The City and District of St Albans () is a local authority district in Hertfordshire in the East of England

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

. The main urban settlements are St Albans and Harpenden. The council offices are in St Albans.

History

St Albans City and District is a

non-metropolitan district Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of Districts of England, local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shi ...

and

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

created on 1 April 1974 as a merger of the

Municipal Borough of St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ro ...

, the

Harpenden Urban District Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,240 in the 2011 census, whilst the population of the civil parish was 29,448. Ha ...

and most of St Albans Rural District. The

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

had had city status since 1877 and it was granted to the entire district by letters patent on 9 July 1974.

Geography

The district is in the west of Hertfordshire, bounded on the north west by

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...

, on the north east by North Hertfordshire, on the east by

Welwyn Hatfield The Borough of Welwyn Hatfield is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in southern Hertfordshire, England, governed by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. It covers the two towns of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, Hertfordshire, ...

, on the south by

Hertsmere Hertsmere is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Borehamwood. Other settlements in the borough include Bushey, Elstree, Radlett and Potters Bar. The borough borders the three north London ...

, on the south west by

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

and Three Rivers and on the west by

Dacorum The Borough of Dacorum is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and Kings Langley. The district, which was formed in 1974, had a population of 137,799 in 2001. I ...

. The largest urban settlement is St Albans, followed in size by Harpenden, with lesser settlements at

Redbourn Redbourn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, lying on Watling Street, from Harpenden, from St Albans and from Hemel Hempstead. The civil parish had a population of 5,113 according to the 2011 Census. The three tiers of ...

Wheathampstead Wheathampstead is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north of St Albans. The population of the ward at the 2001 census was 6,058. Included within the parish is the small hamlet of Amwell. History Settlements in this area were ...

London Colney London Colney () is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. It is located to the north of London, close to Junction 22 of the M25 motorway. It is near St Albans and part of the St Albans District. At the time of the 2001 census ...

Chiswell Green Chiswell Green is a village, to the south of St. Albans, in the parish of St Stephen and district of City of St Albans in Hertfordshire. It has a population of approximately 2,800. It is in the civil parish of St. Stephen. It is located on the ...

and

Bricket Wood Bricket Wood is a village in the county of Hertfordshire, England, south of St Albans and north-northeast of Watford. History The area of Bricket Wood was mostly occupied by farmers until Bricket Wood railway station was built in 1861. In 18 ...

. Nearby towns include Hatfield to the east,

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...

to the northeast,

and

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...

to the northwest,

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

to the west,

to the southwest and

Borehamwood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...

to the south.

Communications

The

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...

, the M25 motorway, the A414 road and

A1081 road The A1081 is a road in the south of England. It starts at Luton Airport in Bedfordshire and runs to High Barnet in Greater London via Harpenden, St Albans and London Colney, a distance of around . For most of its length, the A1081 follows the ...

run through the district. There are rail routes to

London St Pancras St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a London station group, central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Bor ...

from

St Albans City railway station St Albans City railway station, also known simply as St Albans, is one of two railway stations serving the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England (the other being ). The 'City' station is the larger of the two, as it is on the better-conn ...

and to

from St Albans Abbey railway station.

Governance

Local government responsibilities are divided among Hertfordshire County Council, St Albans City and District Council and local parish councils. Hertfordshire County Council is responsible for education, transport, fire and public safety, social care and libraries. The district council has a wide range of responsibilities including electoral services, food safety, licensing, car parks, allotments, cemeteries, grounds maintenance, leisure and theatre facilities (in Council's ownership) museums, parks and open spaces, markets, street cleaning, management and maintenance of council owned housing, the administration of housing benefits, planning applications, building control, local development framework and spatial planning. Parish council responsibilities include allotments, youth projects, leisure facilities, open spaces, traffic calming and community transport schemes.St Albans City and District Council website

District council

The main offices of St Albans City and District Council are in St Albans. There are 56 elected councillors, representing twenty

electoral wards The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and dist ...

. 18 wards elect three councillors each; two elect two each. Since 2021, the Liberal Democrats have had control of the council. Its present (2022) composition is: Liberal Democrats – 50,

Conservative 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 ...

– 4;

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

– 1; Independent – 1. The party group leaders are: Liberal Democrats – Chris White; Conservatives – Brian Ellis; Independent and Green –

Simon Grover Simon Grover (born 25 November 1966) is a British actor and writer. He is also a Green Party Councillor on St Albans City Council.http://stalbans.moderngov.co.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=821 Simon Grover's page at St Albans Council website As an ...

