The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley is a

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, North West

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It covers several towns and villages, including

Kirkby Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 was 41,495 making it the largest ...

, Prescot, Huyton, Whiston,

Halewood Halewood is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It lies near the city of Liverpool's southeastern boundary, bordered by the suburbs of Netherley, Hunt's Cross and Woolton. Historically a part of Lancashire, ...

, Cronton and

Stockbridge Village Stockbridge Village is an area of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 6,018. It was the subject of an article in a special report by ''The Economist'' entitled "A new kind of ghetto", which descri ...

; 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 Kirkby Urban District was a local government district in the administrative county of Lancashire, England, from 1958 to 1974. From 1949 onwards, the main settlement of the district was Kirkby new town. A District Council was created in 1958. The ...

and

Prescot Urban District Prescot Urban District was a local government district in the administrative county of Lancashire, England from 1895 to 1974.the main settlement of the district was the town of Prescot. In 1974 it was abolished and its former area was transferr ...

, along with most of Whiston Rural District and a small part of

West Lancashire Rural District West Lancashire was a rural district from 1894 to 1974 in Lancashire, England. It was created with other rural districts in 1894, based on the Ormskirk rural sanitary district. It was expanded in 1932 by the abolition of the Sefton Rural Distric ...

, all from the administrative county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. It is known for Knowsley Hall and

Knowsley Safari Park Knowsley Safari is a safari park and tourist attraction near Prescot, England. It is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). It contributes to conservat ...

History

The modern-day borough of Knowsley was formerly composed of villages and towns in

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 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. 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. 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. The borough of Knowsley was created on 1 April 1974 under the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

covering the area of three former urban districts, which were abolished at the same time, plus six

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

es (five from Whiston Rural District and one from

): * Cronton‡ *

‡ *

Huyton with Roby Urban District Huyton with Roby Urban District was a local government district in Lancashire, England from 1894 to 1974. It consisted of the civil parish of ''Huyton with Roby'' which comprised the settlements of Huyton and Roby. It replaced the Huyton with R ...

* Knowsley‡ *

Simonswood Simonswood is a civil parish in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England. At the 2001 census, the population was 130, increasing to 151 by the 2011 census. It was originally a township associated with the parish of Walton on the Hi ...

parish from West Lancashire Rural District *

Tarbock Tarbock is a village and former civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, in Merseyside, England. It is situated to the south east of Huyton and to the east of Netherley. The village itself is from Liverpool city centre, from W ...

‡ * Whiston‡ ‡Parishes from Whiston Rural District All the component parts of Knowsley had previously been in the administrative county of

, but were transferred to the new

metropolitan county The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each di ...

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 from Knowsley 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 the Knowsley Hall estate had historic connections to all the constituent parts of the new district. The government confirmed the name in 1973. The new district was awarded

borough status Borough status is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district. In Scotland, s ...

from its creation, allowing the chairman of the council to take the title of mayor.

Geography

Knowsley Metropolitan Borough covers an area of 33.40 square miles (86.50 km²) and is the smallest metropolitan borough of Merseyside. Within Merseyside, it borders the City of Liverpool to the west, the

Metropolitan Borough of Sefton The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on Local Government Act 1972, 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, ...

to the north-west and the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens to the east. It also borders Halton to the south-east, and West Lancashire to the north.

Settlements

* Bowring Park * Cronton *

* Huyton *

* Knowsley Village *

Page Moss Page Moss is an area in the borough of Knowsley, Merseyside. It borders the city of Liverpool to the east. Previously known as "The Horns" due to the name of two buildings previously sited in the area. The population of the Knowsley ward taken at ...

* Prescot * Roby *

* Whiston

Governance

Westminster

The residents of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough are represented in the British Parliament by

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MPs) for three separate parliamentary constituencies. Knowsley is represented by

George Howarth Sir George Edward Howarth (born 29 June 1949) is a British Labour Party politician who serves as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Knowsley. He also served the seat's predecessors since being elected in a by-election in 1986, firstly as the ...

MP (

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

), Garston and Halewood is represented by

Maria Eagle Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British politician who served in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. She later served in the Shadow Cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Memb ...

MP (Labour) and St Helens South and Whiston is represented by Marie Rimmer MP (Labour).

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

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 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.

Twin towns

Knowsley is twinned with: *

Moers Moers (; older form: ''Mörs''; archaic Dutch language, Dutch: ''Murse'', ''Murs'' or ''Meurs'') is a German List of cities and towns in Germany, city on the western bank of the Rhine, close to Duisburg. Moers belongs to the district of Wesel (d ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the

Freedom of the Borough The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

of Knowsley.

Individuals

* Steven George Gerrard: 11 November 2008.

Military units

* The

Duke of Lancaster's Regiment The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border) (LANCS) is an infantry regiment of the line within the British Army, part of the King's Division. Headquartered in Preston, it recruits throughout the North West of England. The Du ...

: 12 October 2009.

Organisations and Groups