Cheshire West and Chester | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 53°12′47″N2°54′07″W / 53.213°N 2.902°W | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Country | England |
Region | North West |
Ceremonial county | Cheshire |
Incorporated | 1 April 2009 |
Government | |
• Type | Unitary authority with leader and cabinet |
• Body | Cheshire West and Chester Council |
• Control | Labour |
• Leader | Louise Gittins (L) |
• Chairman | Robert Bisset |
• Chief Executive | Delyth Curtis |
• House of Commons | 5 MPs
|
Area | |
• Total | 363.4 sq mi (941.2 km2) |
• Land | 360 sq mi (920 km2) |
• Rank | 31st |
Population (2021) [3] | |
• Total | 357,699 |
• Rank | 24th |
• Density | 1,010/sq mi (389/km2) |
Ethnicity (2021) | |
• Ethnic groups | |
Religion (2021) | |
• Religion | List
|
Time zone | UTC+0 (GMT) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+1 (BST) |
Postcode areas | |
Dialling codes |
|
ISO 3166 code | GB-CHW |
GSS code | E06000050 |
ITL code | TLD63 |
GVA | 2021 estimate [5] |
•Total | £11.7 billion |
•Per capita | £32,846 |
GDP (nominal) | 2021 estimate [5] |
•Total | £13.1 billion |
•Per capita | £36,518 |
Website | cheshirewestandchester |
Cheshire West and Chester is a unitary authority area with borough status in Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 local government changes, by virtue of an order under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. [6] It superseded the boroughs of Ellesmere Port and Neston, Vale Royal and the City of Chester; its council assumed the functions and responsibilities of the former Cheshire County Council within its area. The remainder of ceremonial Cheshire is composed of Cheshire East, Halton and Warrington. Cheshire West and Chester has three key urban areas: Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich/Winsford.
The decision to create the Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority was announced on 25 July 2007 following a consultation period, in which a proposal to create a single Cheshire unitary authority was rejected. [7]
Political party | Seats | |
---|---|---|
Conservative | 23 | |
Green | 2 | |
Independent | 2 | |
Labour | 38 | |
Liberal Democrats | 1 | |
Unaffiliated | 1 | |
Winsford Salt of the Earth | 3 | |
Total | 70 |
In line with every other district in Cheshire, the cabinet (formerly 'the executive' between 2009 and 2015) [8] is composed of elected councillors. From its establishment in 2009, Cheshire West and Chester was governed by the Conservative Party, with Mike Jones as leader. Since the 2015 elections it has been governed by the Labour Party, with Samantha Dixon becoming the first female leader of the council upon taking office.
The leader presently oversees a cabinet of eight, with each member holding a specific portfolio. Opposition parties can also elect to appoint shadow cabinet members, though they have no executive power.
All councillors vote to appoint a chairman for the following municipal year (May) at the council AGM. Traditionally, this role was combined with that of the apolitical and ceremonial Lord Mayor of Chester, but in 2015 these roles were separated and the role of chairman was politicised. [9]
The cabinet is scrutinised by one general committee and four district committees made up of councillors, which replaced six dedicated scrutiny committees for different topics in May 2015. [9]
The first elections to the authority took place on 1 May 2008, with the electoral wards being the same as those used in the former Cheshire County Council elections, each ward electing three councillors. There were twenty-four wards in total, meaning that seventy-two councillors were elected.
An electoral review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England was put into effect prior to the 2011 elections, meaning that three additional councillors were created, making a total of seventy-five in the borough. The ward boundaries were also comprehensively re-drawn, with their number being increased by twenty-two to forty-six. The new wards were mostly single-member wards, with two and three-member wards for the more populous areas. [10] [11]
The 2015 election took place on 7 May, producing the first change of executive in the council's history. [12]
Last election | By-elections | Next election |
---|---|---|
2019 (all-out) | 2023 (all-out) |
The borough is divided into forty-six wards, [10] [11] listed below in alphabetical order.
