Confirmed plans for a new map of Liverpool will see the city centre divided up into newly named areas.
Final plans have now been decided that will see the Liverpool broken up into different wards. The changes form part of the council's improvement plan following last year's shocking government inspection report, which lifted the lid on a host of failures in how the city had been run. The remapping of the city is seen as a key measure in Liverpool's improvement journey.
At present, Liverpool is split up into thirty electoral wards, represented by 90 councillors - with three councillors elected in each ward. Previously, a third of all council seats would be elected in three of every four years. Under the new electoral system, there will be one Liverpool Council election every four years - starting next May - where all of the council's seats will be up for grabs.
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The council has been working with the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) over the plans for a new electoral map. There have been a number of changes made to the plans across the past 10 months, but now the final plans are in place. They will now be brought before Parliament and will come into force from next May's elections.
The final map will see Liverpool divided up into 64 wards. Within this there will be 46 wards represented by just one councillor. There will be 15 areas represented by two councillors and just three larger areas that will be represented by three elected city councillors. The plan will see each councillor representing an average of 4,300 residents.
As part of the new plans, the city centre will be divided up into newly named areas. Currently there is one Central ward, represented by three councillors, which is bordered by the wards of Riverside, Princes Park and Picton to the south, Kirkdale and Everton to the north and Kensington and Fairfield to the east.
New city centre map
Under the new map, Liverpool's city centre and surrounding areas will be divided up into a number of different areas. These wards can be seen in both the North West and Central West maps that have been produced by the Local Government Boundary Commission.
Central West
Looking first at the Central West part of the new map and we can see that there will be two main city centre wards, named City Centre North (35) and City Centre South (36). Both of these wards will be two-member wards, with two elected city councillors representing each area. City Centre North is predicted to cover a population of 8,368 by 2027, while City Centre South will cover 8,457 people by that time.
There will be a number of new wards created surrounding those two key city centre areas. One of those, Waterfront South (43), will include some of Liverpool's most notable buildings like the Three Graces and the attractions and museums at the Pier Head. This ward will see one councillor representing an estimated 4,241 residents by 2027.
A new Ropewalks ward (41), will cover some of Liverpool's most well-known hospitality streets of bars and restaurants. One councillor will represent approximately 4,707 people here by 2027. Meanwhile, two councillors will represent much of the city's student and university area in the new Brownlow Hill ward (34).
Also on this map is the new Paddington ward (39), which will see two councillors representing an area to the east of the city centre. This area includes the new Royal Liverpool Hospital and the Paddington Village developments.
North West
There are some areas covering parts of Liverpool City Centre that will be covered by new wards in the north west region of the city's new map.
These include a Waterfront North ward, which will incorporate the city's north docks and will see one councillor representing a projected 2027 population of 4,035. Next to this will lie the new Vauxhall ward and the new Kirkdale ward, where one councillor will represent 4,791 and 4,190 residents by 2027 respectively.
There will also be a new Scotland Road ward created to the north east of the city centre, which will incorporate the famous road and some of the civic centre and museums. Two councillors will represent a population expected to reach 7,837 by 2027.
What happens now?
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England has now completed its review of Liverpool City Council. The final recommendations must now be approved by Parliament. A draft order - the legal document which brings into force the recommendations - will be laid in Parliament. Subject to parliamentary scrutiny, the new electoral arrangements will come into force at the local elections in 2023.
You can read more about the changes here.
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