Hereford and Worcester was an English county created on 1 April 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972 from the area of the former administrative county of Herefordshire, most of Worcestershire (except Halesowen, Stourbridge and Warley, which became part of the West Midlands) and the county borough of Worcester. An aim of the act was to increase efficiency of local government, since the two counties are among England's smaller and least populous counties, particularly after the same act removed some of Worcestershire's most urbanised areas to the West Midlands. It aroused much opposition in the Herefordshire portion, which regarded it as not so much of a merger as a takeover by the Worcestershire side.