Talk:West Midlands conurbation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article falls within the scope of WikiProject UK geography, a user-group dedicated to building a comprehensive and quality guide to places in the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you wish to participate, share ideas or merely get tips you can join us at the project page where there are resources, to do lists and guidelines on how to write about settlements.
United Kingdom Portal
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the assessment scale. (Add assessment comments)
Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance within the UK geography WikiProject.

This article is within the scope of the West Midlands WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the West Midlands. In so doing it works and collaborates with the two related projects UK Geography WikiProject and UK Subdivisions WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. Please also feel free to join in the discussions on the project's talk page.
An editor has requested that an image be added to this article. Please try to add a suitable image. Once the requested image is added, remove the imageneeded template call on this page to remove this image request.
Start This page has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.
Top This article has been rated as top-importance on the importance scale.

Would you like to tell me why you claim that Water Orton, Coleshill etc, are part of the West Midlands conurbation when the map quite clearly shows them to be seperate. Do you actually understand what conurbation means. G-Man 23:27, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

Do you actually understand what conurbation means: Yes. Unlike you, it seems. Andy Mabbett 23:30, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

I see you are adopting your usual tactic of not answering my question. That is not an answer. So let me go through this.

  1. A conurbation is a continuous built up area, without any breaks in the urban continuity.
  2. The map above clearly shows that Water Orton, Coleshill, etc are physically seperate from the continuous urban area of the West Midlands conurbation, and are separated by an area of countryside.
  3. Therefore if they are seperate from the urban area, they cannot by definition be part of the conurbation.

Therefore I will ask you again, how exactly can they be part of the West Midlands conurbation. G-Man 23:58, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

See also Talk:Coleshill, Warwickshire. These schematic maps aren't much cop, as they exaggerate the motorway width. The OS map makes your point very clear: there is a gap. 213.130.142.14 10:59, 28 August 2005 (UTC)


Can I add several places in Staffordshire that are clearly part of the conurbation? How about Perton, Lower Penn, Westcroft, Essington - possibly even Codsall (tiny gap) and Coven Heath (separated simply by M54)? All of the above mentioned are directly connected to Wolverhampton, with no (or barely any) discernable gap between. I'll not change the article in order to stay out of the editing fight...

However, I will also point out that "Greater Birmingham" isn't a phrase used to describe the West Midlands conurbation, certainly not outside Birmingham/Solihull. The use of this term once by a local newspaper in a recent story regading possible future local government caused a storm of protest in the Wolverhampton area.

Yes; you can - anyone can edit WIkipedia. Andy Mabbett 19:50, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Water Orton & Coleshill

G-Man asks above why these have been included as part of the conurbation. The answer is because the government says they are. See the National Statistics page here where Coleshill, Water Orton and also Hagley in Worcestershire are the areas outside the West Midlands county which are included in the West Midlands Urban Area. The other areas mentioned above in the Wolverhampton area are not included (unless we can assume they are treated simply as part of the Wolverhampton urban area). I am re-editing the article to include this info (and also to source the figures etc.). I am also changing the figure of 2,275,000 to the figure quoted (for 2001) in the National Statistics source (2,284,093); the 2,275,000 is taken from Largest urban areas of the European Union article and I can see no definitive source on this page for the (suspiciously round) figure of 2,275,000. Valiantis 18:46, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject: West Midlands proposal

I have proposed the creation of WikiProject: West Midlands at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#West Midlands. If you are interested in participating in the project, if created, please add your name to the list. Thank you. - Erebus555 18:51, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.


I object to the moving of this article and request that it be returned to West Midlands Conurbation ASAP. Andy Mabbett 22:08, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it would have been nice to gain a consensus for the move. Fingerpuppet 07:27, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
Indeed, one user has been going around systematically moving all the "Greater X" and "X conurbation" articles to "X urban area", regardless of the actual content of the articles or the established names of the areas. Along with this article, Greater Bristol, South East Dorset conurbation and Dearne Valley are especially inappropriate moves IMO. Joe D (t) 14:37, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

This article has been renamed from West Midlands urban area to West Midlands conurbation as the result of a move request. --Stemonitis 14:55, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. Andy Mabbett 23:02, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
The West Midlands Urban Area might be preferable for a couple of reasons though - it's the official name (see [1], [2], [3]), and it would also bring this article into line with other similar articles such as Greater London Urban Area, Greater Manchester Urban Area and West Yorkshire Urban Area. If it was moved the U and the A ought to be capitalised though as they would be part of a proper noun, not a modifier of the proper noun "West Midlands". Demograph 19:57, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
Agreed, it should be West Midlands Urban Area and not West Midlands urban area. L.J.Skinnerwot|I did 17:00, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
It should remain as "WM conurbation"; it's clear from the content that that's what this article refers to. Andy Mabbett 17:17, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
No it's not.
Yes it is; the text you cite is preceded by the caveat "Although the exact boundaries of any conurbation are open to debate,"; and does not include the areas referred to in the introduction ("the conurbation ... does include parts of the surrounding counties of Staffordshire (e.g. Little Aston, Perton), Warwickshire (specifically Coleshill and Water Orton) and Worcestershire (Hagley)"). Andy Mabbett 05:49, 13 June 2007 (UTC)


Indeed it does, as the article includes information regarding the ONS's West Midlands Urban Area - hence a lack of references to this point would be bad practice. The area is more commonly known as the West Midlands conurbation, and as mentioned in the article, "although the exact boundaries of any conurbation are open to debate, dependent on what criteria are used to determine where an urban area ceases", it then goes onto describe an interpretation of that, with the ONS's "50m" figure. The European Union has a 200m definition of a single urban area - therefore the West Midlands conurbation can be seen as non-coterminus with the ONS's West Midlands Urban Area.
It's not at all scientific, but Google gives 81 hits for "West Midlands Urban Area" and 37,000 for "West Midlands conurbation". Fingerpuppet 06:00, 13 June 2007 (UTC)