Merseyside

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox English county Merseyside (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Welsh county of Flintshire across the Dee Estuary to the southwest, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Liverpool.

The county is highly urbanised, with an area of Template:Convert and a population of 1.42 million in 2007.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After Liverpool (552,267), the largest settlements are Birkenhead (143,968), St Helens (102,629), and Southport (94,421). For local government purposes the county comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and Liverpool. The borough councils, together with that of Halton in Cheshire, collaborate through the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

What is now Merseyside was a largely rural area until the Industrial Revolution, when Liverpool and Birkenhead's positions on the Mersey Estuary enabled them to expand. Liverpool became a major port, heavily involved in the Atlantic slave trade and in supplying cotton to the mills of Lancashire, and Birkenhead developed into a centre for shipbuilding. Innovations during this period included the first inter-city railway, the first publicly-funded civic park, advances in dock technology, and a pioneering elevated electrical railway. The county was established in 1974, before which the entirety of the Wirral was in Cheshire and the remainder of the county was in Lancashire.

Merseyside is notable for its sport, music, and cultural institutions. The Merseybeat genre developed in what is now the county, which has also produced many artists and bands, including the Beatles. The county contains several football clubs, with Everton and Liverpool playing in the Premier League. The Royal Liverpool and Royal Birkdale golf clubs have hosted The Open Championship 22 times between them, and the Grand National is the most valuable jump race in Europe. National Museums Liverpool comprises nine museums and art galleries.

HistoryEdit

Template:Stack 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 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, for the first time, 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
File:Merseyside County.png Merseyside is an amalgamation of 22 former local government districts, including six county boroughs and two municipal boroughs. {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters\|check\|unknown=\|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"\|ignoreblank=y\| 1 \| style }}	Knowsley			Huyton with Roby • Kirkby • Prescot	West Lancashire • Whiston
	Liverpool	Liverpool
	Sefton	Bootle • Southport	Crosby	Formby • Litherland	West Lancashire
	St Helens	St Helens		Newton-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. 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.

GeographyEdit

File:Merseyside aerial photograph.jpg

An aerial photograph of Merseyside

Template:See also Merseyside is divided into two parts by the Mersey estuary; the Wirral is on the west side of the estuary, upon the Wirral Peninsula, and the rest of the county lies on the east side. The eastern part of Merseyside borders onto Lancashire to the north and 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 beltEdit

Template:Further 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.

DemographyEdit

Template:Merseyside population table

Ethnicity
Ethnic Group	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Ethnic Group	1981 estimations<ref name=":02">Template:Cite book</ref>		1991 census<ref name=":02"/>		2001 census<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation		CitationClass=web }}</ref>	2011 census<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation		CitationClass=web }}</ref>	2021 census<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

