Merseyside

Merseyside (/ˈmɜːrzisaɪd/ MUR-zee-syde) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Liverpool City Region, North West England. The Mersey Estuary, the historic county border of Lancashire and Cheshire, flows through the county giving it its name.

Merseyside
Metropolitan and Ceremonial county
Liverpool, Merseyside's most populous city
Liverpool, Merseyside's most populous city
Merseyside within England
Coordinates: 53°25′N 3°00′W
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Constituent countryEngland
RegionNorth West England
Established1974
(Local Government Act 1972)
Time zoneUTC±00:00 (Greenwich Mean Time)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+01:00 (British Summer Time)
Members of Parliament
PoliceMerseyside Police
Largest cityLiverpool
Ceremonial county
Lord LieutenantMark Blundell
High SheriffNigel Lanceley[1] (2021–2022)
Area645 km2 (249 sq mi)
 • Ranked43rd of 48
Population (2021)1,423,065
 • Ranked9th of 48
Density2,200/km2 (5,700/sq mi)
Ethnicity91.8% White British
2.7% Other White
2.2% Asian
1% Black
1.6% Mixed
0.8% Other
Metropolitan county
Area645 km2 (249 sq mi)
ONS code2B
ITLUKD72, UKD73, UKD74 and part of UKD71
Websitemerseyside.police.uk
Districts

Districts of Merseyside
Districts
  1. City of Liverpool
  2. Sefton
  3. Knowsley
  4. St Helens
  5. Wirral

It spans 249 square miles (645 km2) of land and has a population of 1.38 million[2] There is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Merseyside, but overwhelmingly the land use is urban. The Liverpool Urban Area is the fifth most populous conurbation in England and dominates the geographic centre of the county, while the Birkenhead Urban Area dominates the Wirral Peninsula in the south. It has a focused central business district, Liverpool City Centre, with a polycentric economy throughout the five metropolitan districts, each of which has at least one major town centre and outlying suburbs. The county borders the ceremonial counties of Lancashire (to the north-east), Greater Manchester (to the east), Cheshire (to the south and south-east) and the Irish Sea to the west. North Wales is across the Dee Estuary.

It is an amalgamation of 22 former local government districts from the former administrative counties of Lancashire, Cheshire and the six county boroughs of Birkenhead, Bootle, Liverpool, Southport, St Helens and Wallasey. The county was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972 and includes five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton (Bootle and Southport), Wirral (Wallasey and Birkenhead) and the city of Liverpool. In the 12 years following 1974, the county had a two-tier system of local government; district councils shared power with the Merseyside County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986.

The county has metropolitan status[3] with several county-wide services co-ordinated by authorities and joint-boards, some (such as Merseytravel) have transferred over to the Liverpool City Region. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and the Merseyside Police (for law-enforcement) cover the area. As a ceremonial county, it is as a geographical frame of reference as well as having a Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff. As the majority of the county is in historic Lancashire, the High Sheriff of Merseyside, along with ceremonial Lancashire and Greater Manchester are appointed as "within the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster".[4] [5]

History
Port of Liverpool docks, at Seaforth. Merseyside lies on the Mersey Estuary

Merseyside was designated as a "Special Review" area in the Local Government Act 1958, and the Local Government Commission for England started a review of this area in 1962, based around the core county boroughs of Liverpool, Bootle, Birkenhead and Wallasey. Further areas, including Widnes and Runcorn, were added to the Special Review Area by Order in 1965. Draft proposals were published in 1965, but the commission never completed its final proposals as it was abolished in 1966.

Instead, a Royal Commission was set up to review English local government entirely, and its report (known as the Redcliffe-Maud Report) proposed a much wider Merseyside metropolitan area covering southwest Lancashire and northwest Cheshire, extending as far south as Chester and as far north as the River Ribble. This would have included four districts: Southport/Crosby, Liverpool/Bootle, St Helens/Widnes and Wirral/Chester. In 1970 the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive (which operates today under the Merseytravel brand) was set up, covering Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral and Knowsley, but excluding Southport and St Helens.

The Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the incoming Conservative Party government, but the concept of a two-tier metropolitan area based on the Mersey area was retained. A White Paper was published in 1971. The Local Government Bill presented to Parliament involved a substantial trimming from the White Paper, excluding the northern and southern fringes of the area, excluding Chester, Ellesmere Port (and, unusually, including Southport, whose council had requested to be included). Further alterations took place in Parliament, with Skelmersdale being removed from the area, and a proposed district including St Helens and Huyton being subdivided into what are now the metropolitan boroughs of St Helens and Knowsley.

