City of St Albans

For City in Vermont, see St. Albans (city), Vermont.

For other uses, see St. Albans (disambiguation).

City of St Albans
Non-metropolitan district, Borough, City
St Albans Cathedral
Coat of arms
St Albans shown within Hertfordshire
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	East of England
Non-metropolitan county	Hertfordshire
Status	Non-metropolitan district, Borough, City
Admin HQ	St Albans
Incorporated	1 April 1974
Government
• Type	Non-metropolitan district council
• Body	St Albans City and District Council
• Leadership	Leader & Cabinet
• MPs	Anne Main Peter Lilley
Area
• Total	62.23 sq mi (161.18 km2)
Area rank	182nd (of 326)
Population (mid-2014 est.)
• Rank	(of 326)
• Ethnicity	90.9% White 4.1% S.Asian 1.7% Black 1.9% Mixed Race 1.4% Chinese or Other
Time zone	GMT (UTC0)
• Summer (DST)	BST (UTC+1)
ONS code	26UG (ONS) E07000100 (GSS)
OS grid reference	TL148073
Website	www.stalbans.gov.uk

The City of St Albans (/sᵻnt ˈɔːlbənz/), also known as the City and District of St Albans or District of St Albans, is a local government district, in Hertfordshire, England. It was created in 1974 and since then has held the status of non-metropolitan district and city; the major settlement being St Albans. The local authority is St Albans City Council. It has routes to the M1 motorway via the A414 road (formerly the M10 motorway), and rail routes to London St Pancras and Watford via St Albans City railway station and St Albans Abbey railway station respectively.

History

The district was created on 1 April 1974 as a merger of the Municipal Borough of St Albans, the Harpenden Urban District and most of St Albans Rural District. City status had been granted to the municipal borough of St Albans in 1877, following the elevation of St Albans Abbey to cathedral. The status was granted to the entire district by letters patent dated 9 July 1974.

Geography

The district includes the unparished area of St Albans and the civil parishes of Colney Heath, Harpenden, Harpenden Rural, London Colney, Redbourn, St Michael, St Stephen (including the villages of Chiswell Green and Bricket Wood), Sandridge and Wheathampstead.

Nearby places outside the district include Hatfield to the east, Welwyn Garden City to the northeast, Luton and Dunstable to the northwest, Hemel Hempstead to the west, Watford to the southwest and Borehamwood to the south.

Governance

See also: St Albans City and District Council elections

The local authority is St Albans City and District Council, which is based in St Albans. As of the 2014 election no party has a majority, although the Conservative party has exactly half of the seats, with 29 of the 58 councillors.

Civil parishes

Most of the population of the district is within one of nine civil parishes. St Albans is an unparished area in the middle of the district. The unparished area of the City is now overseen by the City Neighbourhoods Committee.

Parish	Council	Population (2011)	Area (2011)
Colney Heath	Colney Heath Parish Council	5,962	1,119 hectares (4.32 sq mi)
Harpenden	Harpenden Town Council	29,448	1,278 hectares (4.93 sq mi)
Harpenden Rural	Harpenden Rural Parish Council	405	923 hectares (3.56 sq mi)
London Colney	London Colney Parish Council	9,507	513 hectares (1.98 sq mi)
Redbourn	Redbourn Parish Council	5,344	1,908 hectares (7.37 sq mi)
Sandridge	Sandridge Parish Council	11,451	1,518 hectares (5.86 sq mi)
St Michael	St Michael Parish Council	477	2,120 hectares (8.2 sq mi)
St Stephen	St Stephen Parish Council	13,865	2,329 hectares (8.99 sq mi)
Wheathampstead	Wheathampstead Parish Council	6,410	2,599 hectares (10.03 sq mi)
Total parishes		82,869	14,307 hectares (55.24 sq mi)
St Albans (unparished)	City Neighbourhood Committee	57,795	1,811 hectares (6.99 sq mi)
Total City of St Albans	St Albans City Council	140,664	16,118 hectares (62.23 sq mi)

Economy

The City and District of St Albans has a strong local economy, a highly skilled workforce, an excellent location for rail, road and airports and is seen by many employers as a desirable place to be. The District also benefits from the proximity of the University of Hertfordshire, based close by at Hatfield, which is one of the country’s leading business orientated universities.

Well-known firms such as Deloitte, Spreadex, AECOM, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Premier Foods all have large office bases in the area. It also has many distributive industries such as the Sainsbury's Retail Distribution Centre at London Colney which employs over 600 staff.

Demography

The 2001 census showed a population of 129,005 with a split of 50.84% to 49.16% female to male. The Office for National Statistics mid-2012 estimates the population at 138,800. The age split in the 2001 census recorded 20.5% children, 64,5% of working age (16-64) and 14.9% older people (65+).

86.9% of St Albans residents are White British, with 4.3% identified as Other White, 2% Irish, and 1.3% Bangladeshi. The majoriy of St Albans residents identify themselves as Christians (71%), followed by no religion or religion not stated (24.1%), Muslim (2.6%) and Jewish (0.9%).

In terms of employment, St Albans has a highly skilled workforce, having the 4th highest proportion of managers, senior officials and professional occupations in the country. It has lower than the national average unemployment figures, and the lowest level in Hertfordshire.

St Albans has a very low proportion of people reporting they are permanently sick or disabled (2.8%) compared with the proportion nationally (5-6%).

In 2001 nearly 50% of residents (aged 16–64) hold a degree or equivalent and the average weekly earnings of £724.40 is 44% higher than the national average.

Twin towns

St Albans is twinned with:

• Fano, Italy
• Nyíregyháza, Hungary
• Nevers, France
• Odense, Denmark
• Worms, Germany
• Nieuwleusen, Netherlands
• Sylhet, Bangladesh

In addition, there are friendship links with:

• HMS St Albans (F83)