The modern-day borough of Knowsley was formerly composed of villages and towns in Lancashire dating back to 650 AD.^[1] The Earls of Derby have their ancestral home in the borough at Knowsley Hall, the surroundings of which today house the popular visitor attraction of Knowsley Safari Park.

Knowsley experienced rapid population expansion in the 1950s and 1960s, resulting from the combination of industrialization and migration, including a significant amount of overspill development from Liverpool. By 1971, some 194,600 lived within the area which would become Knowsley.^[2] However, over the next two decades general economic decline – particularly in manufacturing – contributed to a significant fall in population to around 154,600 by 1994. Subsequently, a population stabilization strategy helped to stem this decline. The strategy was focused on house building and marketing the borough to secure inward investment.^[3] Record house building and strong growth in inward investment yielded the borough's first small rise in population in over 25 years in 1995. The population stabilized at over 154,000 for most of the rest of the 1990s.^[4]

Knowsley Metropolitan Borough covers an area of 33.40 square miles (86.50 km²) and is the smallest metropolitan borough of Merseyside. Within Merseyside, it borders the City of Liverpool to the west, the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton to the north-west and the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens to the east. It also borders Halton to the south-east, and West Lancashire to the north.

SettlementsEdit

• Bowring Park
• Cronton
• Halewood
• Huyton
• Kirkby
• Knowsley Village
• Page Moss
• Prescot
• Roby
• Stockbridge Village
• Tarbock
• Whiston

WestminsterEdit

The residents of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough are represented in the British Parliament by Members of Parliament (MPs) for three separate parliamentary constituencies. Knowsley is represented by George Howarth MP (Labour), Garston and Halewood is represented by Maria Eagle MP (Labour) and St Helens South and Whiston is represented by Marie Rimmer MP (Labour).

Knowsley Council CompositionEdit

After local elections in 2008 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley was governed by the Labour Party, the largest party represented on the council. The Liberal Democrats, the second largest party, were in opposition. There were no other councillors.

After local elections in 2010 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley continued to be governed by the Labour Party, the largest party represented on the council, who increased their total number of seats by 5 to 53. The Liberal Democrats, the second largest party represented on the council, continued to be in opposition losing 5 seats to the governing Labour Party to decrease their total number of seats to 10.

After local elections in 2011 the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley continued to be governed by the Labour Party, the largest party represented on the council, who increased their total number of seats to 59. The Liberal Democrats, the second largest party represented on the council, continued to be in opposition losing 6 seats to the governing Labour Party to decrease their total number of seats to 4.

After the local elections in 2012, Knowsley became a one party borough, completely taking out the Liberal Democrat seats.^[5]

In 2016 the number of seats was reduced to 45 with the Liberal Democrats winning three

Following several years of subsequent elections, the political composition is now Labour 33, Green 5, Liberal Democrats 3, Independent 3 with one vacancy in Page Moss ward.

Liverpool City Region Combined AuthorityEdit

The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley is one of the six constituent local government districts of the Liverpool City Region. Since 1 April 2014, some of the borough's responsibilities have been pooled with neighbouring authorities within the metropolitan area and subsumed into the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

The combined authority has effectively become the top-tier administrative body for the local governance of the city region and the leader of Knowsley Council, along with the five other leaders from neighbouring local government districts, take strategic decisions over economic development, transport, employment and skills, tourism, culture, housing and physical infrastructure.

According to the 2011 census, 80.9% of people in Knowsley describe themselves as Christian, the highest proportion in any local authority in England and Wales.^[6] This is significantly different from average figures from the 2011 census for England and Wales, which showed that 59.3 per cent of the population identified as Christian and 14.1 million people, around a quarter of the population in England and Wales, reported that they have no religion.

Knowsley is twinned with:^[7]

•   Moers, Germany

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Knowsley.

IndividualsEdit

• Steven George Gerrard: 11 November 2008.^[8]

Military unitsEdit

• The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment: 12 October 2009.^[9]

Organisations and GroupsEdit

• The St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust: April 2021. ^{[10] [11]}

• Knowsley United F.C.
• List of schools in Knowsley

• Knowsley Council
• Knowsley Online
• KCC Live