The non-metropolitan county of Cleveland was created under the Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974, comprising the urban areas around the mouth of the River Tees, previously parts of the administrative counties of Durham and North Riding of Yorkshire. Although it was abolished in 1996, the four unitary authorities which succeeded it (Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees) have been considered together for the purposes of reviewing parliamentary boundaries. The area has returned 6 MPs to the UK Parliament since 1983.
