Дудли облысы: жергілікті басқару және халық санының динамикасы

the individual settlementthe local authority

Initially the borough had a two tier system of local government, with the borough council sharing power with the West Midlands County Council. In 1986 metropolitan county councils were abolished under the Local Government Act 1985, and Dudley effectively became a unitary authority.

The Mayor of the Borough acts as the Borough's first citizen attending many civic and ceremonial functions to represent the Council. They are elected at the Annual Meeting of the Council and serves for the whole of the Municipal Year until the next Annual Meeting. As part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, Dudley is also served by the Mayor of the West Midlands.

The 24 wards of the Dudley Borough are each represented by 3 councillors. Ward name Population (2021 census) Change since 2011 census Population density (residents per square km) Amblecote12,927Decrease ( 466)4,320.8 Belle Vale14,291Increase (+807)4,369.8 Brierley Hill15,016Increase (+1,081)3,463.6 Brockmoor and Pensnett14,726Increase (+1,803)2,798.5 Castle and Priory17,029Increase (+3,290)3,776.4 Coseley East13,409Increase (+1,052)4,165.6 Cradley and Wollescote13,730Increase (+290)3,287.0 Gornal13,354Increase (+362)2,854.4 Halesowen North13,359Increase (+1,186)3,287.1 Halesowen South12,245Increase (+86)1,747.9 Hayley Green and Cradley South11,980Increase (+118)2,638.0 Kingswinford North and Wall Heath11,853Decrease ( 708)2,816.7 Kingswinford South12,647Increase (+17)3,787.0 Lye and Stourbridge North12,467Increase (+118)3,629.0 Netherton, Woodside and St. Andrews14,909Decrease ( 108)2,819.8 Norton11,856Increase (+15)2,082.3 Pedmore and Stourbridge East12,284Decrease ( 187)2,656.9 Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood13,667Increase (+226)3,830.9 St. James's14,242Increase (+29)4,115.9 St. Thomas's16,285Increase (+1,891)4,832.5 Sedgley11,750Decrease ( 337)3,118.2 Upper Gornal and Woodsetton13,592Decrease ( 201)4,134.4 Wollaston and Stourbridge Town13,429Increase (+337)4,603.1 Wordsley12,440Decrease ( 412)4,225.1Source: ONS 2021 Census data via www. https://www. allaboutdudley. info/

Dudley borough has an increasing tourism offer, with attractions such as the Black Country Geopark being recognised in 2020 and the Stourbridge Glass Museum due to open in 2022. Tourism and the visitor economy is an important sector to the borough, supporting approximately 8,000 jobs. Many of the borough's tourist attractions draw on the industrial heritage of the area. For example, the Red House Glass Cone is an original structure from the 18th Century glass making industry in Stourbridge. The site includes designer maker studios, galleries and hot glass studio. The Stourbridge Glass Quarter locality is also home to The Lace Guild, Glasshouse Heritage Centre and hosts the International Festival of Glass every 2 years, most recently in 2019 with the 2021 festival postponed to 2022 due to the covid 19 pandemic. The Caste Hill area of Dudley is also a hub of visitor attractions including the Black Country Living Museum and the Canal and Tunnel Trust. Dudley Zoological Gardens, which is also in this area, is the second most visited paid visitor attraction in the West Midlands. The Archives and Local History Centre is now also the home of the council run Dudley Museum. The museum is also the headquarters of the Black Country Geopark. Along with sites recognised as part of the Geopark, the borough has seven nature reserves and many parks contributing to its green spaces. In 2021, the Green Flag award was obtained by seven of the boroughs sites (Buffery Park, Huntingtree Park, Mary Stevens Park, Priory Park, The Leasowes, Wrens Nest National Nature Reserve and Saltwells National Nature Reserve). Mary Stevens Park and Priory Park were also awarded Green Heritage Site status, with Abbey Road Allotments recognised with a Green Flag Community Award. Despite not being in the bounds of Dudley borough, Himley Hall and Park is owned and run by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. In addition to the 180 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland, the Hall has a gallery exhibition space and is a wedding venue.

