is a metropolitan county in
North West England , with a population of 1,365,900. Taking its name from the
River Mersey , the title "Merseyside" came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974, after the passage of the
Local Government Act 1972 , and the county consists of five
Metropolitan Borough s adjoining the Mersey estuary, including the
City Of Liverpool .
'', September 17, 2004. URL accessed March 11, 2007.
North West England Counties , The Boundary Commission for England. URL accessed March 11, 2007.
Merseyside is divided into two parts by the is located on the west side of the estuary upon the
Wirral Peninsula ; the rest of the county is located on the east side. The northern part of Merseyside borders onto
Lancashire to the north,
Greater Manchester to the east, both parts border
Cheshire to the south.
The territory comprising the county of Merseyside previously formed the county boroughs of Birkenhead, Wallasey, Liverpool, Bootle, and St Helens and part of the
Administrative Counties of
Lancashire (north of the River Mersey) and
Cheshire (south of the River Mersey).
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 /
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 /
Crosby ,
Liverpool /
Bootle ,
St Helens /
Widnes and
Wirral /
Chester .
In 1970 the
Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive (which operates under the ''Merseytravel'' brand) was set up, covering the Liverpool and Wirral
Conurbation s, but excluding 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
April 1 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 . Following the creation of Merseyside, Merseytravel expanded to take in St. Helens and Southport.
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 .
Merseyside however still exists legally, both as a metropolitan and '', September 17, 2004. URL accessed March 11, 2007.
North West England Counties , The Boundary Commission for England. URL accessed March 11, 2007.
To express location within the Merseyside area by the preposition ''on'' - thus "on Merseyside" as opposed to "in Merseyside" - was traditionally the more usual. However, the logic of suggestions in support of this from some quarters (that, after all, one would always be "on” the side of the Mersey, not "in" it) falls down; since it is, in fact, entirely possible to be situated
"in" or "on" [either “side” of the river Mersey and area(s) thus designated. Therefore, more recent usage tends to draw distinctions between the geographical "Merseyside" - for which "on" is considered appropriate - and the Metropolitan county of "Merseyside", for which "in" is used.
Some prefer to use the showed that more residents in these boroughs identified strongly to Merseyside than to Lancashire or Cheshire respectively (but was less likely to be "very strong" as opposed to "fairly strong").
Sefton poll , where 51% residents belonged strongly to Merseyside, and compared to 35% to Lancshire;
Wirral poll , where 45% of residents belonged strongly to Merseyside; compared to 30% to Cheshire. In both boroughs, "very strongly" ratings for the historic county were larger than that for Merseyside, but "fairly strongly" was lower.
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Merseyside contains the
Metropolitan Borough s of
Liverpool ,
Knowsley ,
Sefton ,
St Helens and the
Wirral .
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:
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.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Merseyside at current basic prices
published (pp.240-253) by ''Office for National Statistics'' with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
''See the
List Of Places In Merseyside .''
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 northern part of Merseyside borders onto
Lancashire to the north,
Greater Manchester to the east, both parts border
Cheshire to the south. The territory comprising the county of Merseyside previously formed part of the
Administrative Counties of
Lancashire (north of the River Mersey) and
Cheshire (south of the River Mersey).
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 and
Halton . The designation "
Greater Merseyside " has been adopted for the area comprising Merseyside and Halton, whilst the term "Liverpool City-Region" is less well-defined.
