<Li> There are recycling points throughout the City for paper, glass recycling and metal / tin can recycling . </Li> <P> In October 2006, Coventry City Council signed the Nottingham Declaration, joining 130 other UK councils in committing to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the council and to help the local community do the same . </P> <P> Traditionally a part of Warwickshire (although it was a county in its own right for 400 years), Coventry became an independent county borough in 1889 . It later became a metropolitan district of the West Midlands county under the Local Government Act (1974), even though it was entirely separate to the Birmingham conurbation area (this is why Coventry appears to unnaturally "jut out" into Warwickshire on political maps of the UK). In 1986, the West Midlands County Council was abolished and Coventry became administered as an effective unitary authority in its own right . </P> <P> Coventry is administered by Coventry City Council, controlled since 2010 by the Labour Party, led since May 2016 by George Duggins . The city is divided up into 18 Wards each with three councillors . The chairman of the council is the Lord Mayor, who has a casting vote . </P>

When did coventry become part of west midlands