Under the 1963 Local Government Act (effective 1/4/65), which created the Greater London Council Area, the administrative counties of Middlesex and London were abolished and the whole of the area formerly administered by the Middlesex County Council was transferred to the administration of the new G.L.C. with the sole exceptions of Potters Bar, Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames. These three districts were transferred, for local government purposes, to the adjacent administrative counties of Hertfordshire and Surrey. It is important to stress, yet again, that these were transfers to the administrative county council areas and NOT transfers to the geographical counties. Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames did not become part of the geographical county of Surrey and Potters Bar did not become part of the geographical county of Hertfordshire.

Unlike Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames, however, Potters Bar also lost its Middlesex recommended postal address at this time. This was due to the local Post Office in Potters Bar failing to understand that local government alterations do not necessitate alterations to postal addresses and so, from then onwards, Potters Bar has had an incorrect "Hertfordshire" recommended postal address. It should be noted here that Post Office recommended addresses are exactly that; recommendations, they are NOT law and the Post Office cannot force anyone to use them and so it is quite legitimate for people to continue to use the correct description of their geographical location (their real county name) both in Potters Bar or anywhere else that has been deprived of its true county identity by the Post Office. It should also be borne in mind here just how ridiculous, confusing and expensive it would be if the Post Office changed millions of addresses every ten years or so every time local government areas were altered. Not only is it not a requirement of local government acts to change postal addresses but it would be patently absurd if it were.

Not only, therefore, did Potters Bar lose the Middlesex identity which the Middlesex County Council afforded it but it also lost its identity postally which is the single most important factor in shaping public perception of local identity. In Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames the Post Office, absolutely correctly, did not alter the postal addresses and they are still, postally, Middlesex today, despite having been administered by Surrey county Council since 1965 , and the people of those two places have no doubts at all that they live in the county of Middlesex and NOT in Surrey.

Unfortunately, the people of Potters Bar have been erroneously led to believe that they actually do live in Hertfordshire. Potters Bar has expanded greatly since 1965 and many older residents (those that knew which county they lived in) have moved away or passed away and the vast majority of Potters Bar residents today have moved there within the last forty years and have never known any other identity than the false one perpetuated by the Post Office, the Ordnance Survey, the local and national media and, acting totally unscrupulously in their own self interest, by Hertfordshire County Council. The latter, more than anyone else, should understand the true situation regarding their own legal status and the administrative status of the district they are, currently, though not necessarily indefinitely, responsible for.

Far from protecting Potters Bar's history and heritage, which duty they inherited from the Middlesex County Council in 1965 and which they hold in trust for the people of Potters Bar, Hertfordshire County Council, and its equally unworthy progeny, Hertsmere Borough Council, have done everything possible to eradicate that history and heritage and, when challenged, will falsely assert that Potters Bar was "ceded" to the County of Hertfordshire and fail to acknowledge the crucial distinction between the two very separate types of "county" which crucial distinction they are, or should be, fully aware of. Hertfordshire County Council should know better! There was no transfer of title to land involved and, therefore, Potters Bar was NOT "ceded" to Hertfordshire at all and, as shown earlier, cannot ever be! It was merely a transfer of administrative power for an indefinite period carried out under the appropriate local government act which any future local government act can repeal and overturn. For Hertfordshire County Council to use such a term as "ceded" in this context is, either a gross error or, a deliberate lie.

For the first twenty two years or so of Potters Bar's "occupation" by Hertfordshire County Council, at least nobody entering the district would have been aware of it as there were no signs to proclaim the travesty. However, in yet another act of deceit and self-perpetuation, in either 1988 or 1989 they decided that "Hertfordshire" signs were now necessary on all the main roads entering the district and these geographically inaccurate signs were duly erected at the expense of the rate-payers of Potters Bar. Why did Hertfordshire County Council wait twenty two years before realising this "necessity"? The reason was not for the benefit of visitors to the district, and certainly not for the local residents who had to pay for them. It was Hertfordshire County Council's response to what they perceived to be a challenge to their authority by those who were trying, and with significant success, to put the record straight.

After the 1986 Local Government Act had finally abolished the G.L.C. (after an existence of only 21 years) the Astrologer and television personality Russell Grant launched an organisation called the Friends of the County of Middlesex the aims of which were to promote the identity of Middlesex and its continued existence for all purposes other than local government administration. The organisation gained incredible support very quickly and immense publicity thanks to Russell's celebrity status and his access to the media. Hertfordshire County Council saw the "Friends" as a serious threat as it might undermine their psychological grip over the residents of Potters Bar who, for the first time, were beginning to realise that they had been lied to for the past twenty three years. The message was also beginning to get through that people's loyalty is not (or certainly should not be) to an artificially contrived and transitory local government unit but to the geographical area that has existed for thirteen hundred years. The area they were born in or live in, the place where they grew up in and the place whose local sports teams they support and, for some, the regiment they belonged to and possibly fought with, none of which has anything whatsoever to do with local government.

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