North Tyneside

This article is about the metropolitan borough. For the parliamentary constituency, see North Tyneside (UK Parliament constituency).

Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside
Metropolitan borough
Wallsend Town Hall, the seat of North Tyneside Council
Coat of Arms of the Borough Council
Motto: We Serve
Location of North Tyneside in England
Coordinates:
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North East
County	Tyne and Wear
Established	1 April 1974
Admin HQ	Wallsend
Government
• Type	Mayor and Cabinet
• MPs	Mary Glindon Alan Campbell
Area
• Land	31.81 sq mi (82.38 km2)
Population (2011)
• Estimate (2011)	202,744 (Ranked 85th)
• Density	6,026/sq mi (2,326.5/km2)
• Ethnicity (2011 census)	95.1% White British 2.1% Asian
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Website	www.northtyneside.gov.uk

The Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England, and is part of the Tyneside conurbation. Its seat is Wallsend Town Hall.

North Tyneside is bounded by Newcastle upon Tyne to the west, the North Sea to the east, the River Tyne to the south and Northumberland to the north. Within its bounds are the towns of Wallsend, North Shields and Whitley Bay, which form a continuously built-up area contiguous with Newcastle.

History

The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the county borough of Tynemouth, with the borough of Wallsend, part of the borough of Whitley Bay, the urban district of Longbenton and part of the urban district of Seaton Valley, all of which were in Northumberland.

Geography

The following places are located in North Tyneside:

• Annitsford
• Backworth
• Benton
• Burradon
• Camperdown
• Cullercoats
• Earsdon
• Forest Hall
• Holystone
• Killingworth
• Monkseaton
• Moorside
• Murton
• New York
• North Shields
• Northumberland Park
• Preston
• Seaton Burn
• Shiremoor
• Tynemouth
• Wallsend
• West Allotment
• Whitley Bay

Administration and elections

Unlike most English districts, its council is led by a directly-elected mayor, currently Labour's Norma Redfearn. After the 2012 elections the council was Labour led, Labour having 43 councillors, the Conservatives 12 and the Lib Dems 5.

The council is elected "in thirds", with one councillor from each three-member ward elected each year for the first three years, the mayoral election being held on the fourth year. With three councillors elected from each of 20 wards, there are 60 councillors in total.

Past election results

2008 Results

A third of the councillors were elected as part of the English local elections of 2008.

Party	No. of 2007 Councillors	No. of 2008 Councillors	%	±%
Labour	23	21	35	-3.3 from 2007
Conservative	28	31	52	+5 from 2007
Liberal Democrats	9	8	13	-1.6 from 2007

2007 Results

A third of the councillors were elected as part of the English local elections of 2007.

Party	No. of 2006 Councillors	No. of 2007 Councillors	%	±%
Labour	23	23	38.3	0 from 2006
Conservative	28	28	46.6	0 from 2006
Liberal Democrats	8	9	15	+1.6 from 2006
Independent	1	0	0	- 1.6 from 2006

2006 Results

Party	No. of 2004 Councillors	No. of 2006 Councillors	%	±%
Labour	26	23	38.3	-5 from 2004
Conservative	27	28	46.6	+1.6 from 2004
Liberal Democrats	7	8	13.3	+1.6 from 2004
Independent	0	1	1.6	+1.6 from 2004

2005 Mayoral Results

Party	Name of Candidate	Votes	%
Labour	John Lawrence Langford Harrison	40,460	42.52
Conservative	Linda Arkley	39,458	41.47
Liberal Democrats	Dr Joan Harvey	12,761	13.41
British National Front	Robert Nigel Batten	2,470	2.6

2004 Results

Party	No. of 2003 Councillors	No. of 2004 Councillors	%	±%
Labour	29	26	43.3	-4.8 from 2003
Conservative	21	27	45	+9.6 from 2003
Liberal Democrats	8	7	11.6	-1.6 from 2003
Independent	2	0	0	-3.3 from 2003

2003 Mayoral and Election Results

Party	Name of Candidate	Votes	%
Conservative	Linda Arkley	21,288	43.38
Labour	Gordon Adam	16,427	33.47
Liberal Democrats	Michael Huscroft	8,404	17.12
British National Front	Robert Nigel Batten	2,554	5.20
Socialist Alliance	Louise Van Der Hoeven	400	0.81

Party	No. of 2002 Councillors	No. of 2003 Councillors	%	±%
Labour	34	29	48.3	-8.3 from 2003
Conservative	19	21	35	+3.3 from 2002
Liberal Democrats	7	8	13.3	+1.6 from 2002
Independent	0	2	3.2	+3.3 from 2002

2002 Results

Party	No. of 2001 Councillors	No. of 2002 Councillors	%	±%
Labour	35	34	56.6	-1.6 from 2001
Conservative	17	19	31.6	+3.3 from 2001
Liberal Democrats	8	7	11.6	-1.6 from 2001

Economy

North Tyneside lies in the coalfield that covers the South-East of the historic county of Northumberland. It has traditionally been a centre of heavy industry along with the rest of Tyneside, with for example the Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend, and export of coal. Today most of the heavy industry has gone, leaving high unemployment in some areas (over the borough, 3.2% compared to 2.7% for the UK). The borough is the 69th most deprived in England, out of 354. However some parts function as wealthy dormitory suburbs of Newcastle, such as Tynemouth. Recent growth has come in the A19 corridor with new industrial estates and retail parks.

Transport

Tyne Tunnel Southern Entrance

Two key roads serve North Tyneside:

• The A19 which leaves the A1 north of Newcastle and runs through the borough and then through the Tyne Tunnel to South Tyneside, Teesside and towards the South.
• The Coast Road (A1058) runs from Newcastle to the coast. For most of its length it is grade-separated.

North Tyneside is served by 17 stations on the Tyne & Wear Metro on a loop from Newcastle through Wallsend, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Benton and back to Newcastle. Trains operate at least every 15 minutes, with extra services in the peak hours. Most of the stations serving North Tyneside fall into fare zones B and C.

There are no National Rail stations in the borough, despite the East Coast Main Line and Blyth and Tyne routes passing through. The nearest National Rail station is Newcastle Central, which is also served by the Tyne and Wear Metro.

North Tyneside has an extensive bus network, with most areas benefiting from direct services to Newcastle. Many areas have direct bus services to Cramlington, Blyth or Morpeth. The principle bus operators in the area are Arriva (all areas), Go North-East (most areas) and Stageoach in Newcastle (Benton, Forest Hall, Killingworth and Wallsend).

The Shields Ferry links North Shields to South Shields, in South Tyneside.

There is an international ferry terminal at Royal Quays in North Shields, with services to Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Places of interest

Segudunum Roman fort

• Segedunum Roman fort is in Wallsend (at the end of Hadrian's wall).
• The Stephenson Railway Museum in New York, named after George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson who hailed from Tyneside and lived in West Moor in North Tyneside 1802–1824.
• Tynemouth Castle and Priory
• North Tyneside includes a vast coastline covering Tynemouth, Cullercoats and Whitley Bay
• Blue Reef Aquarium in Tynemouth
• St. Mary's Island in Whitley Bay

Twinned towns

• Frederikshavn in Denmark
• Monchengladbach in Germany
• Oer-Erkenschwick in Germany
• Halluin in France
• Klaipėda in Lithuania
• Coatzacoalcos in Mexico

External links

• Archives of North Tyneside (including boroughs of Tynemouth, Wallsend and Whitley Bay and Longbenton Urban District are preserved and accessible at Tyne and Wear Archives Service [1]
• Wallsend Town Information regarding the town centre and areas covering Wallsend in North Tyneside can be found here.