TheMetropolitan Borough of Wirral is ametropolitan borough ofMerseyside, inNorth West England. It has a population of 328,873 (2024),[3] and encompasses 62 square miles (161 km2) of the northern part of theWirral Peninsula. Major settlements includeBirkenhead,Wallasey,Bebington,Heswall,Hoylake andWest Kirby. It is one of the six boroughs of theLiverpool City Region, a combined authority area with a population of more than 1.5 million.
Wirral isEngland's westernmost metropolitan borough, faced by theCity of Liverpool to the northeast over theRiver Mersey.
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Bordering is theRiver Mersey to the east, theIrish Sea to the north and theRiver Dee to the west; the borough ofCheshire West and Chester occupies the remainder of the Wirral Peninsula and borders the borough of Wirral to the south.
It is the onlynon-contiguous part ofMerseyside, being located west of the River Mersey and the remainder of the county. It is linked only by the twoMersey Tunnels, theWirral line ofMerseyrail, and theMersey Ferry.
The borough was formed on 1 April 1974, under theLocal Government Act 1972, as a merger of thecounty boroughs of Birkenhead and Wallasey, along with themunicipal borough of Bebington and theurban districts ofHoylake andWirral.
The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral 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 Wirral Borough 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.
As of July 2015, negotiations are currently taking place between the UK national government and the combined authority over a possible devolution deal to confer greater powers on the region. Discussions include whether to introduce an elected 'Metro Mayor' to oversee the entire metropolitan area.[5]
After thelocal elections in 2008 the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral was governed by a Labour Party/Liberal Democrat coalition, the second and third largest parties on the council respectively. Steve Foulkes of Labour was leader of the council. TheConservative Party was the largest party represented, and was inopposition with its leader Jeff Green being leader of the opposition.
After thelocal elections in 2010 the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral was governed by a Conservative Party/Liberal Democrat coalition, which reflected the coalition at national level.[6] The Conservative Party, continuing to be the largest party represented on the council increased its number of seats by 2 to 27 and has now entered into coalition government with the Liberal Democrats as the leading coalition partner with the leader of the Conservatives, Jeff Green, becoming the new leader of the council. The Labour Party increased its representation on the council by 4 to 24 and remained the second largest party though they are now in opposition with their leader, Steve Foulkes, who was leader of the council now leader of the opposition. The Liberal Democrats lost 4 seats decreasing their tally to 15 remaining the third largest party on the council but continuing to participate in the governing of the council as the junior coalition partner to the Conservatives. The one independent represented on the council lost their seat.
After thelocal elections in 2011 the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral was governed by a minority Labour Party administration. Foulkes was leader of the council with Phil Davies as deputy leader. The Liberal Democrats lost a councillor who switched to Labour, Steve Niblock shortly after the elections. There are now no independents on Wirral Council. Labour have 36 seats, Conservatives have 23 and the Liberal Democrats 7.
In February 2012 the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats defeated the Labour administration in a motion of no confidence and the two parties governed again until the May election.[7] Labour made gains in May 2012, gaining majority control of the council for the first time since local elections in 2002 saw Labour become a minority.
In2014, theGreen Party gained their first seat on the council, defeatingLabour in their typically safe seat ofBirkenhead and Tranmere. They retained it in2018 with an increased vote share, albeit with a reduced majority. In the2023 local elections, the Green Party won 13 seats.[8] Since May 2023, the council has been led by Labour councillor Paul Stuart.[9]
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Wirral at current basic pricespublished (pp. 240–253) byOffice for National Statistics with figures in millions of pounds.
| Year | Regional gross value added1 | Agriculture2 | Industry3 | Services4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 2,089 | 10 | 674 | 1,405 |
| 2000 | 2,609 | 5 | 814 | 1,789 |
| 2003 | 3,020 | 9 | 755 | 2,256 |
Plans were announced in 2006 for a £4.5bn development around the docklands to be calledWirral Waters.[10] The development is a mixture of industrial, office, residential and leisure facilities. Planning permission was granted in 2010 and work began on the site in 2011, with development work potentially lasting for 30 years.[11]
When the borough was set up in 1974, it inheritedcomprehensive systems from the formerCounty Boroughs ofBirkenhead andWallasey. In the part of Wirral formerly administered byCheshire County Council, it inherited aselective system ofgrammar andsecondary modern non-Roman Catholic schools and a comprehensive Roman Catholic school (St John Plessington Catholic College).
Until the implementation of theEducation Reform Act 1988, education in Wirral continued to be organised in four areas; Birkenhead, Wallasey and the former parts of Cheshire known for education purposes as "Bebington" and "Deeside". However this Act introduced "open enrolment", allowing parents from anywhere in the borough, and outside it, to apply for a place for their child at any secondary school. As a result, significant numbers of pupils from the former "comprehensive areas" attend schools in the former "selective areas" and vice versa. The distinction between different types of school was to an extent masked, as all secondary modern and most comprehensive schools were named "High School". As a further result of this Act,St Anselm's College andUpton Hall School, both within the Birkenhead education area, became the onlyindependent schools in the country to become state fundedgrant-maintained schools, retaining selective admissions policies to become Roman Catholicgrammar schools.