There are ninety-seven parish councils in the borough, [13] [14] despite there being a total of 166 civil parishes before a community governance review was undertaken by the borough council in 2014 [15] under section 82 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. [16]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2018) |
Constituency | Member of Parliament | Political party | Year first elected | Notes | Website | Parliamentary profile | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
City of Chester | Chris Matheson | Labour Party | 2015 | Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) | Website | Profile | ||
Eddisbury | Edward Timpson | Conservative Party | 2019 [Note 4] | Website | Profile | |||
Ellesmere Port and Neston | Justin Madders | Labour Party | 2015 | Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care) | Website | Profile | ||
Tatton | Esther McVey | Conservative Party | 2017 [Note 5] | Website | Profile | |||
Weaver Vale | Mike Amesbury | Labour Party | 2017 | Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government) | Website | Profile |
Election year → | 2005 | 2010 [Note 7] | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
City of Chester | Christine Russell | Stephen Mosley | Chris Matheson | ||||||||
Eddisbury | Stephen O'Brien | Antoinette Sandbach | Edward Timpson | ||||||||
Ellesmere Port and Neston | Andrew Miller | Justin Madders | |||||||||
Tatton | George Osborne | Esther McVey | |||||||||
Weaver Vale | Mike Hall | Graham Evans | Mike Amesbury |
Current MPs are highlighted in bold.
Last election | By-elections | Next election |
---|---|---|
2019 | 2024 (or earlier) |
In line with nearly every local government district in England and Wales, the majority of the population describe themselves as 'white'. The exact figure - 95.3% - is comparable with metropolitan counties such as Merseyside, non-metropolitan counties such as Cumbria and principal areas throughout Wales. This would suggest that the figure is not a significant outlier nationwide.
The next largest ethnic group in the borough is Asian, who along with other ethnic minorities are supported by the Cheshire Asian & Minority Communities Council, a registered charity headquartered in Chester.
The main religion in Cheshire West and Chester is Christianity, with a percentage figure above the average for England (46.3%, 2021). [19] The single largest church is the Church of England, with the borough being served by the Chester Archdeaconry, with six deaneries and an average of twenty parish churches in each deanery. Roman Catholicism also has a significant presence across the borough, with all its churches located in the Diocese of Shrewsbury.
Methodist churches in the borough form groups averaging ten, known as 'circuits' (the four in Cheshire West and Chester are all part of the Chester and Stoke-on-Trent District). More marginal churches include Assemblies of God, Baptist Union, Elim Pentecostal, United Reformed and the English Presbyterian Church of Wales in Chester.
Aside from churches, there are two mosques in Cheshire West and Chester - one each in Chester and Ellesmere Port - which were subjected to property theft [20] and racially aggravated disorder [21] respectively in 2014.
Local authority | In relation to the district |
---|---|
City of Liverpool | North (over the river) |
Halton | North |
Warrington | North east |
Cheshire East | East |
Newcastle-under-Lyme | South |
Wrexham | South west |
Flintshire | West |
Wirral | North west |
Cheshire West and Chester Council maintains six Local Nature Reserves: Burton Mill Wood, Helsby Quarry, Marshall's Arm, Rivacre Valley, Stanney Wood, and Whitby Park. [22]
There are no passenger airports in the borough (a grass airfield exists in Little Budworth), with the nearest being Liverpool and Manchester which licensed vehicles provide transport to. Airbus' fleet of A300-600ST Beluga transporter aircraft are based at Hawarden Airport in neighbouring Flintshire, adjacent to their wing manufacturing facility.
National routes which pass through the borough include NCR5, NCR45 (Mercian Way), NCR56, NCR562, NCR563, NCR568 and NCR573. Regional routes include 70 (Cheshire Cycleway) and 71.
Three disused railways in the borough have been converted to off-road cycleways, including:
The Shropshire Union Canal towpath between Waverton and the National Waterways Museum is paved with asphalt and is a shared-use route between cyclists and pedestrians, for a distance of 12.5 miles. Between Tarvin Bridge and Blacon Avenue, it is also lit.
In 2009, Chester was awarded the status of 'Cycling Town' by Cycling England. To reflect this, a series of colour-coded signposted routes around the city were devised in 2012. [23] The total length of new signposted routes created by the project was thirty-eight miles, bringing the overall total in the borough to 312.5. The total funding received from the cycling town project, which ended in 2011 when Cycling England was disbanded, was £4.4 million. [24] A similar network of over thirty miles of cycle routes branded the Ellesmere Port Grenway has been proposed by the town's development board. [25]
Chester has four park and ride sites located adjacent to radial routes on the city's outskirts (Boughton Heath, Sealand Road, Upton and Wrexham Road) running on two lines which intersect at Chester Bus Interchange. A fifth site is proposed near Hoole Village.
