TheMetropolitan Borough of Knowsley is ametropolitan borough inMerseyside, North WestEngland. It covers several towns and villages, includingKirkby,Prescot,Huyton,Whiston,Halewood,Cronton andStockbridge Village; Kirkby, Huyton, and Prescot being the major commercial centres. It takes its name from the village ofKnowsley, though its headquarters are inHuyton. It forms part of the widerLiverpool City Region.
Within the boundaries of thehistoric county ofLancashire, the borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger ofHuyton-with-Roby Urban District,Kirkby Urban District andPrescot Urban District, along with most ofWhiston Rural District and a small part ofWest Lancashire Rural District, all from theadministrative county of Lancashire.
It is known forKnowsley Hall andKnowsley Safari Park.
The modern-day borough of Knowsley was formerly composed of villages and towns inLancashire dating back to650 AD.[5] The Earls of Derby have their ancestral home in the borough atKnowsley Hall, the surroundings of which today house the popular visitor attraction ofKnowsley Safari Park.
Knowsley experienced rapid population expansion in the 1950s and 1960s, resulting from the combination of industrialization and migration, including a significant amount of overspill development from Liverpool. By 1971, some 194,600 lived within the area which would become Knowsley.[6] However, over the next two decades general economic decline – particularly in manufacturing – contributed to a significant fall in population to around 154,600 by 1994. Subsequently, a population stabilization strategy helped to stem this decline. The strategy was focused on house building and marketing the borough to secure inward investment.[7] Record house building and strong growth in inward investment yielded the borough's first small rise in population in over 25 years in 1995. The population stabilized at over 154,000 for most of the rest of the 1990s.[8]
The borough of Knowsley was created on 1 April 1974 under theLocal Government Act 1972 covering the area of three formerurban districts, which were abolished at the same time, plus sixcivil parishes (five fromWhiston Rural District and one fromWest Lancashire Rural District):[9]
‡Parishes fromWhiston Rural District
All the component parts of Knowsley had previously been in the administrative county ofLancashire, but were transferred to the newmetropolitan county of Merseyside at the same time the district came into being on 1 April 1974. A committee of councillors from the outgoing district councils chose the name Knowsley for the new district in 1972, taking the name fromKnowsley village, being a central location within the new district, rather than using the name of one of the three urban districts which had the majority of the population. The committee noted that theKnowsley Hall estate had historic connections to all the constituent parts of the new district.[10] The government confirmed the name in 1973.[11] The new district was awardedborough status from its creation, allowing the chairman of the council to take the title of mayor.[12]
The residents of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough are represented in theBritish Parliament byMembers of Parliament (MPs) for three separate parliamentary constituencies.Knowsley is represented byAnneliese Midgley MP (Labour),Garston and Halewood is represented byMaria Eagle MP (Labour) andSt Helens South and Whiston is represented byMarie Rimmer MP (Labour).
Afterlocal elections in 2008 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley was governed by theLabour Party, the largest party represented on the council. TheLiberal Democrats, the second largest party, were in opposition. There were no other councillors.
| Year | Labour | Liberal Democrats |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 47 | 16 |
| 2010 | 53 | 10 |
| 2011 | 59 | 4 |
| 2012 | 63 | 0 |
| 2016 | 42 | 3 |
Afterlocal elections in 2010 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley continued to be governed by theLabour Party, the largest party represented on the council, who increased their total number of seats by 5 to 53. TheLiberal Democrats, the second largest party represented on the council, continued to be in opposition losing 5 seats to the governing Labour Party to decrease their total number of seats to 10.
Afterlocal elections in 2011 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley continued to be governed by theLabour Party, the largest party represented on the council, who increased their total number of seats to 59. TheLiberal Democrats, the second largest party represented on the council, continued to be in opposition losing 6 seats to the governing Labour Party to decrease their total number of seats to 4.
After thelocal elections in 2012, Knowsley became a one party borough, completely taking out the Liberal Democrat seats.[13]
In 2016 the number of seats was reduced to 45 with the Liberal Democrats winning three
Following several years of subsequent elections, the political composition is now Labour 33, Green 5, Liberal Democrats 3, Independent 3 with one vacancy in Page Moss ward.
The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley is one of the six constituent local government districts of theLiverpool City Region. Since 1 April 2014, some of the borough's responsibilities have been pooled with neighbouring authorities within the metropolitan area and subsumed into theLiverpool City Region Combined Authority.
Thecombined authority has effectively become the top-tier administrative body for the local governance of the city region and the leader of Knowsley Council, along with the five other leaders from neighbouring local government districts, take strategic decisions over economic development, transport, employment and skills, tourism, culture, housing and physical infrastructure.
The Liverpool City Region, which includes Knowsley, is also governed by theMayor of the Liverpool City Region who is directly elected by the residents of the Liverpool City Region and has powers over a number of areas, the incumbent Mayor isSteve Rotheram of theLabour Party.
According to the2011 census, 80.9% of people in Knowsley describe themselves as Christian, the highest proportion in any local authority in England and Wales.[14] This is significantly different from average figures from the 2011 census for England and Wales, which showed that 59.3 per cent of the population identified as Christian and 14.1 million people, around a quarter of the population in England and Wales, reported that they have no religion.
Knowsley is twinned with:[15]
The following people and military units have received theFreedom of the Borough of Knowsley.
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