White: Total	1,500,267	98.6%	1,422,453	98.1%	1,322,938	97.1%	1,305,303	94.5%	1,304,797	91.7%
White: British	–	–	–	–	1,297,777	95.3%	1,268,277	91.8%	1,242,323	87.3%
White: Irish	–	–	–	–	13,005	1.0%	13,342	1.0%	13,508	0.9%
White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller<ref name="auto" group="note">New category created for the 2011 census</ref>	–	–	–	–	–	–	457	0.0%	763	0.1%
White: Roma<ref group="note">New category created for the 2021 census</ref>	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,696	0.1%
White: Other	–	–	–	–	12,156	0.9%	23,227	1.7%	46,507	3.3%
Asian or Asian British: Total	9,061	0.6%	11,624	0.8%	16,511	1.2%	30,405	2.2%	44,452	3.1%
Asian or Asian British: Indian	2,248	0.1%	2,740	0.2%	3,769	0.3%	7,896	0.6%	10,686	0.8%
Asian or Asian British: Pakistani	716	0.0%	912	0.1%	1,528	0.1%	2,566	0.2%	4,723	0.3%
Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi	489	0.0%	764	0.1%	1,266	0.1%	2,366	0.2%	3,863	0.3%
Asian or Asian British: Chinese<ref group="note">In 2001, listed under the 'Chinese or other ethnic group' heading.</ref>	4,719	0.3%	5,895	0.4%	8,129	0.6%	11,554	0.8%	13,194	0.9%
Asian or Asian British: Other Asian	889	0.1%	1,313	0.1%	1,819	0.1%	6,023	0.4%	11,986	0.8%
Black or Black British: Total	8,344	0.5%	9,914	0.7%	6,838	0.5%	14,552	1.1%	21,902	1.5%
Black or Black British: African	2,630	0.2%	3,093	0.2%	3,722	0.3%	9,792	0.7%	16,091	1.1%
Black or Black British: Caribbean	1,890	0.1%	2,208	0.2%	1,600	0.1%	2,066	0.1%	2,364	0.2%
Black or Black British: Other Black	3,824	0.3%	4,613	0.3%	1,516	0.1%	2,694	0.2%	3,447	0.2%
Mixed: Total	–	–	–	–	13,189	1.0%	20,954	1.5%	30,495	2.1%
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean	–	–	–	–	3,918	0.3%	6,395	0.5%	7,280	0.5%
Mixed: White and Black African	–	–	–	–	3,157	0.2%	4,894	0.4%	7,021	0.5%
Mixed: White and Asian	–	–	–	–	2,714	0.2%	4,638	0.3%	7,666	0.5%
Mixed: Other Mixed	–	–	–	–	3,400	0.2%	5,027	0.4%	8,528	0.6%
Other: Total	4,531	0.3%	5,713	0.4%	2,550	0.2%	9,975	0.7%	21,640	1.5%
Other: Arab<ref name="auto" group="note" />	–	–	–	–	–	–	6,379	0.5%	10,086	0.7%
Other: Any other ethnic group	–	–	–	–	2,550	0.2%	3,596	0.3%	11,554	0.8%
Non-White: Total	21,932	1.4%	27,247	1.9%	39,088	2.9%	75,886	5.5%	118,489	8.3%
Total	1,522,199	100%	1,449,700	100%	1,362,026	100%	1,381,189	100%	1,423,286	100%

IdentityEdit

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".<ref>Sefton poll Template:Webarchive, where 51% residents belonged strongly to Merseyside, and compared with 35% to Lancashire; Wirral poll Template:Webarchive, 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.</ref>

Local governmentEdit

File:Arms of the Merseyside Metropolitan County Council.svg

Coat of arms of the former Merseyside County Council

Metropolitan boroughsEdit

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

Combined authorityEdit

Template:Main article The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, which includes the five boroughs of Merseyside and the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, oversees functions given to it under the area's devolution deal with the UK government, such as transport, housing, innovation, employment, energy, tourism, and trade, and some responsibilities relating to crime and justice.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The combined authority is led by the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, who was elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2021<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> and in 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

County-level functionsEdit

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

Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner and Merseyside Police
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service
Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority
Merseyside Pension Scheme, administered by Wirral Council, with offices in LiverpoolTemplate:Citation needed

HealthcareEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The planning and commissioning of care within Merseyside is the responsibility of an integrated care system, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, which covers NHS and other care services within the Cheshire and Merseyside areas. It also oversees Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership. NHS Cheshire and Merseyside serves a combined population of 2.7 million Template:As of.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

EconomyEdit

Template:See also

citation
District	GVA (£ billions)	GVA per capita (£)	GDP (£ billions)	GDP per capita (£)
CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Knowsley	£4.0	£25,927	£4.6	£29,407
Liverpool	£14.3	£29,489	£15.9	£32,841
St Helens	£2.8	£15,448	£3.4	£18,803
Sefton	£4.6	£16,275	£5.4	£19,418
Wirral	£5.6	£17,527	£6.6	£20,688
Merseyside	£31.3	£22,000	£36.0	£25,281