Route | Terminus | Intermediate stop | Chester city centre | Intermediate stop | Terminus | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blue (PR1) | Upton (Zoo) | Countess of Chester Hospital | Delamere Street | Chester Bus Interchange | Foregate Street | Pepper Street | Grosvenor Road | Wrexham Road |
Green (PR2) | Sealand Road | Sealand Road (Greyhound Park) | Canal Street | Boughton | Boughton Heath |
Hooton station is designated as a park and ride facility for railway services on the Wirral Line, it contains a 418-space car park. [26]
Chester is the hub of the railway network in the borough, with around 4.7 million passengers annually. [27] Passenger numbers doubled to this figure in the ten years to 2015, making the station the eighth-busiest in North West England. [28] Railway lines (and their associated franchise(s)) in the borough - not necessarily connecting to Chester - include:
The sections of railway between Chester - Stockport and Chester - Warrington Bank Quay are proposed for electrification during the period 2019–2024. [29]
The Crewe North Rolling Stock Depot serving High Speed Two is proposed to be built in the civil parish of Stanthorne and Wimboldsley. The line itself enters the borough in that location and leaves it again near the A556/A559 junction at Lostock Gralam. [30]
Motorways | A roads | B roads |
---|---|---|
|
Motorways and primary routes in the borough which are maintained by National Highways (trunk roads de jure) include the M6, M53, M56, A55, A483, A494, A550 and a short section of the A41 in Hooton. Other primary routes which are maintained by the council (principal roads de jure) include the A41, A49, A51, A54, A56, A483, A530, A533, A534, A556, A5115, A5116, A5117 and A5268.
Chester and Ellesmere Port - both primary route destinations - form the hub of the road network in Cheshire West and Chester, with routes of national importance carrying traffic in all directions to locations including Flintshire, Halton, Wirral and Wrexham.
European Route E05 is routed via the M6, carrying international traffic between Scotland, North West England, the West Midlands and France via Southampton. European route E22 is routed via the A494 and M56, carrying international traffic between Ireland (the route in fact begins at the Port of Holyhead), North Wales, North West England, Yorkshire and the Netherlands. Both routes meet at Lymm Interchange, which lies in neighbouring Cheshire East.
Three Roman roads exist in Cheshire West and Chester, Two originating in Chester ( Deva Victrix ) and running to Northwich ( Condate ) and Whitchurch ( Mediolanum ) respectively. The Roman road of kings street in Northwich which runs from Middlewich to Warrington.
The section of the A51 between its western terminus and the B5132 was named as one of the most congested roads in the United Kingdom by INRIX in August 2015. [31]
Three local MPs - Graham Evans, Justin Madders and Chris Matheson - raised safety concerns about the M56 between J12 and J14 in parliament after more than one hundred-and-sixty incidents were recorded since 2011. In response, Andrew Jones, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, confirmed that an upgrade to smart motorway will only take place after 2020. [32] [33]
Navigable waterways in the borough include the Manchester Ship Canal, Shropshire Union Canal, Trent and Mersey Canal and the Weaver Navigation, the latter two being connected together by the Anderton Boat Lift near Northwich, the only caisson lift lock in the United Kingdom.
Key | |
Abbey/Priory/Cathedral | |
Accessible open space | |
Amusement/Theme Park | |
Castle | |
Country Park | |
English Heritage | |
Forestry Commission | |
Heritage railway | |
Historic House | |
Places of Worship | |
| Museum (free/not free) |
National Trust | |
Theatre | |
Zoo |
Chester FC are the highest ranked club in the area and compete in the National League North (the sixth tier of English football. Northwich has four semi-professional teams - Barnton, Northwich Victoria, Witton Albion and 1874 Northwich - all of whom play in regional leagues. Winsford is also represented in the non-league pyramid by Winsford United, and Ellesmere Port by Vauxhall Motors FC – the former works team of the Vauxhall Ellesmere Port assembly plant.
Below level ten of the English pyramid are county-wide amateur leagues, with two covering the geographic area of the borough - the Cheshire Association Football League and West Cheshire Association Football League. Although several clubs are members of the former, many more compete in the latter. Below that is the Chester & Wirral Football League, and also the Mid-Cheshire district leagues who cater for the areas of knutsford, Northwich, Middlewich and Winsford where teams representing neighbourhoods/villages and/or pubs/social clubs ('pub teams') compete.
