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North Tyneside

The Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England, and is part of the Tyneside conurbation. The borough council's main office is at Cobalt Business Park in Wallsend.

North Tyneside is bounded by Newcastle upon Tyne to the west, the North Sea to the east, the River Tyne to the south and Northumberland to the north. Within its bounds are the towns of Wallsend, North Shields, Killingworth and Whitley Bay, which form a continuously built-up area contiguous with Newcastle.

History

The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the county borough of Tynemouth, with the borough of Wallsend, part of the borough of Whitley Bay, the urban district of Longbenton and part of the urban district of Seaton Valley, all of which were in Northumberland.

Geography

The following places are located in North Tyneside:

Annitsford
Backworth
Battle Hill
Benton
Burradon
Camperdown
Cullercoats
Dudley
Earsdon
Forest Hall
Holystone
Howdon
Killingworth
Longbenton
Meadow Well
Monkseaton
Moorside
Murton
New York
North Shields
Northumberland Park
Palmersville
Percy Main
Preston
Seaton Burn
Shiremoor
Tynemouth
Wallsend
Wellfield
West Allotment
West Moor
Whitley Bay
Willington

Administration and elections

Unlike most English districts, its council is led by a directly-elected mayor, currently Labour's Norma Redfearn. , the council is Labour led, Labour having 51 councillors, the Conservatives 7 and the Lib Dems 2.

The council is elected "in thirds", with one councillor from each three-member ward elected each year for the first three years, the mayoral election being held on the fourth year. With three councillors elected from each of 20 wards, there are 60 councillors in total.

Economy

North Tyneside lies in the coalfield that covers the South-East of the historic county of Northumberland. It has traditionally been a centre of heavy industry along with the rest of Tyneside, with for example the Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend, and export of coal. Today most of the heavy industry has gone, leaving high unemployment in some areas (over the borough, 3.2% compared to 2.7% for the UK). The borough is the 69th most deprived in England, out of 354. However some parts function as wealthy dormitory suburbs of Newcastle, such as Tynemouth. Recent growth has come in the A19 corridor with new industrial estates and retail parks.

Transport

Two key roads serve North Tyneside:

The A19 which leaves the A1 north of Newcastle and runs through the borough and then through the Tyne Tunnel to South Tyneside, Teesside and towards the South.
The Coast Road (A1058) runs from Newcastle to the coast. For most of its length it is grade-separated.

North Tyneside is served by 17 stations on the Tyne & Wear Metro on a loop from Newcastle through Wallsend, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Benton and back to Newcastle. Trains operate at least every 15 minutes, with extra services in the peak hours. Most of the stations serving North Tyneside fall into fare zones B and C.

There are no National Rail stations in the borough, despite the East Coast Main Line and Blyth and Tyne routes passing through. The nearest National Rail station is Newcastle Central, which is also served by the Tyne and Wear Metro.

North Tyneside has an extensive bus network, with most areas benefiting from direct services to Newcastle. Many areas have direct bus services to Cramlington, Blyth or Morpeth. The principle bus operators in the area are Arriva (all areas), Go North-East (most areas) and Stagecoach in Newcastle (Benton, Forest Hall, Killingworth and Wallsend).

The Shields Ferry links North Shields to South Shields, in South Tyneside.

There is an international ferry terminal at Royal Quays in North Shields, with a service to Amsterdam (IJmuiden).

Places of interest

Segedunum Roman fort is in Wallsend (at the end of Hadrian's wall).
The Stephenson Railway Museum in New York, named after George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson who hailed from Tyneside and lived in West Moor in North Tyneside 1802–1824.
Tynemouth Castle and Priory
North Tyneside includes a vast coastline covering Tynemouth, Cullercoats and Whitley Bay
Blue Reef Aquarium in Tynemouth
St. Mary's Island in Whitley Bay
North Shields Fish Quay, Clifford's Fort and the High and Low Lights of North Shields

Twinned towns

Frederikshavn in Denmark
Mönchengladbach in Germany
Oer-Erkenschwick in Germany
Halluin in France
Klaipėda in Lithuania
Coatzacoalcos in Mexico

Text from Wikipedia, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (accessed: 22/12/2016).
Visit the page: North Tyneside for references and further details. You can contribute to this article on Wikipedia.

Tyne and Wear Annitsford Backworth Battle Hill, Wallsend Benton Burradon Camperdown Cullercoats Dudley Earsdon Forest Hall Historic Buildings and Monuments in North Tyneside Holystone Howdon Killingworth Longbenton Meadow Well Monkseaton Moorside Murton Village New York North Shields Northumberland Park (area) Palmersville Preston Rosehill Seaton Burn Shiremoor Tynemouth Wallsend Weetslade Wellfield West Allotment West Monkseaton West Moor Whitley Bay Wideopen Willington Quay Willington, North Tyneside

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