The Act designated a "West Midlands Special Review Area" as one of five conurbations in which urgent reform was felt to be needed.

[2] The commission made its report in July 1961, recommending that the Black Country area of the West Midlands should be administered by five large county boroughs.

The proposal to merge the boroughs of Oldbury, Rowley Regis and Smethwick as one of the new authorities was initially suggested by the three councils involved.

The government announced that it accepted the proposals in November 1962, and it was originally intended that the County Borough of Warley should come into being on 1 April 1964.

[3] The reforms were delayed when five district councils in the review area took legal action in an attempt to prevent their implementation.

The group did, however, have objections to boundary changes which caused the transfer of an estate of council houses (next to the West Bromwich Albion F.C.

And for a crest: Issuant from a Saxon crown or, a demi lion rampant double queued vert holding with the dexter paw an arrow barb downwards proper.

The crest featured a Saxon crown from which rose a green double-tailed lion, emblem of the Suttons, mediaeval lords of Dudley.

The lion was from the armorial bearings of Sir James Timmins Chance, while the dragon was intended to represent the ancient Britons, founders of the "old burh" or Oldbury.

Both animals held objects in their mouths as heraldic differences: an arrow (as in the crest) and an anchor (for Cradley Heath's traditional industry).