Merseyside Towns
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. A large and broadly homogeneous conurbation in North West England, Merseyside, is an urban and suburban region with well-integrated services and transportation infrastructures lining both sides of the River Mersey estuary, and whose social and commercial focus is clearly centered on the city of Liverpool. The term, “Merseyside,†therefore, is a convenient alternative to what otherwise, by now, would almost certainly have become known as "Greater Liverpool." Taking its name from the River Mersey, Merseyside came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. The county consists of five metropolitan boroughs by the Mersey estuary, including the City of Liverpool.
Merseyside County Council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) are now effectively unitary authorities. However, the metropolitan county continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference.
Merseyside is divided into two parts by the Mersey estuary; the Wirral is located on the west side of the estuary, upon the Wirral Peninsula and the rest of the county is located on the east side. The northern part of Merseyside borders onto Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, both parts border Cheshire to the south.
The territory comprising the county of Merseyside previously formed part of the administrative counties of Lancashire (north of the River Mersey) and Cheshire (south of the River Mersey). (With the addition of Halton - the conjoined boroughs of Widnes and Runcorn - under consideration and already regarded as part of the Liverpool City Region - Merseyside's population would rise to approximately 1.5million.)