A further change came as a result of theSchool Standards and Framework Act 1998, which effectively changed secondary modern schools into comprehensives as schools were no longer permitted to select by examination failure. In summary, Wirral now has a state secondary sector made up of 16 comprehensive schools (of which two are Roman Catholic) and 6 grammar schools (of which two are Roman Catholic).
| Year | Party | Ref. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CON | GRN | LAB | LIB | OTH | |||||||
| LDM | |||||||||||
| 1973 | 29 | 0 | 24 | 13 | 0 | [12] | |||||
| 1974 | 29 | 0 | 24 | 13 | 0 | ||||||
| 1975 | 36 | 0 | 21 | 9 | 0 | ||||||
| 37 | 0 | 21 | 8 | 0 | |||||||
| 1976 | 42 | 0 | 18 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1977 | 42 | 0 | 18 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1978 | 45 | 0 | 16 | 5 | 0 | ||||||
| 1979 | 40 | 0 | 20 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1980 | 37 | 0 | 23 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1981 | 37 | 0 | 23 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1982 | 35 | 0 | 25 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1983 | 34 | 0 | 24 | 8 | 0 | ||||||
| 1984 | 34 | 0 | 24 | 8 | 0 | ||||||
| 1985 | 34 | 0 | 24 | 8 | 0 | ||||||
| 1986 | 30 | 0 | 26 | 10 | 0 | ||||||
| 1987 | 29 | 0 | 27 | 10 | 0 | ||||||
| 1988 | 24 | 0 | 32 | 10 | 0 | ||||||
| 24 | 0 | 29 | 10 | 3 | |||||||
| 1989 | 24 | 0 | 29 | 10 | 3 | ||||||
| 1990 | 23 | 0 | 33 | 7 | 3 | ||||||
| 23 | 0 | 33 | 8 | 2 | |||||||
| 1991 | 24 | 0 | 34 | 7 | 1 | ||||||
| 1992 | 29 | 0 | 31 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1993 | 29 | 0 | 31 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1994 | 28 | 0 | 30 | 8 | 0 | ||||||
| 1995 | 22 | 0 | 36 | 8 | 0 | ||||||
| 1996 | 16 | 0 | 41 | 9 | 0 | ||||||
| 1997 | 16 | 0 | 41 | 9 | 0 | ||||||
| 1998 | 16 | 0 | 41 | 8 | 1 | ||||||
| 1999 | 16 | 0 | 42 | 8 | 0 | [13] | |||||
| 17 | 0 | 39 | 10 | 0 | [12] | ||||||
| 2000 | 20 | 0 | 34 | 12 | 0 | ||||||
| 2001 | 20 | 0 | 34 | 12 | 0 | ||||||
| 20 | 0 | 33 | 12 | 1 | [14] | ||||||
| 2002 | 20 | 0 | 32 | 12 | 2 | ||||||
| 20 | 0 | 31 | 14 | 1 | [15] | ||||||
| 2003 | 23 | 0 | 26 | 16 | 1 | [16] | |||||
| 2004 | 21 | 0 | 26 | 19 | 0 | [17] | |||||
| 20 | 0 | 26 | 19 | 1 | [18] | ||||||
| 2005 | 21 | 0 | 26 | 18 | 1 | [19] | |||||
| 2006 | 21 | 0 | 26 | 19 | 0 | [20] | |||||
| 2007 | 21 | 0 | 25 | 20 | 0 | [21] | |||||
| 21 | 0 | 25 | 19 | 1 | [22] | ||||||
| 20 | 0 | 25 | 29 | 2 | [23] | ||||||
| 2008 | 24 | 0 | 21 | 20 | 1 | [24] | |||||
| 2009 | 25 | 0 | 20 | 20 | 1 | [25] | |||||
| 2010 | 27 | 0 | 24 | 15 | 0 | [26] | |||||
| 2011 | 27 | 0 | 29 | 10 | 0 | [27] | |||||
| 27 | 0 | 30 | 9 | 0 | [28] | ||||||
| 2012 | 22 | 0 | 37 | 7 | 0 | [29] | |||||
| 2013 | 23 | 0 | 36 | 7 | 0 | [30] | |||||
| 22 | 0 | 37 | 7 | 0 | [31] | ||||||
| 22 | 0 | 37 | 6 | 1 | [32] | ||||||
| 2014 | 21 | 1 | 38 | 6 | 0 | [33] | |||||
| 2015 | 21 | 1 | 39 | 5 | 0 | [34] | |||||
| 2016 | 21 | 1 | 38 | 5 | 1 | [35] | |||||
| 21 | 1 | 39 | 5 | 0 | [36] | ||||||
| 2017 | 21 | 1 | 39 | 5 | 0 | ||||||
| 2018 | 21 | 1 | 39 | 5 | 0 | [37] | |||||
| 21 | 1 | 38 | 5 | 1 | [38] | ||||||
| 21 | 1 | 37 | 5 | 2 | [39] | ||||||
| 2019 | 22 | 3 | 32 | 6 | 3 | [40] | |||||
| 2023 | 17 | 13 | 30 | 6 | 0 | [41] | |||||
| Constituency | Member of Parliament | Political party | Year first elected | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wallasey | Angela Eagle | Labour Party | 1992 |  | |
| Birkenhead | Alison McGovern | Labour Party | 2010[a] |  | |
| Wirral West | Matthew Patrick | Labour Party | 2024 |  | |
Wirral Council maintains five designatedLocal Nature Reserves: Bidston Moss, Dibbinsdale,Heswall Dales,Hilbre Island andThurstaston Common.[42] It also operates the Merseyside part ofWirral Country Park, which was the first country park to be established in Britain.[43]
The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral istwinned or hassister city relationships with:
The following people, military units, organisations and groups have received theFreedom of the Borough of Wirral.[47]
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