Editing Huddersfield (section)

==Governance==
[[File:Coat of Arms of Huddersfield County Borough Council.svg|thumb|100px|left|[[Coat of arms of Huddersfield|Coat of arms of the former County Borough]]]]
Huddersfield was incorporated as a [[municipal borough]] in the ancient [[West Riding of Yorkshire]] in 1868. The borough comprised the thus sidelined [[civil parishes in England|civil parishes]] of Almondbury, Dalton, Huddersfield, Lindley-cum-Quarmby and Lockwood, later dissolved. When the West Riding County Council was formed in 1889, Huddersfield became a [[county borough]], exempt from its control.
A more confined Huddersfield seat than the early 20th century scope has been represented by [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] since its creation in 1983 and is, by size of majority and length of tenure, [[safe seat|a strongly-Labour leaning seat]].
[[File:Harold Wilson statue.jpg|thumb|Statue of [[Sir Harold Wilson]] on St George's Square]]
Kirklees was the first part of the country to have a [[Green Party of England and Wales|Green]] or other environmentalist party councillor – Nicholas Harvey – he was instrumental in protesting against the intended closure of the [[Settle and Carlisle Railway]] line.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.greenexpressrailtours.co.uk/id1.html
 |title=About Us
 |publisher=Greenexpressrailtours.co.uk
 |access-date=9 October 2008}}</ref> The council has councillors of Labour, [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] and Liberal Democrat parties; these retained the [[deposit (politics)|deposit]], reaching more than 5% of the vote in the last general election (for an MP who serves in the House of Commons).

Huddersfield expanded in 1937, assimilating parts of the [[Golcar]], [[Linthwaite]], and [[South Crosland]] urban districts.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10166937&c_id=10001043
 |title=Huddersfield MB/CB West Riding through time &#124; Administrative history of Local Government District: hierarchies, boundaries
 |publisher=Visionofbritain.org.uk
 |access-date=9 October 2008
|url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071205230529/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10166937&c_id=10001043
 |archive-date=5 December 2007
}}</ref> The county borough was abolished in 1974 and its former area was combined with that of other districts to form the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire.

Council bids to gain support for [[City status in the United Kingdom|city status]] were rejected by the people in a poll held by the ''[[Huddersfield Daily Examiner]]''; the council did not apply for that status in the 2000 or 2002 competitions.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.dca.gov.uk/constitution/city/cityhome.htm
 |title=Department for Constitutional Affairs – Constitutional Policy – City Status
 |publisher=Dca.gov.uk
 |access-date=9 October 2008}}</ref>

Huddersfield had a strong Liberal tradition up to the 1950s reflected in several Liberal social clubs. The current Member of Parliament (MP) for the [[Huddersfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Huddersfield constituency]] is [[Harpreet Uppal]], a Labour MP.

===Demographic change===
The town's population in 1961 had reached 130,652.<ref>{{cite web |title=Huddersfield CP/AP through time {{!}} Statistics {{!}} |url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10436412/cube/TOT_POP |access-date=1 April 2024 |website=www.visionofbritain.org.uk}}</ref>

Per the [[United Kingdom Census 2001]] the population of the town's urban sub-area of the [[West Yorkshire Urban Area]] was 146,234, and that of the former extent of the county borough was 121,620. The wider ''South Kirklees'' had a population of 216,011.
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