The Cannock Built-up Area (known until 2013 in official statistics as the Cannock/Great Wyrley Urban Area) is an area of land in the central southern part of Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England defined by the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics (ONS) for population monitoring purposes. It is an urban conurbation centred on Cannock that is covered by the settlements listed in the table below. It is not conterminous with administrative boundaries. Two of the settlements (Cannock and Hednesford) are towns.
Contents
The detailed methodology of the process used across the UK by the ONS in 2011 is set out in 2011 Built-up Areas - Methodology and Guidance, published in June 2013. It is summarised as "..a ‘bricks and mortar’ approach, with areas defined as built-up land with a minimum area of 20 hectares (200,000 m2), while settlements within 200 metres of each other are linked. Built-up area sub-divisions are also identified to provide greater detail in the data, especially in the larger conurbations."
The total population of the built-up area defined on this basis in 2011 was 86,121, making it the second largest in Staffordshire if Swadlincote in Derbyshire is excluded from the Burton upon Trent Built-up Area (BUA). There is a gap of just a mile between the Cannock BUA and the much larger West Midlands BUA to the south.
Subdivisions and settlements
The two subdivisions of the Cannock BUA are separated by the M6 Toll corridor, but are recognised as constituting a single built-up area by application of the 200-metre rule.
Staffordshire County Council has identified an area it calls Cannock (with an estimated population in the 2001 census of 60,814) that is similar in extent and population to the Cannock Chase District part of the BUA. However, unlike the BUA, it includes the whole of Cannock, Heath Hayes and Wimblebury, and Hednesford, as defined by their electoral ward boundaries.
Transport
The M6 Toll passes through the conurbation which is also close to the M6 and M54 motorways. The main A roads are the A5 (east-west) and A34 (north-south).
Arriva Midlands operates the majority of services to and from Cannock and Hednesford bus stations.
The Rugeley - Cannock - Walsall - Birmingham line operated by London Midland serves the three railway stations in the conurbation. These are at Hednesford, Cannock, and Landywood.