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The Friends of Real Lancashire (FORL) are a pressure group affiliated to the Association of British Counties calling for the wider recognition of the historic boundaries of Lancashire in England. Its chairman is Chris Dawson. ==Background== The Friends of Real Lancashire are concerned to promote what they view as, the true boundaries of the county, namely those of the County Palatine of Lancaster. The current local government boundary of Lancashire was established in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972.〔Elcock, H., ''Local Government'', (1994)〕〔Barlow, I., ''Metropolitan Government'', (1991)〕 Lancashire saw more upheaval from this Act than most counties, having most of its population transferred to the new counties: Manchester and the rest of south east Lancashire became part of Greater Manchester; Liverpool and the rest of south west Lancashire became part of Merseyside; Furness became part of Cumbria; and Warrington and Widnes became part of Cheshire.〔Arnold-Baker, C., ''Local Government Act 1972'',(1973)〕 According to the FORL website, in 1974 ''"the Government at that time stated that the "new counties" were administrative areas only, and that the boundaries of traditional counties such as Lancashire had not been changed. Unfortunately, the media refer to these administrative areas all too frequently and ignore the fact that places such as Barrow-in-Furness, Liverpool, Manchester, Warrington, etc. are still in Lancashire."'' 〔(The Friends of Real Lancashire )〕 The boundary changes〔Kingdom, J., ''Local Government and Politics in Britain'', (1991)〕 were not intended to affect loyalties but they caused concern in some areas〔〔Her Majesty's Stationery Office, ''Aspects of Britain: Local Government'', (1996)〕 and in practice it is the new boundaries〔〔Bryne, T., ''Local Government in Britain'', (1994)〕 which are now shown on maps and marked by road signs. They have also been widely adopted by the media as geographical designations, despite that many within the new counties continue to regard themselves as Lancastrians. The historic county boundaries continue to be used as the basis for organisations such as the Duchy of Lancaster, Lancashire County Cricket Club and Lancashire Football Association (although its area overlaps with Manchester Football Association).〔(Lancashire FA ) - Senior Cup〕〔(Manchester FA )〕 The area under the control of Lancashire County Council, or shire county, became even smaller in 1998 when Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen became unitary authorities.〔(UK-SI 1996-1868. ) - ''The Lancashire (Boroughs of Blackburn and Blackpool) (Structural Change) Order 1996''〕 Although they remain part of the ceremonial county, they are often no longer mapped as part of Lancashire and "Welcome to Lancashire" road signs have been placed on their boundaries with the shire county. The group counts at least nine MPs (Jake Berry, Gordon Birtwistle, Simon Danczuk, Nigel Evans, Lindsay Hoyle, John Leech, David Nuttall, John Pugh and Ben Wallace) amongst its supporters〔 and has been mentioned in ''Hansard''. It has received limited support within local government,〔(South Lakeland District Council ) - Minutes of meeting of the Policy and Resources Committee held on 26 September 1995〕 and its campaign has also mentioned in the local press.〔 (Lake District News ) - Atkinson, D., ''Changing boundaries prompt timely research!'', (2004)〕 ''Lancashire Life'' magazine identifies itself as an enthusiastic supporter of the group and continues to cover the historic county area.〔(''Lancashire Life'' magazine )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Friends of Real Lancashire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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