Combined authority proposal passed

Great news for the Region. We’re stronger working together.

Pity it wasn’t a real merger of the 6 authorities. May save much needed money for the genuine people who actually try their best to deliver within Councils, and remove all those expensive Chief Executives and Directors.

I just hope the name Merseyside is dropped in favour of something much higher profile – Greater Liverpool springs to mind (I hear the parochial screams in Southport and Heswall already)

Actually, this Heswall resident would be proud of being part of ‘Greater Liverpool’ and I know plenty who feel the same. Someone needs to start a petition…

I think Greater Liverpool is a much better name and I’d be proud to be associated with it (from a resident of West Wirral!)

Liverpoolshire

Please, not Greater Liverpool. It’s a nasty suggestion.

The most appropriate name for the new authority is the Greater Merseyside Combined Authority. The economic links (and to a lesser extent the social and cultural ties) between the other authorities and Liverpool are simply not strong enough to warrant calling it Greater Liverpool or Liverpool City Region; never have been. It is fundamentally different to the relationship between Manchester and it’s hinterland in that way.

The LIVERPOOL name should be front and center. The Liverpool brand is a worldwide recognized brand as recognizable as Coca~Cola, HSBC, Shell, McDonalds etc. Merseyside is virtually unknown outside of the English northwest and it is even mispronounce as Merceyside here in North America. Naming the combined authority with the world famous and renowned Liverpool name would akin to Coca~Cola re-branding to Brown~Pop, an act of total folly or, political malice in the extreme.

The name of the combined authority to strategically govern Liverpool City Region should be Liverpool City Region Combined Authority as is wanted by all 6 Liverpool City Region councils before National Government interfered with the horrendous and bizarre suggestion ‘Greater Merseyside’ rubbish, now thankfully binned because people hated it and told NG this in the consultation. The name ‘Merseyside’ is bad enough never mind adding ‘Greater’ in front of it! The name of the government should reflect the name of the area it seeks to govern – the combined authority is co-extensive with Liverpool City Region, as was the former Merseyside County Council with the almost abolished and redundant Merseyside metropolitan county, which is also smaller than Liverpool CR. Likewise the city of Liverpool is governed by Liverpool City Council and most of the Wirral is governed by Wirral Borough Council.

Some of the other comments on here are strange to put it mildly: the former Southport Corporation wanted, petitioned and lobbied Central Government to be part of ‘Merseyside’, it was not imposed; both Liverpool and Southport WERE in Lancashire, but they weren’t governed by it thankfully, so much of this Lancastrian nostalgia is retro-nonsense; Liverpool has no social, economic or cultural ties to the other areas of the OFFICIAL Liverpool City Region? What ignorance. It’s not boasting, but if it wasn’t for Liverpool many of these other places would not have economically developed or grown as communities – see Birkenhead and the Port of Liverpool’s docks there, see Kirkby, much of Huyton-with-Roby, Halewood, Stockbridge Village, Bootle and Liverpool’s docks there, Seaforth, Crosby and Liverpool’s docks there, New Brighton, Wallasey where Liverpudlians would often enjoy days out, the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, in the former Bebington Corp. area on the Wirral Peninsula which is owned and administered by National Museums Liverpool, St. Helens which sent the coal mined there often through Garston Docks Liverpool, see Runcorn and its former New Town, I mean I could continue, but you get the picture. Greater Manchester is only called that name because civil servants and ministers in London gave it that name and imposed it – did you know the area was previously called South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire?: SELNEC(!). It seems weird to suggest that people living in Wigan or Bolton, and Rochdale or Stockport, or even the proud independent city of Salford would say they are Manchester and Mancunians first and only, but no other identity – a completely bizarre argument.

To other commentators: I am heartened by the support of our friends in Heswall and the rest of the western side of the Wirral Peninsula for the combined authority, and the name Liverpool – remember Royal Liverpool Golf Club and Links which is situated in Hoylake in north-west Wirral. Tourism, commerce and business promotion, transport, is or is going to be done across the whole Liverpool City Region through the name and brand Liverpool, just like in Manchester, London, Leeds, Sheffield, etc. This should have always been the case as ‘Merseyside’ is hardly known and is an ugly title for the area. We need to rename the police, fire brigade, recycling and waste authority, pension fund, and transport body, etc. from ‘Merseyside’ to Liverpool or Liverpool City Region to reflect the new circumstances. The Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff should also be renamed for Liverpool and Liverpool City Region rather than the smaller ‘Merseyside’. Private sector business which employs many people here is keen for these changes as they see it as boosting more job-creation: they are formally called Liverpool City Region Enterprise Partnership, and there is Marketing Liverpool, visitliverpool.com, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, etc. This is about benefitting the whole of Liverpool City Region, and silly trivial small-mindedness from some people in some areas of Liverpool CR won’t hold back the community from growing socially, culturally, and economically. I could say much more, but I won’t for now.

YNWA.

With reference to the "silly trivial small-mindedness" (Individual and Collective) its a shame no-one asked the people of Southport if they wanted to be in Merseyside. The Council might think its a good idea. No-one in Southport does.

Nobody asked us whether we wanted you either, you’re a no-mark resort overlooking LIVERPOOL BAY.

Can the Wirral not finally realise it’s full potential and be renamed the Paradise Peninsula?

As referred to above, the name Liverpool is a globally recognised brand, driven by great institutions like the Beatles and the football club(s). If Liverpool is to compete on a global stage (as it should), it is vital that it has a name that is recognisable to anyone who doesn’t live in the UK. To go for an anodyne "politically correct" alternative is rather missing the point. Using the brand name of Liverpool will benefit all the broughs involved in this exercise, economically, culturally and politically. The citizens of Merseyside only need look 35 miles or so East (significantly less to Wigan et al) to see the example of what can be achieved when poltical small mindedness is put to one side in a recognition of the greater good. Even Salford University now uses the Manchester name because it recognises that it is a brand that has cahet in the huge swathes of the world that wouldn’t know Salford from their own rectum. Liverpool is one of the top world-wide city brand names, to not utilise that would not only be incredibly stupid, it would be unforgivable in the extreme…