London Borough of Bromley

The London Borough of Bromley is a London borough of south east London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in the borough is Bromley.

Geography
The borough is the largest in London by area and occupies 59 square miles (153 km²), of which the majority is green belt land. Most of the settlement is in the north and west of the borough, with an outlier at Biggin Hill in the far south. The borough shares borders with Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley to the north, Southwark and Lambeth to the north west, Croydon to the west; and the counties of Surrey to the south and Kent to the south and east. Westerham Heights, the highest point in London is located on the southern boundary.

History
The borough was formed, as were all other London boroughs, on April 1 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It comprised the former area of the Municipal Borough of Bromley, the Municipal Borough of Beckenham, Penge Urban District, Orpington Urban District and the Chislehurst part of Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District, which was transferred from Kent to Greater London.

In 1969, after a local campaign, the village of Knockholt was transferred back to Kent to become part of the Sevenoaks Rural District and later Sevenoaks District. Before 1965 it had been part of the Orpington Urban District.

Districts
The borough is the largest in Greater London in terms of area and includes the following districts and settlements:


 * Anerley which includes Crystal Palace
 * Beckenham (including Eden Park, Elmers End, New Beckenham, Upper Elmers End)
 * Bickley
 * Biggin Hill
 * Bromley with Bromley Park, Park Langley, Plaistow, Shortlands and Widmore
 * Bromley Common
 * Chelsfield
 * Chislehurst and Chislehurst West
 * Downe
 * Elmstead
 * Farnborough including Locksbottom
 * Green Street Green
 * Hayes
 * Keston and the nearby settlement of Nash
 * Kevingtown
 * Leaves Green
 * Mottingham (part of)
 * Orpington and its outskirts of Crofton, Derry Downs, and Goddington
 * Penge
 * Petts Wood
 * Pratt's Bottom
 * Ruxley (part of)
 * Shortlands
 * Southborough
 * St Mary Cray with Poverest
 * St Paul's Cray
 * Sundridge Park
 * West Wickham and nearby Coney Hall

Politics
Bromley consists of 22 wards made up of 60 council seats. These are currently represented by 49 Conservative, 7 Liberal Democrat and 4 Labour councillors.

Since the Borough’s creation, Bromley had always been under Conservative control until the local elections of 7th May 1998 when a Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition assumed power. Following a number of by-elections and a defection, however, the Conservatives regained control on 5th July 2001.

The 22 wards are:
 * Bickley
 * Biggin Hill
 * Bromley Common and Keston
 * Bromley Town
 * Chelsfield and Pratt's Bottom
 * Chislehurst
 * Clock House (Elmers End area)
 * Copers Cope (Beckenham area)
 * Cray Valley East (St Mary Cray area)
 * Crystal Palace
 * Darwin (Downe and Cudham area)
 * Farnborough and Crofton
 * Hayes and Coney Hall
 * Kelsey and Eden Park
 * Mottingham and Chislehurst North
 * Orpington
 * Penge and Cator
 * Petts Wood and Knoll
 * Plaistow and Sundridge (north of Bromley)
 * Shortlands
 * West Wickham

Transport
Bromley is one of only five London Boroughs not to have at least one London Underground station within its boundaries, however this will change when the East London Line is extended southwards through Crystal Palace in 2010.

London Fire Brigade
London Fire Brigade has four fire stations within the London Borough of Bromley. The borough is the largest in the city; at approximately 150 kmsq. With just one pumping appliance, Orpington has one of the largest station grounds in London, measuring 46.7 kmsq. In 2006/2007, Orpington attended 1,308 incidents. There is also a high volume pump at the station. Beckenham, Bromley and Biggin Hill cover the rest of the borough with four pumping appliances and a hose layer.

In 2006/2007 just under four thousand incidents were attended to in the borough. Noticeably, compared to 2005/2006 there was an 11% decrease in special service calls (road traffic collisions, chemical incidents, flooding etc).