Large public and private sector developments have taken place in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley since its creation in 1974. The closure of Round Oak Steelworks in December 1982 paved the way for the creation of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre on nearby farmland between 1985 and 1989. The Waterfront leisure and commercial complex was developed on the site of the steelworks itself between 1989 and 1995. Pensnett Trading Estate in Kingswinford has been developed since the 1960s for mostly light industry and services. A major redevelopment of Halesowen town centre took place in 2007/08, when the bus station was rebuilt and a section of the 1960s shopping area demolished to make way for a new Asda superstore. A similar redevelopment of Stourbridge town centre in 2011/12 saw most of the Crown Centre completely rebuilt to incorporate a new Tesco superstore. There are currently several major regeneration projects throughout the borough. Significant infrastructure projects include the new Dudley Transport Interchange and the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill West Midlands Metro extension. The 11km metro extension will connect Dudley, Merry Hill and Brierley Hill with the metro network and so to the proposed HS2 line. The first phase to Dudley town centre is expected to open for passenger services in 2024. The second phase will then extend to Brierley Hill, terminating in Cottage Street in the town centre following an additional £60million funding from central government. Regeneration projects around the Castle Hill area are combining innovation and education. The Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology opened in September 2021 and focuses delivery on higher level courses in manufacturing and engineering, medical engineering, modern construction methodologies and digital technologies. The Very Light Rail (VLR) National Innovation Centre will provide a research facility for the development of VLR technologies and projects. The centre will redevelop the former Dudley Railway Station and reconnect the town with the National Rail Network. The DY5 Business and Innovation Enterprise Zone was launched in 2017 with the ambition to create 7,000 new jobs over 25 years. The zone is centred around the Brierley Hill area. The Dudley Townscape Heritage programme is on ongoing programme of work improving historical buildings in Dudley town centre. Phase 1 ran from 2008 2015, phase 2 from 2017 2023. Phase 2 started following a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £1.2 million. As part of the programme historic buildings were identified, repaired or restored. Heritage trails and open days were also developed. In addition, further development of the former Dudley Museum and Art Gallery site has been proposed as part of a £4million scheme. The former Sessions Court in the same complext of buildings been converted into Brookes Bistro restaurant. Named for Brooke Robinson who was a former MP and coroner for Dudley and left a bequest which led to the building for the former Museum and Art Gallery, Town Hall and Coroners Court.

Relatively little new council housing has been built in the borough since the early 1980s, with almost all of the new social housing developments since then being built by housing associations. Most of the older private housing in the borough has been renovated rather than demolished during this time. However, there have been a number of redevelopment programmes involving 20th century council housing. In July 1999, four of the borough's tower blocks (two at Eve Hill in Dudley and two at Tanhouse in Halesowen) were demolished on consecutive weekends in controlled explosions. Two years later, two more tower blocks at Queens Cross in Dudley were demolished using the same method. Four tower blocks in Netherton are scheduled for demolition in 2017/18. In 2009, 266 homes on the predominantly 1930s Priory Estate in Dudley were demolished and the land later redeveloped with new housing. In the mid 1990s, the neighbouring Wren's Nest Estate underwent extensive refurbishment as well as improved community facilities in a multimillion pound project funded by the European Single Budget. Four blocks of low rise flats on the estate were demolished as part of the regeneration. Since 2017 small developments of council housing have been built, including bungalows, housing and low rise flats. Some properties have been designed to accommodate those with specific physical needs or those in need of supported living. The homes have been built across the borough (Brierley Hill, Coseley, Dudley, Halesowen, Kingswinford, Lower Gornal, Sedgley and Stourbridge). During this period Dudley Council have also built a number of homes for private sale. In November 2021 Dudley Council was named homebuilder of the year (organisations with 16,000 homes or more category) at the Inside Housing UK Housing Awards.

