Wales, Staffordshire - what's the difference?

A quirky story has appeared on the BBC website today - Audlem in Cheshire (on the border of Staffordshire) wants to become Welsh, even though it is 9 miles from the border with Wales.

Village residents are running a poll to drum up support, although some local inhabitants would prefer to join Shropshire. It's not clear why (apart from free prescriptions) they are so desperate to leave Cheshire, but as usual finding the story meant scouring various regional pages because of the lack of a Cheshire news feed.