Electoral wards

Electoral wards were update in 2022 as part of a Boundary Review by the Boundary Commission.

Electoral history

Elections to the council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of seats on the council being elected at each election. Since the first election in 1973, the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats have had periods in control. The Conservatives had a majority from 1973 to 1984, and then again from 1988 to 1991 after a period of no overall control. The Liberal Democrats won control in 1994 but lost their majority in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

. They had control from 2006 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2011. In the 2011 election the Conservatives took half the seats, with 29

councillor 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 ...

s. The Conservatives won a majority in the 2015 election which they held until

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. The Liberal Democrats regained control in the 2021 election, which was delayed from 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Mayoralty

St Albans has had a Mayor for over 450 years since the Charter of 1553. Under modern arrangements, there is an Executive Cabinet of eight senior councillors and the Mayor's role is purely ceremonial. A list of past Mayors is available on the St Albans City and District Council website.

Parish councils

There are parish councils in Colney Heath, Harpenden,

Harpenden Rural Harpenden Rural is a civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England, to the west of Harpenden parish. The local council is Harpenden Rural Parish Council. It was created on 15 April 1898 when the former Harpenden ...

, London Colney, Redbourn,

St Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

, St Stephen (including the villages of Chiswell Green and Bricket Wood),

Sandridge Sandridge is a village and civil parish between St Albans and Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, England. History The original name was "Saundruage" meaning a place of sandy soil serviced by bond tenants. The earliest recorded mention of Sandri ...

and Wheathampstead. The city of St Albans is unparished but local affairs are overseen by a City Neighbourhoods Committee.

Economy

The City and District of St Albans has a strong local economy, is an excellent location for rail, road and airports, and is seen by many employers as a desirable place to be. The District also benefits from the proximity of the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

, based close by at Hatfield, which is one of the country's leading business orientated universities. St Albans has a highly skilled workforce, with the 4th highest proportion of managers, senior officials and professional occupations in the country. Nearly half of working age residents have a degree or equivalent qualification. Average weekly earnings are £724.40, 44% higher than the national average. The St Albans District has lower than average unemployment and the lowest in Hertfordshire. 2.8% of residents are disabled or permanently sick, compared with 5–6% nationally.

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

Spreadex Spreadex is a British-based company that offers financial spread betting, sports spread betting, and sports fixed-odds betting. History Spreadex commenced trading in 1999 in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. It was founded by former City dealer Jonatha ...

AECOM AECOM (, ; formerly AECOM Technology Corporation) is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm. AECOM has approximately 51,000 employees, and is number 157 on the 2019 Fortune 500 list. The company's official name from 1990 t ...

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounti ...

and

Premier Foods Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The group owns many well-known brands, including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia, Bird's Custard, Angel Delight, Homepride cooking sauces, Lyons, Sharwood's, Loy ...

have offices in the district.

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

Retail Distribution Centre at London Colney employs over 600 staff.

Demography

In 2001 St Albans City and District had a population of 129,005 (50.8% female, 49.2% male). The mid 2012 population estimate was 138,800. In 2001 there were 20.5% children, 64.5% people of working age (16–64) and 14.9% older people (65+). 86.9% of St Albans residents are White British, 4.3% Other White, 2% Irish and 1.3% Bangladeshi. 71% identify as Christian, 24.1% as "no religion" or "religion not stated", 2.6% as Muslim and 0.9% as Jewish.

Twin towns

St Albans is twinned with: *

Fano Fano is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the '' Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by po ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Nyíregyháza Nyíregyháza (, sk, Níreďháza) is a city with county rights in northeastern Hungary and the county capital of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. With a population of 118,001, it is the seventh-largest city in Hungary and the second largest in ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

Nevers Nevers ( , ; la, Noviodunum, later ''Nevirnum'' and ''Nebirnum'') is the prefecture of the Nièvre department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in central France. It was the principal city of the former province of Nivernais. It is sou ...

, France *

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had about 82,000 inhabitants . A pre-Roman foundation, Worms is one of the oldest cities in northern Europe. It wa ...

Nieuwleusen Nieuwleusen (Low Saxon: ''Ni'jlusen'') is a town in the Dutch province of Overijssel with 9300 inhabitants as of 2021. In the 2001 municipal reform, most of the former municipality of Nieuwleusen was incorporated into the municipality of Dalfsen. ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

* Sylhet,

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

In addition, there are ''friendship links'' with: * HMS St Albans (F83)

Arms

References

External links

St Albans District Council official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:St Albans, City Of Cities in the East of England Districts of Hertfordshire

Borough Council A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

Boroughs in England