is a
Metropolitan County , located in the
North West of
England . Merseyside is named after the
River Mersey and comprises the
Conurbation by the Mersey estuary centred upon
Liverpool . The county was created in
1974 by the
Local Government Act 1972 .
Merseyside contains the
Metropolitan Borough s of
Liverpool ,
Knowsley ,
Sefton ,
St Helens and the
Wirral . The county 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 northern part of Merseyside borders onto
Lancashire to the north,
Greater Manchester to the east, both parts border
Cheshire to the south.
The two parts are linked by two
Road Tunnels ,
A Railway Tunnel , and the famous
Mersey Ferry .
Other districts that are part of the urban area (but not part of Merseyside) are
Ellesmere Port And Neston ,
West Lancashire and
Halton , this area is known informally as "
Greater Merseyside ".
It is traditional to express location within the Merseyside area by the preposition ''on'', thus "on Merseyside" as opposed to "in Merseyside" (after all, one would be "on the side of the Mersey" not "in" it). Current usage seems to be to make a distinction between the geographical "Merseyside" (The "Greater Merseyside" referred to above) for which "on" is appropriate and the county, for which "in" is used.
A 'Merseyside' metropolitan area was proposed by the /
Crosby ,
Liverpool /
Bootle ,
St Helens /
Widnes and
Wirral /
Chester .
The Report was rejected by the incoming
Conservative Party government, but the concept of a two-tier metropolitan area based on the Mersey area 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 Borough s of
Birkenhead ,
Wallasey ,
Liverpool ,
Bootle , and
St Helens .
Between 1974 and 1986 the county had a two tier system of local government with the five boroughs sharing power with the . 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 .
Merseyside however still exists legally, and as a
Ceremonial County .
Despite the abolition of the county council some local services are still run on a county-wide basis, now administered by
Joint-boards of the five metropolitan boroughs, these include the:
''See the
List Of Places In Merseyside .''
Several organisations are still recognised using the old name of "Merseyside". The court service at Liverpool's Magistrate Court for example, registered the domain merseysidemcc.org.uk on 25th March 2000, more than a decade after the Merseyside Council was abolished.
