Editing Shropshire (section)

===2009 restructuring===
{{See also|2009 structural changes to local government in England}}
[[File:Shrewsbury Column.jpg|thumb|Shropshire's [[Shirehall, Shrewsbury|Shirehall]] is located opposite [[Lord Hill's Column]].]]

In 2006 a local government white paper supported proposals for new [[unitary authority|unitary authorities]] to be set up in England in certain areas. Existing [[non-metropolitan county|non-metropolitan counties]] with small populations, such as [[Cornwall]], Northumberland and Shropshire, were favoured by the government to be covered by unitary authorities in one form or another (the county either becoming a single unitary authority, or be broken into a number of unitary authorities). For the counties in the 2009 reorganisation, existing unitary authority areas within the counties' [[Ceremonial counties of England|ceremonial boundaries]] (such as Telford and Wrekin) were not to be affected and no boundary changes were planned.

Shropshire County Council, supported by South Shropshire District Council and Oswestry Borough Council, proposed to the government that the non-metropolitan county of Shropshire become a single unitary authority. This was opposed by the other three districts in the county, with Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council taking their objection to the High Court in a judicial review.

The proposal to create a Shropshire unitary authority, covering the area of the existing non-metropolitan county, was supported by the [[Department of Communities and Local Government|DCLG]] and 1 April 2009 was set as the date for the re-organisation to take place. The first elections to Shropshire Council took place on 4 June 2009, with the former Shropshire County Council being the continuing authority and its councillors became the first members of the new Shropshire Council on 1 April.

Part of the proposals include [[civil parish|parishing]] and establishing a [[town council]] for Shrewsbury. The parish was created on 13 May 2008 and is the second most populous [[civil parishes in England|civil parish]] in England (only [[Weston-super-Mare]] has a greater population) with a population of over 70,000.