Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley


The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It comprises the towns and districts of Kirkby, Prescot, Huyton, Whiston, Halewood, Cronton and Stockbridge Village; Kirkby, Huyton, and Prescot being the major commercial centres. It takes its name from the village of Knowsley, though its headquarters are in Huyton. It forms part of the wider Liverpool City Region.
The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Huyton-with-Roby Urban District, Kirkby Urban District and Prescot Urban District, along with most of Whiston Rural District and a small part of West Lancashire Rural District, all from the administrative county of Lancashire.
It is known for Knowsley Hall and Knowsley Safari Park.

History

Knowsley was formerly a collection of villages, some dating back to 650 AD. The Earls of Derby have their ancestral home in the borough at Knowsley Hall, the surroundings of which today house the popular visitor attraction of Knowsley Safari Park.
Knowsley experienced rapid population expansion in the 1950s and 1960s, resulting from the combination of industrialisation and migration, including a significant amount of overspill development from Liverpool. By 1971, some 194,600 lived within the area which would become Knowsley. 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 stabilisation strategy helped to stem this decline. The strategy was focused on house building and marketing the borough to secure inward investment. 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 stabilised at over 154,000 for most of the rest of the nineties.

Geography

Knowsley Metropolitan Borough covers an area of 33.40 square miles and is the smallest metropolitan borough of Merseyside. Within Merseyside, it borders the City of Liverpool to the west, the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton to the north-west and the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens to the east. To the South East, it borders Halton and West Lancashire in Lancashire to the north.

Settlements

Westminster

The residents of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough are represented in the British Parliament by Members of Parliament for three separate parliamentary constituencies. Knowsley is represented by George Howarth MP, Garston and Halewood is represented by Maria Eagle MP and St Helens South and Whiston is represented by Marie Rimmer MP.

Knowsley Council Composition

After local elections in 2008 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley was governed by the Labour Party, the largest party represented on the council. The Liberal Democrats, the second largest party, were in opposition. There were no other councillors.
YearLabourLiberal Democrats
20084716

After local elections in 2010 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley continued to be governed by the Labour Party, the largest party represented on the council, who increased their total number of seats by 5 to 53. The Liberal 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.
YearLabourLiberal Democrats
20105310

After local elections in 2011 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley continued to be governed by the Labour Party, the largest party represented on the council, who increased their total number of seats to 59. The Liberal 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.
YearLabourLiberal Democrats
2011594

After the local elections in 2012, Knowsley became a one party borough, completely taking out the Liberal Democrat seats.
YearLabourLiberal Democrats
2012630

In 2016 the number of seats was reduced to 45 with the Liberal Democrats winning three
YearLabourLiberal Democrats
2016423

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley is one of the six constituent local government districts of the Liverpool 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 the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
The combined 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.

Religion and Belief

According to the 2011 census, 80.9% of people in Knowsley describe themselves as Christian, the highest proportion in any local authority in England and Wales. This is significantly different than figures from the 2011 census for England and Wales where 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 they have no religion.

Twin towns

Knowsley is twinned with:
The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Knowsley.

Individuals