Kirklees

Borough of Kirklees
Geography
Status:	Metropolitan borough
Region:	Yorkshire and the Humber
Ceremonial County:	West Yorkshire
Area: - Total	Ranked 115th 408.60 km²
Admin. HQ:	Huddersfield
ONS code:	00CZ
Demographics
Population: - Total (2002 est.) - Density	Ranked 7th 389,486 953 / km²
Ethnicity:	85.6% White 11.4% S.Asian 1.4% Afro-Carib.
Politics
Kirklees Metropolitan Council http://www.kirkleesmc.gov.uk/
Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
Executive:
MPs:	David Hinchliffe, Kali Mountford, Barry Sheerman, Ann Taylor, Mike Wood

Kirklees is a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire. It has a population of 390,000 and includes Batley, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury Holmfirth, Huddersfield and Meltham.

The borough is the most populated borough or district in England not to have city status: a Metropolitan borough cannot be a city as it covers an area consisting of dozens of towns and villages. One of its towns, Huddersfield, is recognised as the largest town in Europe. In an unofficial referendum by the local media a significant majority of the town population did not support city status.

One attraction in Kirklees is Kirklees light railway. The border of Kirklees borough with Derbyshire runs across the summit of the significant hill named Black Hill.

Most of Kirklees consists of old mill towns, although there are a few country villages, such as Denby Dale and Emley . One of the last remaining Collieries in West Yorkshire is at Scissett (the other at Kellingley) ; the mine was so small that it was never nationalised and has always been in private hands.

Some parts of Kirklees suffer from high levels of deprivation, such as the east end of Huddersfield, around Dalton and Deighton, and also large areas of Dewsbury and Batley – two towns which have been made into a special E.U. transformation area to address their problems.