The largest football stadium in Cheshire West and Chester is the Deva Stadium, home to Chester FC, although the ground famously straddles the England-Wales border.
Whilst the borough per se does not have any twinning agreements, several of its settlements have agreements predating its creation in 2009, listed below:
Settlement(s) | Twin town(s) |
---|---|
Barrow Littleton | Aubignan |
Chester | Sens Lörrach Senigallia |
Ellesmere Port | Reutlingen |
Malpas | Questembert |
Northwich | Dole Carlow |
Tarporley | Bohars |
Upton-by-Chester | Arradon |
Winsford | Deuil-la-Barre |
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shropshire to the south; to the west it is bordered by the Welsh counties of Flintshire and Wrexham, and has a short coastline on the Dee Estuary. Warrington is the largest settlement, and the city of Chester is the county town.
Frodsham is a market town, civil parish, and electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Its population in 2021 was 9,300. It is 16 miles (26 km) south of Liverpool and 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Manchester. The River Weaver runs to its northeast and on the west it overlooks the estuary of the River Mersey. The A56 road and the Chester–Manchester railway line pass through the town, and the M56 motorway passes to the northwest.
Ellesmere Port is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Chester, on the bank of the Manchester Ship Canal. The town had a population of 61,090 in the 2011 census. Ellesmere Port also forms part of the wider Birkenhead urban area, which had a population of 325,264 in 2011.
Ellesmere Port and Neston was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district with borough status in Cheshire, England. It covered the southern part of the Wirral Peninsula, namely that part which is not included in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.
Neston is a market town and civil parish on the Wirral Peninsula, in Cheshire, England. It is part of the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. The civil parish and wider suburban area includes Parkgate to the north west and Little Neston, Ness and part of Burton to the south.
The M53 is an 18.9-mile (30.4 km) motorway in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside and the borough of Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire on the Wirral Peninsula in England. It is also referred to as the Mid Wirral Motorway. It runs between the Kingsway Tunnel, at Wallasey in the north, and the A55 at Chester.
Vale Royal was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district with borough status in Cheshire, England. It contained the towns of Northwich, Winsford and Frodsham.
Eddisbury is a constituency in Cheshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Edward Timpson, a Conservative.
Weaver Vale is a constituency in Cheshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Mike Amesbury, a member of the Labour Party.
Helsby is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Overlooking the Mersey estuary, it is approximately 9 miles (14 km) north east of Chester and 2.5 miles (4 km) south west of Frodsham.
Helsby railway station serves the village of Helsby in Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II listed building.
Birkenhead Woodside was a railway station at Woodside, in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire. It was served by local services in Cheshire as well as long-distance services to southern England, including London.
Ellesmere Port railway station is located in the town of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England. The station was an intermediate through station on the Hooton–Helsby line. Now all passenger services terminate at the station from both directions. It is both a terminus of the Wirral Line, a commuter rail system operated by Merseyrail and of Northern Trains services to Warrington Bank Quay. Departures and arrivals of Merseyrail services are on platform 1 with departures and arrivals to Warrington Bank Quay on platform 2.
Mid Cheshire is a former two-member United Kingdom parliamentary constituency which existed in the 19th century.
The Hooton–Helsby line is a railway line in the north-west of England that runs from Hooton on the Chester–Birkenhead line to the village and junction station at Helsby where it joins the Chester–Warrington line.
The 2011 elections to Cheshire West and Chester Borough Council were the first elections to this Council after it had been re-warded into a mixture of single-, two- and three-member wards. They took place on 5 May alongside the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum. The previous election held for 2008 were based on the old Cheshire County Council electoral divisions each of which returned 3 members. The 2008 elections elected 72 members to serve first on the shadow authority and then, with effect from 1 April 2009, the new Council when it took over responsibility for the delivery of local government services.
Westminster is a suburb of the town of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England. It is a ward of the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester. Located to the north of the town centre, Westminster consists of largely early 20th century terraced housing towards the Manchester Ship Canal and post-war properties further inland. The Joseph Groome Towers are three thirteen-storey tower blocks built as public housing in the 1960s.
The 2015 Cheshire West and Chester Council election took place on 7 May 2015, electing members of Cheshire West and Chester Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections across the country as well as the general election.
The ceremonial county of Cheshire, which comprises the unitary authorities of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington, has returned 11 MPs to the UK Parliament since 1997.