East Midlands

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East Midlands

East Midlands region shown within England
Geography
Status	Region
Area — Total	Ranked 4th 15,627 km²
NUTS 1	UKF
Demographics
Population — Total — Density	Ranked 8th 4,172,179 (2001) 267/km²
Government
HQ	Nottingham
Assembly — Type	East Midlands non-directly elected
European parliament	East Midlands
Website

The East Midlands is one of the regions of England and consists of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It consists of the combined area of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northampton­shire, Nottingham­shire and most of Lincolnshire.

The highest point in the region is Kinder Scout, in the Derbyshire Peak District at 2,088 ft (636 m). A looser definition of the East Midlands would include the City of Peterborough, Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.

Financial funding decisions for the East Midlands (usually public construction schemes) are taken at the East Midlands Regional Assembly, based in Melton Mowbray. It is not an elected chamber, but a quango.

Contents 1 Population and settlement 2 History 3 Local government 4 MEPs 5 Education 5.1 Top ten state schools in the East Midlands (2006 A level results) 6 Local media 7 External links

[edit] Population and settlement

Its main settlements are Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln, Derby, Northampton, Mansfield and Chesterfield. Leicester is officially the largest city in the region, although the largest conurbation is the Nottingham Urban Area.

East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire is situated between the three main cities of Derby, Leicester and Nottingham, and the region is served by Midland Mainline and GNER high-speed trains to London; and by the Cross Country Route (MR) to Birmingham and the South West. The M1 motorway also serves the three largest conurbations.

See also: East Midlands English

[edit] History

A historical basis for such an area exists in the Five Burghs of the Danelaw. The current government office region was created in 1994.

[edit] Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Map	Ceremonial county	Shire county /unitary	Districts
	Derbyshire	1. Derbyshire	High Peak, Derbyshire Dales South Derbyshire, Erewash Amber Valley, North East Derbyshire Chesterfield, Bolsover
		2. Derby
	Nottinghamshire	3. Nottinghamshire	Rushcliffe, Broxtowe Ashfield, Gedling Newark and Sherwood, Mansfield Bassetlaw
		4. Nottingham
	Lincolnshire	5. Lincolnshire	Lincoln, North Kesteven South Kesteven, South Holland, Boston, East Lindsey, West Lindsey, North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire
	Leicestershire	6. Leicestershire	Charnwood, Melton Harborough, Oadby and Wigston Blaby, Hinckley and Bosworth North West Leicestershire
		7. Leicester
	8. Rutland
	9. Northamptonshire		South Northamptonshire, Northampton Daventry, Wellingborough Kettering, Corby East Northamptonshire

[edit] MEPs

Further information: East Midlands (European Parliament constituency)

The East Midlands is also a six-member constituency for the European Parliament.

[edit] Education

There is a mixture of education across the East Midlands - mostly comprehensive secondary schools, except Lincolnshire has fifteen state grammar schools (as well as some comprehensive schools). Nottingham schools are the worst performing, with Leicester schools a close second. For GCSE results, Rutland has the highest percentage at grades A-C (including Maths and English) in the UK. It is almost twice the percentage value of schools in Leicester. Leicestershire and Lincolnshire also have GCSE results above the UK average. At A level, Lincolnshire performs the best, and with schools in Nottingham, has results above the UK average; Nottingham has much better results at A level than GCSE on average. This describes the city quite accurately - it has the largest group of under-achieving school pupils in the East Midlands, but yet has one of the highest achieving groups of school pupils as well, giving a salient socio-economic diversity of almost chasmic proportions.

[edit] Top ten state schools in the East Midlands (2006 A level results)

• 1. Caistor Grammar School (1021)
• 2. Bourne Grammar School
• 3. Spalding High School (United Kingdom)
• 4. The Becket School
• 5. Queen Elizabeth's High School
• 6. St Mary's Roman Catholic High School, Chesterfield
• 7. Skegness Grammar School
• 8. Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Alford
• 9. Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School
• 10. The Priory Lincolnshire School of Science and Technology (919)

[edit] Local media

Local media include:

• The East Midlands region of BBC Television, based in Nottingham, which produces several regional television programs, including the news program BBC East Midlands Today. This excludes most of Northamptonshire, North Nottinghamshire and North Derbyshire. Most of Lincolnshire is covered by the BBC North region based in Hull. Whereas Derbyshire's High Peak is covered by BBC North West based in Manchester. Central News East also covered the East Midlands, broadcasting from Lenton Lane in Nottingham from March 1984. It stopped in 2004, when the studios were closed and is now the King's Meadow Campus of Nottingham University. These studios had been responsible for Family Fortunes and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
• MATV, based in Leicester, which caters to the area's large South Asian population.
• BBC Radios Derby, Leicester, Lincolnshire, Northampton, Nottingham and Sheffield. BBC Radio Leicester was the first local radio station in the United Kingdom.
• Many commercial radio stations: Leicester Sound, Trent FM (Nottingham) RAM FM (Derby and Burton-on-Trent), Heart 106 (Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire), Peak FM (Chesterfield and North Derbyshire), Lincs FM (Lincolnshire and Newark-on-Trent), Sabras Radio and Saga 106.6 FM (Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire).
• Several newspapers, the largest of which include the Derby Evening Telegraph, Derbyshire Times, Leicester Mercury, Lincolnshire Echo, Northampton Chronicle and Echo, and Nottingham Evening Post.

[edit] External links

• East Midlands Development Agency
• East Midland Directory
• East Midlands Regional Assembly
• Government Office for the East Midlands
• Government's list of councils in the East Midlands
• East Midland Network Exchange