With some frustration, I see signs that announce my arrival in a non-existent place - Redcar & Cleveland. This is a perfect example of councils getting too big for their boots and up their own arses, leading to the erection of various signs designed to boost self-importance yet further.
Redcar is a town. Cleveland is the name (derived from an historic region) given to the non-metropolitan county that existed between 1974 and 1996. Redcar was thus, during those years, a town within the county of Cleveland. However, for the last seventeen years, there has been no such county as Cleveland in the United Kingdom. Reference therefore to 'Cleveland' is rendered pointless and irrelevant in the current day.
When Cleveland was abolished as a county, four unitary authorities were created. The status as a unitary authority for Langbaurgh-on-Tees would have been fine from April 1st 1996, but sadly it took on a new name. Renaming it 'Redcar & Cleveland' was neither helpful nor sensible, because this simply confused the fuck out of everyone. Hartlepool, Langbaurgh-on-Tees, Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough were the four parts of the old county, so why did one have to be renamed, and renamed so inappropriately?
The council has done a disservice to Redcar. Announcing via a sign that one might be 'entering Redcar & Cleveland' (which as we have established is not in fact a place) is in no way the same message as 'entering Redcar'. In fact, the town of Redcar has suffered a loss of identity, as distinction from the unitary authority is now not recognised. The council (Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council) seems interested only in promoting itself, and not with the place known as Redcar. As for 'Cleveland', well the council's mission to mark its boundaries, much like a fox pissing against a tree, serves only to confuse. An administrative authority is NOT a place!
Just to be clear, then: Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council (formerly Langbaurgh-on-Tees) is a unitary authority, and thus an administrative region, for an area that actually falls within the borders of North Yorkshire. Cleveland does not exist, but Redcar does, although it is denied identity and independence by its own council operating as a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, as part of the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Got that?
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