

, Staunton Harold,

Stretton en le Field Stretton en le Field is a small village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, about 7 miles/11 km south-west of Ashby de la Zouch, historically an exclave of Derbyshire. According to the 2001 ...

, Swannington, Swepstone *

Whitwick Whitwick is a large village in Leicestershire, England, close to the town of Coalville in the northwest of the county. It lies in an ancient parish which formerly included the equally historic villages of Thringstone and Swannington. It was an ...

Worthington Worthington may refer to: People * Worthington (surname) * Worthington family, a British noble family Businesses * Worthington Brewery, also known as Worthington's * Worthington Corporation, founded as a pump manufacturer in 1845, later a dive ...

Human Geography

North West Leicestershire has experienced steady population growth in recent times as the district balances the agro-rural economy with the end of labour-intensive deep coal-mining. Alternative employment opportunities exist within the district in the services and distributive sectors, together with local or nearby manufacturing and extractive/transformative/construction industries. The lack of rail services to/from

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second larg ...

and other nearby centres limits access for employment, commerce and leisure to a road journey that competes with freight and heavy-haulage vehicles especially to the south and east.

Economy

Since 2013

Norton Motorcycles The Norton Motorcycle Company (formerly Norton Motors, Ltd.) is a brand of motorcycles, originally based in Birmingham, England. For some years around 1990, the rights to use the name on motorcycles was owned by North American financiers. From ...

has its head office in

Donington Hall Donington Hall is a mansion house set in parkland near Castle Donington village, North West Leicestershire. The Hall and Estate was purchased in April 2021 by MotorSport Vision, which also operates the neighbouring Donington Park racing circu ...

. BMI (British Midland), an airline, was headquartered in Donington Hall.Contact us
." ''BMI''. Accessed September 23, 2008. The airline moved its headquarters to Donington Hall in 1982. The subsidiary

bmibaby Bmibaby Limited (styled as bmibaby.com) was a British low-cost airline that flew to destinations in the United Kingdom and Europe from its bases at Birmingham and East Midlands airports. It was a subsidiary of British Midland International, i ...

also had its head office in Donington Hall. Prior to its disestablishment, Excalibur Airways had its head office on the grounds of

in Castle Donington. Prior to its disestablishment,

Orion Airways Orion Airways (known simply as 'Orion') was an airline based in the United Kingdom with its head office on the grounds of East Midlands Airport in Castle Donington, North West Leicestershire."World Airline Directory." ''Flight International''. ...

had its head office on the grounds of East Midlands Airport. In 2011 Coalfield Resources plc were given permission to develop an

opencast coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

pit on the site of the former Minorca colliery between

and Swepstone on a seam which will be across and extract 1,250,000 tonnes (1,380,000 tons) of coal over five years, and 250,000 tonnes (280,000 tons) of clay."Leicestershire opencast coal mine gains approval"
''BBC News''

Arms

References

External links

North West Leicestershire
{{Coord, 52, 43, 01, N, 1, 22, 12, W, region:GB-LEC_type:adm3rd_dim:15000_source:dewiki, display=title Non-metropolitan districts of Leicestershire