Merseyside

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in, with a population of 1,365,900. Taking its name from the, the title "Merseyside" came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974, after the passage of the , and the county consists of five s adjoining the Mersey estuary, including the.

was abolished in 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) are now effectively. However, the metropolitan county continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference.

Merseyside is divided into two parts by the estuary: the  is located on the west side of the estuary upon the ; the rest of the county is located on the east side. The northern part of Merseyside borders onto to the north,  to the east, both parts border  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 of  (north of the River Mersey) and  (south of the River Mersey).

History
Merseyside was designated as a "Special Review" area in the, and the started a review of this area in 1962, based around the core county boroughs of ///. Further areas, including and, 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 ) proposed a much wider Merseyside metropolitan area covering southwest Lancashire and northwest Cheshire, extending as far south as and as far north as the. This would have included four districts: /, /, / and /.

In 1970 the (which operates under the Merseytravel brand) was set up, covering the Liverpool and Wirral s, but excluding St. Helens.

The Redcliffe-Maud Report was rejected by the incoming 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 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 being removed from the area, and a proposed district including St Helens and  being subdivided into what are now the metropolitan boroughs of  and.

Merseyside was created on  from areas previously part of the  of  and, along with the s of , , , , and. 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. However in 1986 the government of abolished the county council along with all other metropolitan county councils, and so its boroughs are now effectively.

Merseyside however still exists legally, both as a metropolitan and.

Identity
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 [both] "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 of  and  in preference to the newer county of Merseyside as a geographic frame of reference. . MORI polls in the boroughs of Sefton and Wirral in 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").

Metropolitan boroughs
Merseyside contains the s of, , , and the.

County level functions
Despite the abolition of the county council some local services are still run on a county-wide basis, now administered by of the five metropolitan boroughs; these include the:


 * (who are also responsible for the network)
 * Merseyside Pension Scheme, administered by Wirral Borough Council, with offices in Liverpool
 * (who are also responsible for the network)
 * Merseyside Pension Scheme, administered by Wirral Borough Council, with offices in Liverpool
 * Merseyside Pension Scheme, administered by Wirral Borough Council, with offices in Liverpool

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.

Economy
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.

Settlements
See the . Merseyside is divided into two parts by the estuary, the  is located on the west side of the estuary, upon the  and the rest of the county is located on the east side of the estuary. The northern part of Merseyside borders onto to the north,  to the east, both parts border  to the south. The territory comprising the county of Merseyside previously formed part of the of  (north of the River Mersey) and  (south of the River Mersey).

The two parts are linked by two, , and the famous. Other districts that are part of the urban area (but not part of Merseyside) are and. The designation "" has been adopted for the area comprising Merseyside and Halton, whilst the term "Liverpool City-Region" is less well-defined.

On September 10, 2007, a 1,000-year-old    was discovered under a    on Merseyside (beneath 6 - 10 feet  of clay by the Railway Inn in, , well known settling place of Vikings). , used  (GPR) equipment to detect the. The ship was first uncovered in 1938.