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East of England
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The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Its population as of the 2001 census was 5,388,140. The area is mostly low-lying, and the highest place is an unnamed point near the hill of Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire in the South East region, reaching 249 m (817 ft). Peterborough, Luton and Southend-on-Sea are the region's most populous urban areas.
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Encyclopedia
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Its population as of the 2001 census was 5,388,140. The area is mostly low-lying, and the highest place is an unnamed point near the hill of Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire in the South East region, reaching 249 m (817 ft). Peterborough, Luton and Southend-on-Sea are the region's most populous urban areas. The southern part of the region lies in the London commuter belt.
Historical use
Before the creation of the East of England region there had been a smaller standard statistical region of East Anglia which did not include Essex, Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire. They had previously been included in the South East region. The East of England civil defence region shared the boundaries of the current region.
Common use
In common usage the easterly parts of this area, have long been and, continue to be known as East Anglia. The areas closer to London are more commonly called part of the South East with Hertfordshire and Essex included in the "Home Counties".
Demographics
For regions in England, the East of England has the lowest overall teenage pregnancy rate. Inside the East of England, the top-tier authority with the highest rate is Peterborough. The council district with the highest rate is Norwich closely followed by Great Yarmouth. For top-tier authorities, Hertfordshire has the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy. For council districts, Uttlesford in north-west Essex has the lowest rate.
Governance
Regional government
An East of England Regional Assembly exists to co-ordinate the work of the local councils in the area and provides other functions; it is not an elected body. It is based in Flempton on the A1101 north-west of Bury St Edmunds. The powers held by the regional assembly will pass to the East of England Development Agency in 2010. The Government maintains the Government office for the East of England. The East of England also elects MEPs for the East of England (European Parliament constituency).
East of England Plan
The current version of the East of England Plan, a Revision of the Regional Spatial Strategy for the East of England, was published on 12th May 2008
Local government
The official region consists of the following subdivisions:
| Map | Ceremonial county | Shire county / unitary | Districts |
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| | Essex | 1. Thurrock U.A. | | 2. Southend-on-Sea U.A. | | 3. Essex | a.) Harlow, b.) Epping Forest, c.) Brentwood, d.) Basildon, e.) Castle Point, f.) Rochford, g.) Maldon, h.) Chelmsford, i.) Uttlesford, j.) Braintree, k.) Colchester, l.) Tendring | | 4. Hertfordshire | a.) Three Rivers, b.) Watford, c.) Hertsmere, d.) Welwyn Hatfield, e.) Broxbourne, f.) East Hertfordshire, g.) Stevenage, h.) North Hertfordshire, i.) St Albans, j.) Dacorum | | Bedfordshire | 5. Luton U.A. | | 6. Bedfordshire | a.) Bedford, b.) Mid Bedfordshire, c.) South Bedfordshire | | Cambridgeshire | 7. Cambridgeshire | a.) Cambridge, b.) South Cambridgeshire, c.) Huntingdonshire, d.) Fenland, e.) East Cambridgeshire | | 8. Peterborough U.A. | | 9. Norfolk | a.) Norwich, b.) South Norfolk, c.) Great Yarmouth, d.) Broadland, e.) North Norfolk, f.) King's Lynn and West Norfolk, g.) Breckland | | 10. Suffolk | a.) Ipswich, b.) Suffolk Coastal, c.) Waveney, d.) Mid Suffolk, e.) Babergh, f.) St. Edmundsbury, g.) Forest Heath |
Economy
The former electricity company for the area, Eastern Electricity, has the area's distribution now looked after by (French) EDF Energy.
Hertfordshire
The Greater Watford area is home to Camelot Group (owners of the National Lottery), British Waterways, the UK headquarters of international firms Total Oil and Skanska construction, retailers TK Maxx, Majestic Wine, Mothercare, and Costco, Leavesden Film Studios, Sanyo UK, Olympus UK Kenwood and Beko electronic goods manufacturers, Wetherspoons pub chains, the European HQ of the Hilton hotel group and Nestlé Waters. Comet Group plc is in Rickmansworth. Renault UK is in Maple Cross. In Elstree and Borehamwood (close to the A1 motorway) are the Elstree Studios, where the Star Wars films were made and more recently Big Brother, and Hasselblad UK is based in Elstree. Borehamwood is also home to BBC Elstree and Pizza Hut UK. The Boy's Brigade, DSG International (owners of Currys, Sir Robert McAlpine and PC World), while 3Com, Epson UK, Steria (formerly Bull and Honeywell), and Kodak have their UK bases in Hemel Hempstead. In Welwyn Garden City are PayPoint, the headquarters of the Thresher Group, and the UK headquarters of Xerox and Hoffmann–La Roche. Shredded Wheat and Shreddies were manufactured in the town by Nestlé (Cereal Partners) until April 2008. DuPont UK is in Stevenage. Tesco is based in Cheshunt, and Computacenter and T-Mobile UK are in Hatfield. Polaroid UK, Premier Foods and Viglen are in St Albans.
