Liverpool Urban Area

The "Liverpool Urban Area" is a term used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to denote the urban area around Liverpool in England, to the east of the River Mersey. The contiguous built-up area extends beyond the area administered by Liverpool City Council into adjoining local authority areas, particularly parts of Sefton and Knowsley. As defined by ONS, the area extends as far east as Haydock and St. Helenscite web |title= Liverpool Urban Area |publisher = Office for National Statistics |url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/liverpool_urban_area.asp |accessdate=2008-06-30] .

The Liverpool Urban Area is not the same area as Merseyside (or Greater Merseyside) which includes areas of Wirral on the west bank of the Mersey and Southport.

Definition

The Liverpool Urban Area defined by ONS covers Liverpool and its contiguous built-up areas, with a population of 816,216 in the 2001 census [cite web |title= Key Statistics for urban areas in the North - Contents, Introduction, Tables KS01 - KS08 |publisher = Office for National Statistics |url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/census2001/ks_urban_north_part_1.pdf |accessdate=2008-06-30] which is down 2.6% from the 1991 figure of 837,998 [cite web |title= 1991 Top 50 Urban Areas |publisher = Office for National Statistics |url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/1991_ua_top50.asp |accessdate=2008-06-30] . The urban area facing Liverpool on the Wirral peninsula is a separate division known as the Birkenhead Urban Area [cite web |title= Birkenhead Urban Area |publisher = Office for National Statistics |url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/birkenhead_urban_area.asp |accessdate=2008-06-30] .

The ONS definition is based purely on physical criteria with a focus on the presence or absence of significant gaps between built-up areas. It therefore extends as far as St. Helens and Haydock, but excludes some areas much closer to Liverpool which are separated from it by open spaces. The ONS definition includes in the Liverpool Urban Area, the subcomponents of
*Bootle
*Crosby
*Haydock
*Huyton-with-Roby
*Litherland
*Liverpool
*Prescot
*St. Helens

"Greater Liverpool"

"Greater Liverpool" is an unofficial term used in various contexts to describe a similar but not identical area which usually excludes both Wirral and St. Helensfact|date=June 2008.

Some parts of Sefton and Knowsley, such as Bootle, Maghull, Crosby, Kirkby and Huyton, are closely linked to the Liverpool economy and are intrinsically linked to the city by their residentsfact|date=June 2008. They include Aintree Racecourse [ [http://www.aintree.co.uk/home/ Aintree Racecourse] ] and much of the Port of Liverpool [ [http://www.merseydocks.co.uk/port-of-liverpool/ The Port of Liverpool] ] which brand themselves as Liverpoolfact|date=June 2008. More distant areas such as St Helens, Haydock and Halton are not generally considered part of "Greater Liverpool"By whom?.

Specifically, the term "Greater Liverpool" is now used by the Rent Service as one of its "Broad Rental Market Areas" (BRMA). [ [https://lha-direct.therentservice.gov.uk/Secure/LHARateSearch.aspx?SearchType=LA Broad Rental Market Areas] (select 'Liverpool' as the Local Authority and hit LA Search - then hit the 'Map' button at the bottom to give map)] This area includes such areas outside the City as Crosby, Maghull, Kirkby and Huyton, but not Prescot or St. Helens.

Another organisation that uses the wider Liverpool area is Merseytravel on its long established Saveaway travel map [ [http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/information_tickets_saveaway.html Merseytravel Saveaway] (see map)] . 'Area C' includes most of the areas on this section with the exception of Rainhill and Merseytravel name Area C as Liverpool.

References