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See City of Liverpool for other meanings

Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Liberal Democrats and is led by Warren Bradley.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Domain 1.2 Administration 2 Wards 2004 3 Political makeup 4 Sites 5 External links

Liverpool has been a town since 1207, when it was granted its first charter by King John. It has had a town corporation (the Corporation of Liverpool) since before the 19th century, and was one of the corporations reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. The corporation created a police force in 1836.

Liverpool was granted city status in 1880. When local government was reformed in 1888 under the Local Government Act 1888 it was one of the cities to become a county borough, and thus independent of Lancashire. This situation persisted until 1974 with the Local Government Act 1972, when due to urban expansion and the accretion of a large metropolitan area, the city was made a metropolitan district of the metropolitan county of Merseyside. This saw the old corporation nomenclature abolished and the council reconstituted as Liverpool City Council.

In 1895 Wavertree, Walton and parts of Toxteth and West Derby were incorporated into the city with Fazakerley 1904 followed in 1913 by Gateacre, the rest of West Derby known as West Derby Rural in 1928 and finally Speke in 1932.

In 1986 the council of Merseyside was abolished and its functions devolved to its districts, but the county still legally exists. It should be noted therefore that Liverpool has never been a district council under Lancashire County Council.

In the late 1970s the City was run by the Liberal Party under Sir Trevor Jones. As part of their plans, a cost cutting exercise was drawn up, to reduce the councils costs by 25%. In 1979 the Conservative Party won a narrow victory in the General Election. Part of the Conservatives' plan was to impose a 25% cut on councils across the country. Liverpool City Council successfully negotiated an exception from this, on the grounds that they were already following Thatcher's policies and cutting 25%.

During the 1980s, the Militant movement gained control of several Labour councils including Liverpool, and challenged the national government on several issues. The leadership of the Labour Party was drawn into the controversy, culminating with Neil Kinnock's noted speech to Conference in 1985, denouncing Liverpool City Council without explicitly naming it. Derek Hatton, Councillor for Netherley ward and Deputy Leader of the Council, and Eric Heffer, MP for Liverpool Walton constituency, staged a walk-out.

Liverpool Labour Party successfully rooted out the militants within their midst and, following a brief period when the Liberal/SDP Alliance and Conservative Party ran the city in a caretaker capacity, Labour were returned to power with a massive vote of support by the Liverpool electorate.

Further recent events:

• 1998 The Liberal Democrats win control of Liverpool City Council.
• 2003 Liverpool win the UK nomination of European Capital of Culture for 2008.
• 2004 Liverpool's waterfront and parts of the city centre are given World Heritage status.
• 2005 In November Lib Dem leader of the Council Mike Storey resigns after eight years following emails in which he was accused of plotting to try to engineer the departure of the Council's Chief Executive, Sir David Henshaw, who had already announced his intention to retire.
• 2005 Cllr Storey was replaced as leader by Warren Bradley. Sir David Henshaw was replaced as chief executive by Colin Hilton.
• 2006 Planning decisions and policies of the Council threaten the World Heritage status. Council faces cutting £29million from its budget - much of it from the money earmarked for Capital of Culture.

Allerton and Hunts Cross	Anfield	Belle Vale	Central
Childwall	Church	Clubmoor	County
Cressington	Croxteth	Everton	Fazakerley
Greenbank	Kensington & Fairfield	Kirkdale	Knotty Ash
Mossley Hill	Norris Green	Old Swan	Picton
Princes Park	Riverside	Speke-Garston	St Michael's Hamlet
Tuebrook and Stoneycroft	Warbreck	Wavertree	West Derby
Woolton	Yew Tree

Elections are usually by thirds, in three of every four years. 2004 saw new boundaries and so all seats were contested.

In March 2007, Labour gained a seat from the Liberal Democrats in a by-election in Speke Garston ward. In the May 2007 council elections, the Liberal Democrats lost 4 seats to Labour, leaving the council make-up as Liberal Democrats 51, Labour 35, Liberals 3 and Greens 1.

Year	Liberal Democrats	Labour	Liberals	Others
Current	51	35	3	1
2006	56	30	3	1
2004	59	27	3	1
2003	63	31	3	2

Year	Control
2002	LD
2000	LD
1999	LD
1998	LD
1996	LAB
1995	NOC
1994	NOC
1992	NOC
1991	LAB
1990	LAB
1988	LAB
1987	LAB
1986	LAB
1984	LAB
1983	LAB
1982	NOC
1980	NOC
1979	NOC
1978	NOC
1976	NOC
1975	NOC
1973	NOC

The council has been under the Liberal Democrats' control since 1998. Prior to that it had alternated between Labour and No Overall Control since its reconstitution in 1974.

• Municipal Buildings, Liverpool Admin Centre.
• Liverpool Town Hall Ceremonial HQ.
• Calderstones House Recreation and Open Spaces Departments.

• Liverpool City Council
• Ward profile
• Capital of Culture 2008

v • d • e Ceremonial county of Merseyside
North West England Portal
Metropolitan districts	City of Liverpool • Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley • Metropolitan Borough of Sefton • Metropolitan Borough of St Helens • Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Cities and towns	Bebington • Birkenhead • Bootle • Crosby • Formby • Great Crosby • Halewood • Heswall • Hoylake • Huyton • Kirkby • Liverpool • Maghull • Newton-le-Willows • Prescot • Rainhill • Southport • St Helens • Wallasey • Whiston See also: List of civil parishes in Merseyside
Rivers	Alt • Dee • Mersey