Greater Merseyside

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greater Merseyside is a term for the sub-region of North West England that includes Merseyside County and Halton. This corresponds, in part, to the original proposal for Merseyside and the River Mersey or Liverpool's hinterland.

It has a semi-official usage by the local authorities of Merseyside County and Halton when they act together, co-ordinated through the Merseyside Policy Unit. Greater Merseyside is also one of the five sub-regions in the North West that are used by the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA).

The term was first officially defined in 2001, when the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was created, with 47 local Learning and Skills Councils across England, one of which is Greater Merseyside. In August 2006, the LSC says: Greater Merseyside is one of England’s most densely populated urban areas with 1.5 million people living in the six districts of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. The working age population is 927,000, of these 558,000 are employed, 48,000 are self-employed and 315,000 are not employed.

The following organisations and programmes have Greater Merseyside bodies (Merseyside & Halton) for planning and delivery:

• Business Link
• Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
• Connexions
• Aimhigher

[edit] Liverpool City-Region

The term "Liverpool City-Region" is also used in some official documents (e.g. in The Northern Way plan) but its boundaries are less clearly defined, sometimes being considered to include neighbouring areas of Cheshire and West Lancashire.

On 13 March 2007 , UK Local Government Minister Phil Woolas announced plans to create a "cabinet" of the Leaders of the six Councils in a form of regional devolution for what was termed the "Liverpool City Region". [1]

[edit] External links

• Map of Greater Merseyside from DfES web site
• LSC Greater Merseyside
• Connexions Greater Merseyside
• Business Link for Greater Merseyside
• Aimhigher Greater Merseyside