Cheshire West and Chester


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 It superseded the boroughs of Ellesmere Port and Neston, Vale Royal and the City of Chester. The remainder of the ceremonial county of Cheshire is composed of Cheshire East, Halton and Warrington. Cheshire West and Chester has three key urban areas: Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich/Winsford.
The decision to create the Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority was announced on 25 July 2007 following a consultation period, in which a proposal to create a single Cheshire unitary authority was rejected.
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Governance

The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. Full council meetings are held at Wyvern House in Winsford and the council has its main offices at The Portal in Ellesmere Port.

Subdivisions

As of 2019, the borough is divided into forty-five wards:
There are ninety-seven parish councils in the borough, despite there being a total of 166 civil parishes before a community governance review was undertaken by the borough council in 2014 under section 82 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.
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Demography

Ethnicity

In line with nearly every local government district in England and Wales, the majority of the population describe themselves as 'white'. The exact figure – 95.3% – is comparable with metropolitan counties such as Merseyside, non-metropolitan counties such as Cumbria and principal areas throughout Wales. This would suggest that the figure is not a significant outlier nationwide.
The next largest ethnic group in the borough is Asian, who along with other ethnic minorities are supported by the Cheshire Asian & Minority Communities Council, a registered charity headquartered in Chester.

Religion

The main religion in Cheshire West and Chester is Christianity, with a percentage figure above the average for England. The single largest church is the Church of England, with the borough being served by the Chester Archdeaconry, with six deaneries and an average of twenty parish churches in each deanery. Roman Catholicism also has a significant presence across the borough, with all its churches located in the Diocese of Shrewsbury.
Methodist churches in the borough form groups averaging ten, known as 'circuits'. More marginal churches include Assemblies of God, Baptist Union, Elim Pentecostal, United Reformed and the English Presbyterian Church of Wales in Chester.
Aside from churches, there are two mosques in Cheshire West and Chester – one each in Chester and Ellesmere Port – which were subjected to property theft and racially aggravated disorder respectively in 2014.

Geography

Local nature reserves

Cheshire West and Chester Council maintains six Local Nature Reserves: Burton Mill Wood, Helsby Quarry, Marshall's Arm, Rivacre Valley, Stanney Wood, and Whitby Park.

Transport

Air

There are no passenger airports in the borough; only a grass airfield exists in Little Budworth, with the nearest being Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Manchester Airport.

Cycling

National routes which pass through the borough include NCR5, NCR45 (Mercian Way), NCR56, NCR562, NCR563, NCR568 and NCR573. Regional routes include 70 and 71.
Three disused railways in the borough have been converted to off-road cycleways, including:
The Shropshire Union Canal towpath between Waverton and the National Waterways Museum is paved with asphalt; it is a shared-use route between cyclists and pedestrians for a distance of.
In 2009, Chester was awarded the status of Cycling Town by Cycling England. To reflect this, a series of colour-coded signposted routes around the city were devised in 2012. The total length of new signposted routes created by the project was, bringing the overall total in the borough to. The total funding received from the cycling town project, which ended in 2011 when Cycling England was disbanded, was £4.4 million. A similar network of over of cycle routes branded the Ellesmere Port Grenway has been proposed by the town's development board.

Park and Ride

Chester has four park and ride sites located adjacent to radial routes on the city's outskirts: Boughton Heath, Sealand Road, Upton and Wrexham Road; they run on two lines which intersect at Chester Bus Interchange. A fifth site is proposed near Hoole Village.
Hooton station is designated as a park and ride facility for railway services on the Wirral Line; it contains a 418-space car park.

Railway

Chester railway station is the hub of the railway network in the borough, with around 4.7 million passengers annually. Passenger numbers doubled to this figure in the ten years to 2015, making the station the eighth-busiest in North West England.
Railway lines, and their associated train operating companies in the borough, include:

Current and proposed improvements

The sections of railway between Chester–Stockport and Chester–Warrington Bank Quay are proposed for electrification during the period 2019–2024.

Road

Motorways and primary routes in the borough which are maintained by National Highways include the M6, M53, M56, A55, A483, A494, A550 and a short section of the A41 in Hooton. Other primary routes which are maintained by the council include the A41, A49, A51, A54, A56, A483, A530, A533, A534, A556, A5115, A5116, A5117 and A5268.
Chester and Ellesmere Port – both primary route destinations – form the hub of the road network in Cheshire West and Chester, with routes of national importance carrying traffic in all directions to locations including Flintshire, Halton, Wirral and Wrexham.
European Route E05 is routed via the M6, carrying international traffic between Scotland, North West England, the West Midlands and France via Southampton. European route E22 is routed via the A494 and M56, carrying international traffic between Ireland, North Wales, North West England, Yorkshire and the Netherlands. Both routes meet at Lymm Interchange, which lies in neighbouring Cheshire East.
Three Roman roads exist in Cheshire West and Chester:
  • Two originate in Chester. and running to Northwich and Whitchurch respectively.
  • The Roman road of Kings Street in Northwich, which runs from Middlewich to Warrington.
The section of the A51 between its western terminus and the B5132 was named as one of the most congested roads in the United Kingdom by INRIX in August 2015.
Three local MPs – Graham Evans, Justin Madders and Chris Matheson – raised safety concerns about the M56 between J12 and J14 in parliament after more than 160 incidents were recorded since 2011. In response, Andrew Jones, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, confirmed that an upgrade to smart motorway will only take place after 2020.

Water

Navigable waterways in the borough include the Manchester Ship Canal, Shropshire Union Canal, Trent and Mersey Canal and the Weaver Navigation. The latter two are connected together by the Anderton Boat Lift, near Northwich; this is the only caisson lift lock in the United Kingdom.

Media

Television

The area is served by BBC North West and ITV Granada with television signals received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter.

Radio

Radio stations for the area are:

Sport

Football

Chester FC are the highest ranked club in the area and compete in the National League North.
Northwich has four semi-professional teams – Barnton, Northwich Victoria, Witton Albion and 1874 Northwich – all of whom play in regional leagues. Winsford is also represented in the non-league pyramid by Winsford United, and Ellesmere Port by Vauxhall Motors FC – the former works team of the Vauxhall Ellesmere Port assembly plant.
Below level ten of the English pyramid are county-wide amateur leagues, with two covering the geographic area of the borough – the Cheshire Association Football League and West Cheshire Association Football League. Although several clubs are members of the former, many more compete in the latter. Below that is the Chester & Wirral Football League, and also the Mid-Cheshire district leagues who cater for the areas of knutsford, Northwich, Middlewich and Winsford where teams representing neighbourhoods/villages and/or pubs/social clubs compete.
The largest football stadium in Cheshire West and Chester is the Deva Stadium, home to Chester FC, although the ground famously straddles the England-Wales border.

Twin towns

Whilst the borough per se does not have any twinning agreements, several of its settlements have agreements predating its creation in 2009, listed below:
SettlementTwin town
Aubignan, France
Chester
Ellesmere PortReutlingen, Germany
MalpasQuestembert, France
Northwich
TarporleyBohars, France
Upton-by-ChesterArradon, France
WinsfordDeuil-la-Barre, France