# Dacorum

Dacorum is a local government district with borough status in Hertfordshire, England. The council is based in Hemel Hempstead. The borough also includes the towns of Berkhamsted and Tring and surrounding villages. The borough had a population of 155,081 in 2021. Dacorum was created in 1974 and is named after the ancient hundred of Dacorum which had covered a similar area. The borough of Dacorum is the westernmost of Hertfordshire's ten districts. It borders St Albans, Three Rivers, Buckinghamshire and Central Bedfordshire.

## History

In medieval Latin Dacorum signified "of the Danes", in spite of the fact that it literally means "of the Dacians", because at the time when the term was coined it was wrongly thought that part of the Danes were descendants of the Dacians. The name appears to reference a period in Saxon times when the area formed part of the Danelaw which covered much of what is now eastern England, although the duration and extent of Danish occupation in this area is unclear and continues to be debated by historians. In 1086, the Domesday Book records a hundred called Danais (also meaning "of the Danes") and a neighbouring hundred called Tring; the two had merged into a single hundred by about 1200 which was thereafter called Dacorum. From the seventeenth century onwards, hundreds gradually declined in importance as administrative divisions, with their functions passing to other bodies such as the county courts. The final administrative functions of hundreds were extinguished in 1886.
The modern local government district of Dacorum was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the whole area of five former districts and parts of another two, which were all abolished at the same time:
* Berkhamsted Rural District
* Berkhamsted Urban District
* Hemel Hempstead Municipal Borough
* Hemel Hempstead Rural District
* St Albans Rural District (part within designated area of Hemel Hempstead New Town only)
* Tring Urban District
* Watford Rural District (part within designated area of Hemel Hempstead New Town only)
The new district was named Dacorum after the medieval hundred, which had covered a similar area.
The district was granted borough status in 1984, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor. Hemel Hempstead had maintained Charter Trustees from 1974 to 1984. The amalgamation of the former local authorities was symbolised in the seven oak leaves which surround a Tudor rose on the Dacorum coat of arms, issued in 1992.

## Governance

Hertfordshire has a two-tier structure of local government, with the ten district councils (including Dacorum Borough Council) providing district-level services, and Hertfordshire County Council providing county-level services. In some areas there is an additional third tier of civil parishes.

### Political control

The Liberal Democrats won a majority of the seats on the council at the 2023 election. Prior to 2023 the Conservatives had held a majority of the seats since 2003.
The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new arrangements came into effect on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:
| Party in control | Years |
| Labour | 1974–1976 |
| Conservative | 1976–1995 |
| Labour | 1995–1999 |
| No overall control | 1999–2003 |
| Conservative | 2003–2023 |
| Liberal Democrats | 2023–2024 |
| No overall control | 2024-Present |

### Leadership

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Dacorum. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 1995 have been:
| Councillor | Party | From | To |
| Julia Coleman | Labour | 1995 | 1999 |
| Andrew Williams | Conservative | 1999 | 17 May 2023 |
| Ron Tindall | Liberal Democrats | 17 May 2023 | 15 May 2024 |
| Adrian England | Liberal Democrats | 15 May 2024 | |

### Composition

Following the 2023 election and a subsequent change of allegiance in March 2024, the composition of the council was:
| Party | Party | Councillors |
| | Liberal Democrats | 18 |
| | Conservative | 17 |
| | Labour | 4 |
| | Independent | 11 |
| Total | Total | 51 |
The next election is due in 2027.

### Premises

The council is based at The Forum on Marlowes in Hemel Hempstead. From the council's creation in 1974 until 2017, the council was based at Dacorum Civic Centre, also on Marlowes in Hemel Hempstead. That building had previously been called Hemel Hempstead Town Hall, having been built for Hemel Hempstead Borough Council in 1966 to replace the Old Town Hall on High Street. On 16 January 2017 the council opened its new headquarters at The Forum, on the corner of Marlowes and Combe Street, immediately south of the Civic Centre, which was demolished shortly afterwards.

## Elections

Since the last boundary changes in 2007 the council has comprised 51 councillors, representing 25 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. The whole council is elected together every four years.

### Wards

The borough's wards are:
* Adeyfield East
* Adeyfield West
* Aldbury and Wigginton
* Apsley and Corner Hall
* Ashridge
* Bennetts End
* Berkhamsted Castle
* Berkhamsted East
* Berkhamsted West
* Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield
* Boxmoor
* Chaulden and Warners End
* Gadebridge
* Grovehill
* Hemel Hempstead Town
* Highfield
* Kings Langley
* Leverstock Green
* Nash Mills
* Northchurch
* Tring Central
* Tring East
* Tring West and Rural
* Watling
* Woodhall Farm

## Parishes

Hemel Hempstead is an unparished area. The rest of the borough is divided into 16 civil parishes, with Berkhamsted and Tring parish councils taking the style "town council". The civil parishes are:
* Aldbury
* Berkhamsted
* Bovingdon
* Chipperfield
* Flamstead
* Flaunden
* Great Gaddesden
* Kings Langley
* Little Gaddesden
* Markyate
* Nash Mills
* Nettleden with Potten End
* Northchurch
* Tring
* Tring Rural
* Wigginton

## Arms

Coat of arms of Dacorum :
* NotesGranted 21 January 1992.
* CrestA sprig of seven oak leaves Proper and acorns Or inflected to the sinister out of a mural crown Or.
* EscutcheonOr seven oak leaves stalks inward Vert radiating from a Tudor rose Proper.
* SupportersTwo stags in trian aspect Proper attired and unguled Or gorged with a wreath Or and Gules ribbons flowing outward depending therefrom a bezant charged with oak leaves and a Tudor rose as in the Arms standing on a compartment Vert strewn with sprigs of oak leaves Proper and acorns Or.

## Media

In terms of television, Dacorum is served by BBC London and ITV London with television signals received from the Crystal Palace transmitter and the Hemel Hempstead relay transmitter. However, Tring receives regional overlaps of both Sandy Heath (BBC East/ITV Anglia) and Oxford (BBC South/ITV Meridian) transmitters.
Radio stations for the area are:
* BBC Three Counties Radio
* Heart Hertfordshire
* Greatest Hits Radio Bucks, Beds and Herts (covering Tring)
* Mix 92.6
* Community-based radio stations: Radio Dacorum and Tring Radio
Local newspapers are Hemel Hempstead Gazette and St Albans Observer.

## Town twinning

* The Borough of Dacorum is twinned with:
** Neu-Isenburg, Germany
Two of the civil parishes in the borough also maintain their own separate twinning arrangements:
* Berkhamsted Town Council is twinned with:
** Beaune (France)
* Kings Langley Parish Council with:
** Bakau (Gambia).