Call to put Black Country on map

It is a debate that has been raging for generations – and now a House of Commons motion is to be tabled demanding official recognition of the Black Country.

Calls for the area to be on Ordnance Survey maps failed but regained momentum at the end of last year with the Black Country Chamber of Commerce leading the drive after the death of tycooon Don Richardson.

Members wanted the Black Country included on OS maps in honour of the businessman who helped build Merry Hill in Dudley.

Today Stourbridge Labou MP Lynda Waltho said she tabled a Commons motion calling for the Ordnance Survey Mapping Organisation to put the area on maps officially by naming it.

She said it would help the chamber campaign to promote the area as well as indicate the importance of an area 1.2 million people live and where the industrial revolution advanced.

She said: "The current maps show Dudley, Stourbridge, Halesowen, Birmingham and Wolverhampton but not the Black Country.

"The recent campaign to get funding for the Black Country Urban Park put us firmly on the mental map of the funders and we have recently been allocated £25 million of Government funds for the Black Country Learning Challenge so the policy makers recognise us – now it's about time the region was recognised officially by the map makers."

Hansard, the official record of the proceedings of Parliament, should also recognise the Black Country as a region, she said.

She added that she was intensely irritated that Hansard always printed the name of the Black Country in lower case letters whenever an MP or peer referred to it, but the West Midlands got capital letters.

"I am hoping that as soon as the OS map makers are persuaded to locate the Black Country officially, it can be recognised as such in the official record too."

The motion is backed by Dudley North MP Ian Austin, Warley MP John Spellar, Walsall North MP David Winnick, and West Bromwich West MP Adrian Bailey.

What do you think? Post your comments below and tell us where the boundaries of the Black Country should be.