Merseyside was created on 1 April 1974 from areas previously part of the administrative counties of Lancashire and Cheshire, along with the county boroughs of Birkenhead, Wallasey, Liverpool, Bootle, and St Helens. Following the creation of Merseyside, Merseytravel expanded to take in St Helens and Southport.

post-1974 pre-1974
Metropolitan county Metropolitan borough County boroughs Non-county boroughs Urban districts Rural districts

Merseyside is an amalgamation of 22 former local government districts, including six county boroughs and two municipal boroughs.
 Knowsley Huyton with Roby • Kirkby • Prescot West Lancashire • Whiston
Liverpool Liverpool
Sefton Bootle • Southport Crosby Formby • Litherland West Lancashire
St Helens St Helens Ashton-in-Makerfield • Billinge and Winstanley • Haydock • Rainford Whiston
Wirral Birkenhead • Wallasey Bebington Hoylake • Wirral

Between 1974 and 1986 the county had a two-tier system of local government with the five boroughs sharing power with the Merseyside County Council. However, in 1986 the government of Margaret Thatcher abolished the county council along with all other metropolitan county councils, and so its boroughs are now effectively unitary authorities.

Geography
An aerial photograph of Merseyside
See also: List of places in Merseyside, List of settlements in Merseyside by population, and Liverpool Urban Area

Merseyside is divided into two parts by the Mersey Estuary; the Wirral is located on the west side of the estuary, upon the Wirral Peninsula and the rest of the county is located on the east side of the estuary. The eastern part of Merseyside borders onto Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, with both parts of the county bordering Cheshire to the south. The territory comprising the county of Merseyside previously formed part of the administrative counties of Lancashire (east of the River Mersey) and Cheshire (west of the River Mersey). The two parts are linked by the two Mersey Tunnels, the Wirral Line of Merseyrail, and the Mersey Ferry.

Green belt
Further information: North West Green Belt

Merseyside contains green belt interspersed throughout the county, surrounding the Liverpool urban area, as well as across the Mersey in the Wirral area, with further pockets extending towards and surrounding Southport, as part of the western edge of the North West Green Belt. It was first drawn up from the 1950s. All the county's districts contain some portion of belt.

Identity

Ipsos MORI polls in the boroughs of Sefton and Wirral in the 2000s showed that in general, residents of these boroughs identified slightly more strongly to Merseyside than to Lancashire or Cheshire respectively, but their affinity to Merseyside was more likely to be "fairly strong" than "very strong".[6]

Local government
Coat of arms of the former Merseyside County Council.

Metropolitan boroughs

Merseyside comprises the metropolitan boroughs of Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.

County-level functions

Following the abolition of the county council some local services are run by joint-boards of the five metropolitan boroughs; these include the:

Liverpool City Region

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, which includes the five boroughs and the Borough of Halton headed by a mayor, Steve Rotheram, elected in May 2017.[7]

Economy

This is a chart of the trend of regional gross value added of Merseyside at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

YearRegional Gross Value Added[note 1]Agriculture[note 2]Industry[note 3]Services[note 4]
199510,931503,2657,616
200013,850293,48910,330
200316,173393,43212,701

Sport

Merseyside is host to several football league football clubs including Liverpool F.C., Everton F.C., Tranmere Rovers F.C. and Southport F.C. Golf courses include Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Royal Birkdale Golf Club and Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club. Cricket clubs include the historic Aigburth Cricket Ground, Liverpool. Aintree Motor Racing Circuit hosted the British Grand Prix. Aintree Racecourse hosts the Grand National and there is also Haydock Park Racecourse. Totally Wicked Stadium hosts Rugby League and Hoylake hosts sailing (such as Southport 24 Hour Race) and is Britain's premier location for sand yachting. A ski slope facility is found at The Oval (Wirral).

Places of interest

See also

Notes
  1. Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
  2. includes hunting and forestry
  3. includes energy and construction
  4. includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

References
  1. "The Office of High Sheriff". Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  2. "2009 Mid Year Estimates – Table 9 ONS". statistics.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
  3. Office for National Statistics. "Gazetteer of the old and new geographies of the United Kingdom" (PDF). statistics.gov.uk. p. 48. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 December 2003. Retrieved 11 March 2007. Retrieved on 6 March 2008.
    •Office for National Statistics (17 September 2004). "Beginners' Guide to UK Geography: Metropolitan Counties and Districts". statistics.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 15 March 2008. Retrieved on 6 March 2008.
    •"North West – Electoral Commission". The Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 14 November 2008. Retrieved 2 February 2011. Retrieved on 7 July 2008.
  4. "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 15 Jun 1992". parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 20 November 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  5. High Sheriffs, The Times, 21 March 1985
  6. Sefton poll Archived 26 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine, where 51% residents belonged strongly to Merseyside, and compared with 35% to Lancashire; Wirral poll Archived 26 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine, where 45% of residents belonged strongly to Merseyside; compared with 30% to Cheshire. In both boroughs, "very strongly" ratings for the historic county were larger than that for Merseyside, but "fairly strongly" was lower.
  7. "Liverpool city region metro mayor: what is it, when will we get one and who will it be?". Liverpool Echo. 18 May 2016. Archived from the original on 23 July 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  8. "Art Galleries - Museum - Glass Blowing- Victorian Furnace". The World of Glass. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2015.

Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Merseyside.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Merseyside.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.