The City of Canterbury (/ˈkæntərbəri/)[1] is a local government district with city status in Kent, England. As well as Canterbury itself, the district extends north to the coastal towns of Whistable and Herne Bay.

City of Canterbury
Non-metropolitan district, borough, city
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury shown within Kent
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	South East England
Non-metropolitan county	Kent
Status	Non-metropolitan district, Borough, City
Admin HQ	Canterbury
Incorporated	1 April 1974
Government
• Type	Non-metropolitan district council
• Body	Canterbury City Council
• Leadership	Committee system, Ben Fitter-Harding (Conservative)
• MPs	Rosie Duffield Roger Gale
Area
• Total	119.24 sq mi (308.84 km2)
• Rank	131st (of 309)
Population  (mid-2019 est.)
• Total	165,394
• Rank	118th (of 309)
• Density	1,400/sq mi (540/km2)
• Ethnicity	93.4% White 2.2% S.Asian 1.6% Chinese and other 1.4% Mixed Race
Time zone	UTC0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
ONS code	29UC (ONS) E07000106 (GSS)
OS grid reference	TR145575
Website	www.canterbury.gov.uk
Click the map for an interactive fullscreen view

History

The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the existing city of Canterbury with the Whitstable and Herne Bay Urban Districts, and Bridge-Blean Rural District. The latter district entirely surrounded the city; the urban districts occupied the coastal area to the north.

Politics

Canterbury City Council
History
Founded	1 April 1974
Leadership
Lord Mayor	Anne Dekker, Conservative since 18 May 2022
Leader	Ben Fitter-Harding, Conservative since 10 September 2020[2]
Structure
Seats	39
Political groups	Conservative (22)   Labour (9)   Liberal Democrats (6)   Green (1)
Elections
Last election	2 May 2019
Next election	2023
Meeting place
Canterbury Guildhall (formerly the Church of the Holy Cross)
Website
www.canterbury.gov.uk

Elections for to all seats on the city council are held every four years. After being under no overall control for a number of years, the Conservative party gained a majority in 2005 following a by election and defection from the Liberal Democrats.

Following the 2019 United Kingdom local elections the political composition of Canterbury council is as follows (2017 results follows by-elections):[3]

Meeting place

After the Church of the Holy Cross, which was commissioned by Archbishop Simon Sudbury and completed before his death in 1381,[4][5] was declared redundant and de-consecrated in 1972, it was acquired by the city council and converted for municipal use: it was officially re-opened by the Prince of Wales as the new Canterbury Guildhall and meeting place of the city council on 9 November 1978.[6]

Geography

Within the district are the towns of Herne Bay and Whitstable, which, with the rural parishes and the cathedral city itself, make up the district of the City of Canterbury. There are 26 parishes within the district, as follows:[7]

• Adisham
• Barham
• Bekesbourne-with-Patrixbourne
• Bishopsbourne
• Blean
• Bridge
• Chartham
• Chestfield
• Chislet
• Fordwich, which has town status
• Hackington
• Harbledown and Rough Common
• Herne and Broomfield
• Hoath
• Ickham
• Kingston
• Littlebourne
• Lower Hardres and Nackington
• Petham
• Sturry
• Thanington Without
• Upper Hardres
• Waltham
• Westbere
• Wickhambreaux
• Womenswold

Swalecliffe is an unparished area within the district.

The district is largely rural, with a coastal strip taken up by the almost unbroken spread of seaside towns and beaches from Seasalter, west of Whitstable, to Herne Bay. Between them and the city the hills rise into the wooded area of Blean, south of which the Great Stour flows from its source beyond Ashford.

Demography

Twin towns

The district participates in the Sister Cities programme, with links[11] to Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, and Vladimir, Russia.

The Three Towns Association was founded in 1985 on the initiative of three local clergymen to promote person-to-person contact between ordinary people in the UK, the U.S. and Russia. The name was subsequently changed to the Three Cities Association. The Association chose Vladimir as the twin city in Russia because it is the seat of Christianity in that country as Canterbury is the seat of Christianity in England. Vladimir was already twinned with Bloomington-Normal. Among other activities, the Association arranged home-stay exchanges between the two Simon Langton Schools in Canterbury and School No. 23 in Vladimir, where the teaching was conducted in English.

Several towns and villages within the City of Canterbury have their own twinning arrangements:[11] see the articles on Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay.

References

External links

• Canterbury City Council
• Population breakdown
• City of Canterbury councillors listed by ward, as of 2010

На других языках

[de] City of Canterbury

[ru] Сити-оф-Кентербери