TransportEdit

Template:See also

RoadEdit

File:Liverpool City Region Motorways.png

Motorway network around Merseyside

Merseyside is served by six motorways: the M58 to the north, M56 to the south, M6 & M62 to the east and M53 to the west. The M57 acts as an outer ring road and bypass for the city of Liverpool itself. The River Mersey is crossed by Queensway Tunnel and Kingsway Tunnel, which link Liverpool to Birkenhead and Wallasey respectively, and by the Silver Jubilee Bridge and Mersey Gateway Bridge, which link Runcorn and Widnes. The Mersey Gateway Bridge opened in 2017 and is designed to improve transport links between Widnes and Runcorn and other key locations in the vicinity.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

National Cycle Route 56 and National Cycle Route 62 pass through the region, the former along the Wirral and the latter from Southport to Runcorn.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Major bus companies are Stagecoach Merseyside and Arriva North West. Liverpool One bus station serves as a terminus for national coach travel.

RailEdit

File:Merseyrail train.png

Typical Merseyrail train at Liverpool Central underground station

Liverpool Lime Street mainline station is Merseyside's primary intercity railway station, being used by 10.46 million passengers in 2021–22.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Train services are provided by Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway, TransPennine Express, West Midlands Trains, Transport for Wales and Northern, and serve destinations across the UK.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Merseyrail is the county's urban rail system and is operated by Merseytravel, the combined passenger transport executive for the Liverpool City Region. The network has 66 stations on two lines; the Northern Line covers the centre of the county, and the Wirral Line covers the eponymous peninsula.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The two lines meet in Liverpool City Centre, and Liverpool Central is the county's most-used station, with 10.75 million passengers in 2021–22.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":0" /> The network extends to Ormskirk in Lancashire, and Ellesmere Port and Chester in Cheshire.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Merseytravel brands the network in the east of the county as the 'City Line', but the services on it are not operated by Merseyrail. The Borderlands line connects the west of the Wirral to Wales, and is operated by Transport for Wales Rail.

MaritimeEdit

Template:Multiple images

Template:Further

Liverpool Cruise Terminal provides facilities for long-distance passenger cruises. Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines Template:MS and Cruise & Maritime Voyages Template:MS use the terminal to depart to Iceland, France, Spain and Norway. Peel Ports have also planned a second cruise terminal as part of the Liverpool Waters project.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

FerriesEdit

File:Seacombe Ferry Terminal Entrance (geograph 5384500).jpg

Seacombe Ferry Terminal

Prince's Landing Stage on Liverpool's Pier Head serves Isle of Man Steam Packet Company summer service to the Isle of Man (and Mersey Ferries). The Twelve Quays ferry port in Birkenhead serves winter Isle of Man ferry service and Stena Line services to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Almost three quarters of a million peopleTemplate:Citation needed travel these Irish Sea ferry services.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The Mersey Ferry has operated since the 1200s, currently between Wirral and Liverpool City Centre at Seacombe, Woodside and Liverpool Pier Head. In 2009–2010 it had 684,000Template:Nbsppassengers using the service.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

CommercialEdit

The Port of Liverpool handles most commercial shipping, but the Birkenhead Docks complex in Great Float on the Wirral peninsula still handles some freight.

The Port of Liverpool is a container port that handles over 33Template:Nbspmillion Template:Nbsptonnes of freight cargo per year, making it the fourth busiest port in the United Kingdom Template:As of.<ref name="port01">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It serves more than 100 global destinations including Africa, Australia, China, India, the Middle East and South America. Imports include grain and animal feed, timber, steel, coal, cocoa, crude oil, edible oils and liquid chemicals; there are exports of scrap metal for recycling.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A second container terminal, Liverpool2 at Seaforth, can handle Post-Panamax vessels and doubled the port's capacity when it opened in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

AirEdit

Liverpool John Lennon Airport is the county's international airport. It is in Speke, Template:Convert southeast of Liverpool city centre, with 5 million departures in 2020.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Flights are primarily operated by easyJet and Ryanair, and over 70 destinations are served by the airport, including regular flights to the Near East and North Africa.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The airport is planning substantial expansion, and is forecast to handle more than 12Template:Nbspmillion passengers by 2030, as well as targeting permanent direct long haul flights and significantly larger terminal facilities.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>