Editing Wembley (section)

==Governance==
[[File:Brent Town Hall (Front), Wembley - geograph.org.uk - 865102.jpg|thumb|[[Brent Town Hall]] was the headquarters of the Borough of Wembley (1940-1965) and Brent (1965-2013)]]
Wembley falls within the UK Parliament constituency of [[Brent North (UK Parliament constituency)|Brent North]], currently represented by [[Barry Gardiner]] MP ([[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]). It falls within the London Assembly constituency of [[Brent and Harrow (London Assembly constituency)|Brent and Harrow]].

Wembley formed part of the large ancient parish of [[Harrow on the Hill]] in the [[Gore (hundred)|Gore]] hundred of [[Middlesex]]. In 1894 Wembley was split from Harrow, creating a new parish and [[Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland)|urban district]]. It included [[Alperton]], [[Preston, London|Preston]], [[North Wembley]], [[South Kenton]], [[Tokyngton]], [[Sudbury, London|Sudbury]], [[Wembley Park]] and [[Northwick Park]]. The urban district included the neighbouring parish of [[Kingsbury, London|Kingsbury]] until 1901 and again from 1934.

In 1937 it was incorporated as the [[Municipal Borough of Wembley]]. [[Brent Town Hall|Wembley Town Hall]] on Forty Lane, built in 1938, became [[Brent Town Hall]] when the municipal boroughs of Wembley and [[Municipal Borough of Willesden|Willesden]] were amalgamated in 1965 to form the [[London Borough of Brent]] and transferred to [[Greater London]].

===Willesden merger and split proposal===
Brent proved to be one of the more unpopular of the mergers occurring during the creation of the modern [[London boroughs]]. Reasons for this included the limited road links between the two main areas of Wembley and [[Willesden]] (with the A4088 and A404 Harrow Road, the only major road links across the Brent valley boundary), the lack of a focal point or ‘heart’ for the borough and the contrasting characteristics; with Willesden more inner-city in nature, and Wembley more suburban. Widening schemes for the [[North Circular Road, London|North Circular Road]], which passed along the [[River Brent|Brent]] valley, close to the boundary between the two, increased this sense of separation. The clash quickly turned political amid the plans to build [[Chalkhill Estate]], as Wembley was [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] while Willesden was [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]; the balance of power between the two parties contributed to the borough council becoming a byword for polarised politics.<ref name="brent.gov.uk"/>

The unpopularity persisted and in 1989 more than ten thousand people signed a petition calling for Wembley to regain its independence or else join with the [[London Borough of Harrow]] with which it had historic administrative links, had better transport integration and had shared common suburban interests. The 1994, the Boundary Commission considered this, and other requests, considering a wide range of options<ref>[http://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lgbce/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/11897/651.-london-borough-of-brent-and-its-boundaries-with-barnet,-camden,-ealing,-hammersmith-and-fulham,-harrow,-knc-and-westminster.pdf Boundary Commission Report of 1994]</ref> including restoring independence to the districts, or joining them to different neighbouring boroughs – an option the Commission preferred.

Wembley and Harrow were felt to be a natural match, and the London Borough of Harrow supported these proposals and called for a boundary rationalisation with [[London Borough of Barnet|Barnet]] so that the [[Watling Street|A5 Road (Watling Street)]] formed the enlarged borough's entire eastern boundary. Willesden was harder to satisfactorily match with a neighbour, with [[London Borough of Ealing|Ealing]] considered the most natural choice, the main problem being the lack of a focal point, with the industrial areas of [[Park Royal]], [[Old Oak Common]] and [[North Acton]] forming a relatively ill-connected barrier between the two. The Commission concluded that there was insufficient justification for the disruption caused by the changes, and that such changes should only be considered during a comprehensive review of London's boundaries.