There are two further education colleges in the Dudley Borough: Dudley College of Technology, Halesowen College. The borough is also home to the King Edward VI sixth form college in Stourbridge, originally a grammar school established in 1552, converting to a sixth form centre in 1976. A small number of secondary schools in the borough offer sixth form facilities, while several others did so until the beginning of the 1990s when the local authority decided to concentrate post 16 education in further education colleges. In March 2011 Eton College and Star Academies announced their intention to open one of three sixth form colleges in Dudley, subject to funding through the Department for Education’s Free Schools Programme. Since the University of Wolverhampton closed its Dudley campus in 2002, the metropolitan borough is the largest district in the UK without its own university. Several projects in the Castle Hill area of the Dudley are now linking with local universities. The Black Country & Marches Institute of Technology opened in September 2021, with a focus on higher level engineering courses, it partners Dudley College of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, University of Worcester, In Comm Training Services Limited and Avensys UK Limited. A Higher Education Centre for Health & Care is proposed as a partnership between Dudley College of Technology and University of Worcester and expected to be open for Autumn 2024.

There are 104 Dudley Council schools: 78 Primary, 40 of which include a Nursery Unit (24 Primary Academy); 19 Secondary (of which 15 are Secondary Academy Schools) and 7 Special Schools. Pupils transfer to secondary school at the age of 11, although between 1972 and 1990 pupils in the north of borough transferred to secondary school at the age of 12, and from 1972 to 1982 there was a three tier education system in Halesowen where pupils entered first school at 5, middle school at 9 and secondary school at 13. The borough had well over 30 secondary schools on its creation, although this was quickly reduced as a result of the introduction of the comprehensive system a year later, which resulted in a number of schools being merged or closed. By September 1990, however, the number of secondary schools in the borough had fallen to 22 as a result of the closure of Gilbert Claughton and Mons Hill Schools and the merger of High Park and Longlands Schools in Stourbridge to form Ridgewood High. A year earlier, Castle High had been formed in the town centre of Dudley from a merger of The Dudley School and Blue Coat School; this new school also took in some of the former Gilbert Claughton and Mons Hill pupils. The 1980s had also seen the closure of some the borough's less popular and smaller primary schools, with the older buildings mostly being demolished and the more modern ones being converted for community use. The closure of Cradley High School in Halesowen in July 2008 saw the number of secondary schools in the borough fall to 21, and the total has remained at 20 since the closure of Pensnett High School in July 2012. When the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley was formed, many primary schools were existed as separate infant and junior or first and middle schools, but by 1990 virtually all of the separate schools had been merged to create full circle primary schools, the last separate infant and junior schools to merge being Red Hall in Lower Gornal in January 1997. There are no grammar schools in the borough, with all state schools being comprehensive, a system which has been universal in the borough since the mid 1970s. The Former grammar schools in the borough were Dudley's Boys Grammar and Girls High Schools (merged with Park Secondary Modern School in 1975 to form The Dudley School, which in turn merged with The Blue Coat School to form Castle High in 1989), Sir Gilbert Claughton Grammar School in Dudley (which adopted comprehensive status in 1975 before closing in 1990), Brierley Hill Grammar School (actually situated in Kingswinford; it has been known as the Crestwood School since adopting comprehensive status), King Edward VI Boys Grammar School in Stourbridge (which is now a mixed sixth form college), Stourbridge Girls High School (which merged with the Boys Grammar School and Valley Road Secondary Modern School to form Redhill School), Halesowen Grammar School (which merged with Halesowen Technical School to form Earls High School) and High Arcal Grammar School in Sedgley (which survives as a comprehensive school). The sole independent school in the borough is the Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School in Stourbridge, which follows the Steiner Waldorf curriculum. The Old Swinford Hospital school in Stourbridge is one of only 34 state funded boarding schools in England, with education being funded by the local education authority (LEA).

The main NHS hospital serving the borough is Russells Hall Hospital, situated to the south of Dudley town centre. Following a major expansion of the hospital in 2005, all inpatient services were transferred to the site from smaller hospitals around the borough, resulting in the closure of Wordsley Hospital, and the downgrading of the Guest Hospital and Corbett hospitals into outpatient centres. Psychiatric care is offered at the Bushey Fields Hospital, located adjacent to Russells Hall Hospital. See also Healthcare in West Midlands.

The following people, military units and Organisations and Groups have received the Freedom of the Borough of Dudley. The Roll of Freeman is displayed in the Council House on wood panelling at the entrance to the Council Chamber.