| Ellesmere Port Council Offices | |
|---|---|
 The building in 2005 | |
| Location | Civic Way, Ellesmere Port |
| Coordinates | 53°16′36″N2°54′15″W / 53.2768°N 2.9041°W |
| Built | 1969 |
| Architectural style(s) | Modern style |
  Shown in Cheshire | |
Ellesmere Port Council Offices is a municipal building in Civic Way in Ellesmere Port, a town in Cheshire, in England. The building served as the headquarters of Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council but is now disused.
Following significant population growth, largely associated with the shipping industry, a local board of health was established in the area in 1872. [1] The local board of health was replaced by Wirral Rural District Council in 1894 and by Ellesmere Port and Whitby Urban District Council in 1902. [2] The new council initially established offices at Bank Buildings in Station Street, [3] before opening dedicated offices in 1908. [4] [5] The council then moved to the former home of the Grace family, Whitby Hall, in 1931. [6]
After the Second World War, a memorial, in the form of an irregular monolith of stone bearing by a plaque commemorating the lives of veterans involved in the Normandy landings, was unveiled to the west of the council offices at the corner of Stanney Lane and Whitby Road. [7] [8]
The area became a municipal borough in 1955 and, in that context, the council found that the Whitby Hall was inadequate and decided to commission a new civic complex. The site they selected was open land on the north side of Stanney Lane. [9] The council offices were the final phase of the development of the new civic complex in the new town centre, following the opening of the Civic Hall in 1955, and a library in 1962. [10] The new five-storey building was designed under the supervision of the borough engineer and surveyor, Howard Wilson, [11] in the modern style, built in concrete, glass and brick and was completed in 1969. The main frontage was faced with alternating bands of concrete cladding and steel-framed glass and there were brick-clad staircase towers at centre and ends of the structure. [12]
The building continued to serve as the local administrative headquarters after the area became part of the new Borough of Ellesmere Port and Neston in 1974. [13] However, council meetings continued to be held at Whitby Hall until the early 1990s, when the council offices were extended. The additions including a new hexagonal shaped structure, containing a purpose-built council chamber, and an underground bunker, intended for use in the event of a nuclear attack. [14] In 2009, the borough became part of Cheshire West and Chester. [15]
In 2005, a new civic square was established to the east of the council offices. The centrepiece of the civic square was a new war memorial, in the form of a celtic cross on a cruciform base commemorating the lives of all local service personnel who had died in military conflict, which was unveiled on 11 November 2005. [16] [17]
The new council continued to use the building to deliver services until May 2022, when it moved to a new building in the town, The Portal. [18] Demolition of the building was approved, but was delayed until 2024 due to the need to relocate mobile phone masts from the roof. [19] [20] [21]
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 Wirral Peninsula, known locally as the Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about 15 miles (24 km) long and 7 miles (11 km) wide, and is bounded by the Dee Estuary to the west, the Mersey Estuary to the east, and Liverpool Bay to the north.
Ellesmere Port and Neston is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Justin Madders of the Labour Party.
Wirral Rural District was a rural district on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire, England from 1894 to 1933. It was created under the Local Government Act 1894 from the Wirral Rural Sanitary District.
Thornton Hough is a village and former civil parish in the Wirral district of Merseyside, England. The village lies in the more rural inland part of the Wirral Peninsula and is of pre-Norman Conquest origins. The village grew during the ownership of Joseph Hirst into a small model village and was later acquired by William Lever, founder of Lever Brothers, the predecessor of Unilever. Thornton Hough is roughly 10 miles (16 km) from Liverpool and 12 miles (19 km) from Chester. It is part of the Clatterbridge ward and is in the parliamentary constituency of Wirral South.
Cheshire County Council was the county council of Cheshire. Founded on 1 April 1889, it was officially dissolved on 31 March 2009, when it and its districts were superseded by two unitary authorities; Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East.
Hooton is a suburban village and former civil parish on the Wirral Peninsula, within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It was once a separate village but was incorporated into Ellesmere Port as the town expanded outwards during the twentieth century.
Wirral was a county constituency which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1983, elected by the first past the post voting system.
Willaston is a large village situated on the Wirral Peninsula, in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England. Centred on a village green, it is located between Neston and Ellesmere Port, less than a mile south of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral boundary. It is located very closely to Eastham and Bromborough and just a short distance away from Neston. At the 2001 Census, the total population of Willaston and Thornton ward was 4,913.
Ledsham is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The civil parish includes parts of the hamlets of Badger's Rake and Two Mills. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula, approximately 10 km (6.2 mi) to the north of the city of Chester and 6 km (3.7 mi) to the west of Ellesmere Port.
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. 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.
Little Stanney is a suburban village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is located on the Wirral Peninsula between Chester and Ellesmere Port.
Cheshire West and Chester Council is the local authority for Cheshire West and Chester. It is a unitary authority created on 1 April 2009, succeeding the non-metropolitan districts of Chester City Council, Ellesmere Port and Neston Borough Council, and Vale Royal Borough Council, and the non-metropolitan county of Cheshire County Council. The council was first elected on 1 May 2008, a year before coming into its legal powers on 1 April 2009.
Whitby Park is the main urban park in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England. It is managed by Cheshire West and Chester Council.
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.
Reginald Braithwaite Chrimes OBE was a British Labour Party politician.
Neston Town Hall is a municipal building on High Street, Neston, Cheshire, England. The structure accommodates the offices and the meeting place of Neston Town Council.
Ellesmere Port and Bromborough is a proposed constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it will first be contested at the next general election.
In 1908, the year in which new council offices were built, Ellesmere Port…
Contract documents from the borough engineer and surveyor, Queen Street, Ellesmere Port
Ellesmere Port BC , has been appointed borough engineer and surveyor in succession to Howard Wilson
...at the new Municipal Offices, 4 Civic Way, Ellesmere Port...