Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

Template:Infobox UK District The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, North West England, which occupies the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula.

The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral has a population of about 311,200 (2006 estimate) in an area of 60 square miles (155 km²). It faces Liverpool over the River Mersey to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and the River Dee to the west. To the south it borders the borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston, in Cheshire.

Major towns and villages in the borough include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Heswall, Hoylake, West Kirby, and the model village of Port Sunlight.

History

The borough was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, as a merger of the county boroughs of Birkenhead and Wallasey, along with the municipal borough of Bebington and the urban districts of Hoylake and Wirral.

An opinion poll conducted by MORI in 2003 showed that 45% of people polled felt they "belong[ed] to" Merseyside "very strongly" (13%) or "fairly strongly", compared to a figure of 30% for Cheshire (17% of whom felt "very strongly"). 78% felt they strongly belonged to the Wirral council area.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Wirral at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added[1]	Agriculture[2]	Industry[3]	Services[4]
1995	2,089	10	674	1,405
2000	2,609	5	814	1,789
2003	3,020	9	755	2,256

^ includes hunting and forestry

^ includes energy and construction

^ includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

^ Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

In September 2006 a large scale development called Wirral Waters was unveiled by the company Peel Holdings, that if constructed as outlined may see the creation of up to 27,000 jobs.

Education

See also: Category:Schools in Wirral

When the borough was set up in 1974, it inherited comprehensive systems from the former County Boroughs of Birkenhead and Wallasey. In the part of Wirral formerly administered by Cheshire County Council, it inherited a selective system of grammar and secondary modern non-Roman Catholic schools and a comprehensive Roman Catholic school (St John Plessington Catholic College).

Until the implementation of the Education 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 and Upton Hall School, both within the Birkenhead education area, became the only independent schools in the country to become state funded grant-maintained schools, retaining selective admissions policies to become Roman Catholic grammar schools.

A further change came as a result of the School 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).

Ofsted publishes an annual list of schools that it has judged to be "particularly successful". Wirral secondary schools that have appeared in that list are:

• Calday Grange Grammar School (2001-06)
• Pensby High School for Girls (2000-01)
• Ridgeway High School (2000-01)
• St Anselm's College (1999-2000 and 2004-05)
• St John Plessington Catholic College (1997-98)
• St Mary's Catholic College (2001-02)
• Upton Hall School FCJ (2006-7)
• West Kirby Grammar School (1994-95)
• Wirral Grammar School for Girls (1997-98 and 2003-04)
• Woodchurch High School Engineering College (1998-99 and 2004-05)

Ofsted has not inspected any of Wirral's independent schools.

Local government

As of 2008 the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is governed by a Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition the second and third largest parties on the council respectively. The Conservative Party(UK) is currently the largest party represented, and is currently in opposition.

Year	Conservatives	Labour	Liberal Democrats	Independent
2008	24	21	20	1

Parliamentary constituencies

• Birkenhead
• Wallasey
• Wirral South
• Wirral West

See also: List of Parliamentary constituencies on Merseyside

See also

• Wirral Waterfront SRB — a regeneration initiative

External links

• 360º Virtual Tours Of Wirral
• Metropolitan Borough of Wirral home page
• Vision of Britain
• Find Any Business In Wirral