Bedfordshire
Moto Hospitality have their headquarters at Toddington in Bedfordshire (at the service station). Luton is home to easyJet, InBev, Vauxhall, the Bay Restaurant Group (owner of Slug and Lettuce), Hain Celestial Group UK (who make Linda McCartney Foods) and the UK headquarters of Electrolux (owner of AEG and Zanussi), Chevrolet UK, and Saab Great Britain. Its neighbour in Dunstable is home to Whitbread. Bedford is home to Fujifilm UK and Charles Wells. Autoglass is in nearby Cardington. Kier Group is in Sandy. Connells is in Leighton Buzzard.
East Anglia
The economy in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk is traditionally mostly agricultural. Nationally known companies include Bernard Matthews, the RAC, Virgin Money and Norwich Union in Norwich, Greene King and Branston Pickle in Bury St Edmunds, and Campbell Soup in Kings Lynn. Lotus Cars are at Hethel. In Newmarket is the base of the UK horse racing industry. The main water company for the area, AWG plc is based in Huntingdon. Around Cambridge on numerous science parks, are high technology (electronics and biochemistry) companies, such as ARM Holdings, which form the so-called Silicon Fen. Cambridgeshire has a few RAF bases. Marshall Aerospace is at Cambridge Airport. The USAF still have bases in Suffolk. Subway UK (restaurants) is in Great Shelford. British Sugar is based in Peterborough, as is Perkins Engines. News International have a main office there and Indesit (owner of Hotpoint) have their UK headquarters in Woodston. The Scout Association is headquartered in Gilwell Park in south Essex and Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) are in Basildon. Federal Express Europe Inc is at Stansted Airport. Clinton Cards is in Loughton. Countrywide plc is in Witham, Essex. In Thurrock is Harveys Furniture in Purfleet and Unilever have a large margarine works there.
Transport
Education
Essex and Southend-on-Sea LEAs have selective schools. The others do not. Nine out of the top ten schools in the region (by A level results) are either in Essex or Southend-on-Sea. However, at GCSE, the best performing LEA is Hertfordshire, followed by Cambridgeshire and Southend-on-Sea. Suffolk also performs better than the England average of 45.8% attaining 5 grades A-C including Maths and English. In general, the region performs well at GCSE, with only Luton being low performing. Thurrock and Peterborough are next lowest, but are not underperforming areas. At A level, the best performing area is Southend-on-Sea, followed by Cambridgeshire and Essex. No other areas are above the England average. Thurrock is the least performing area, followed closely by Luton. At A level, Norfolk does not perform well for a rural county.
Cambridge has an eponymous very well known university as well as a second, much less well-known one. There are also other towns and cities in the region which have universities including Norwich (University of East Anglia) and Hatfield (University of Hertfordshire).
Top twenty state schools in the East of England (2008 A level results)
- 1. Colchester Royal Grammar School (1359)
- 2. King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford)
- 3. Chelmsford County High School
- 4. Colchester County High School
- 5. Southend High School for Boys
- 6. Hockerill Anglo-European College, Bishop's Stortford
- 7. Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge
- 8. Westcliff High School for Boys, Westcliff-on-Sea
- 9. Southend High School for Girls
- 10. Wymondham High School
- 11. The Broxbourne School
- 12. St John Payne Catholic Comprehensive School, Chelmsford
- 13. The King's School, Peterborough
- 14. Westcliff High School for Girls, Westcliff-on-Sea
- 15. Farlingaye High School, Woodbridge, Suffolk
- 16. Sir John Lawes School, Harpenden
- 17. Roundwood Park School, Harpenden
- 18. St Benedict's Roman Catholic Upper School, Bury St Edmunds
- 19. St Alban's Catholic High School, Ipswich
- 20. Northgate High School, Ipswich
Local media
- The BBC East region is based in Norwich, where the Look East regional programme is based. The BBC East region also includes Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire. Anglia Television is also based in Norwich, which has the Anglia Tonight regional programme.
- BBC radios Norfolk, Suffolk, Three Counties, Cambridgeshire and Essex.
- Commercial radio stations include Kiss 105-108, Heart 103 (formerly Q103), The Beach (Lowestoft), SGR-FM (Ipswich), 96.9 Chiltern FM (Bedford), 97.6 Chiltern FM (Dunstable), Mercury 96.6 (St Albans), Heart 102.4(formerly Radio Broadland), 99.9 Radio Norwich, North Norfolk Radio, KL.FM 96.7 (Kings Lynn), Hereward FM (Peterborough), Lite FM 106.8 (Peterborough), SGR Colchester, Ten 17 (Harlow), and Essex FM (Chelmsford).
- Local newspapers include the Bedfordshire on Sunday, Cambridge Evening News, East Anglian Daily Times, Eastern Daily Press, Evening Gazette (Essex), Evening Star (Ipswich), Norwich Evening News and the Times & Citizen (Bedford).
See also
External links
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