North West England

North West England is one of the nine regions of England. It has a population of 6,729,764.^[1]

North West England is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea and on the east by The Pennines, and stretches from the Scottish Borders in the north, to the Welsh Mountains in the south. The highest point in the region is Scafell Pike, in Cumbria, at three thousand two hundred and nine feet (978 m), which is makes it England's highest peak.

Two large conurbations, centred on the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, dominate the south of the region. The north of the region (that is, north Lancashire and Cumbria) is largely rural.

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Key: shire county = † | metropolitan county = *

Elected regional assembly

It is one of the two regions (along with Yorkshire and the Humber) that were expected to hold a referendum on the establishment of an elected regional assembly. However, when the North East region of England rejected having an elected regional assembly in a referendum, further referenda where cancelled and the proposals for elected regional assemblies in England put on hold. The regional assembly, an unelected quango, is based on Waterside Drive in Wigan.

European Parliament

The North West England European Parliament constituency has the same boundaries as the Region.

History

Ten English regions were established by the government in 1994. At that time, Merseyside, which already had its own Government Office, formerly the Merseyside Task Force, was regarded as a separate region. In 1998, Merseyside was merged into the North West region. This action was controversial in some quarters.

Economy

The North West is historically linked with the textiles industry, mainly before the mid 20th century. Cheshire is linked with the salt industry. Nationally well-known companies in the region include Kelloggs in Trafford Park (Manchester), Littlewoods in Garston, and Pilkington in St Helens. Makro is in Eccles. JJB Sports is in Wigan. ICI Chemicals is in Runcorn. Scottish & Newcastle have their large Royal Brewery in Manchester. InBev have a brewery in Samlesbury near Preston. The Co-op is based in Manchester and Rochdale. Inventive Leisure is in Ashton-under-Lyne. AstraZeneca is in Macclesfield. Vauxhall and Shell are in Ellesmere Port. Ford is in Halewood. British Salt is in Middlewich. Royal Navy submarines are made by BAE Systems in Barrow-in-Furness. MAN B&W Diesel is in Stockport. BAE Systems build aircraft in Chadderton and Woodford in Manchester, and Warton near Preston.

Education

Secondary schools are mostly comprehensive, except Trafford retains a wholely selective school system, and there are some other grammar schools in Lancashire, Wirral, Liverpool and Cumbria. At GCSE, the lowest performing area by a country mile is Knowsley, one of the worst performing in the UK. Other low performing areas in Greater Merseyside are Halton and Liverpool. Sefton performs much better than its neighbour, Liverpool. Warrington is the best performing area, followed by Wirral. In Greater Manchester, Manchester performs the worst, followed by Salford then Oldham. The best performing area is Trafford (one of the best in the UK), followed by Stockport and Bury. In the Lancashire area, Blackpool is low performing. Bury, Cheshire, Lancashire, Stockport, Trafford, Warrington and Wirral perform higher than the UK average. At A level, Trafford performs the best, and again like GCSE is one of the best areas in the UK. The lowest performing area is, again, Knowsley but followed by Rochdale. Areas performing above the UK average are Lancashire, Bury, Wigan, Blackpool, Cheshire, and Wirral. Blackpool performs not particularly well at GCSE, yet produces much better results at A level - even better than Cheshire.

Top twenty state schools in the North West (2006 A level results)

• 1. Altrincham Grammar School for Girls (1179)
• 2. Altrincham Grammar School For Boys
• 3. Lancaster Royal Grammar School
• 4. Lancaster Girls' Grammar School
• 5. Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School
• 6. Winstanley College
• 7. Liverpool Blue Coat School
• 8. Wirral Grammar School for Girls
• 9. Clitheroe Royal Grammar School
• 10. Sale Grammar School
• 11. St Ambrose College
• 12. Audenshaw School
• 13. Holy Cross College
• 14. Sir John Deane's College
• 15. Blue Coat School, Oldham
• 16. West Kirby Grammar School
• 17. Loreto Grammar School
• 18. Stretford Grammar School
• 19. Canon Slade C of E School
• 20. Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith (936)

Local media

Local media include:

• The North West region of BBC Television is based on Oxford Road in Manchester, which produces the North West Tonight regional programme. The north of Cumbria is covered by Look North in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The BBC intends to move its Sport and childrens television departments and Radio Five Live to Salford Quays. Granada Television is based in Manchester, and produces many ITV well-known programmes such as Coronation Street. It has the regional Granada Reports programme. Border Television is based in Carlisle, producing the regional Lookaround programme.
• BBC Radios Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria.
• Several commercial radio stations including: 105.4 Century FM (Salford), 97.4 Rock FM (Preston), Smooth Radio 100.4 (Salford), 105.4 Century FM (Salford), Radio City 96.7 (Liverpool), Galaxy Manchester, Key 103 (Castlefield), Juice FM (Liverpool), The Bay (Lancaster), CFM Radio (Carlisle), Lakeland Radio (Kendal), Xfm Manchester (Salford), 107.2 Wire FM in Warrington, The Revolution (Oldham), Imagine FM (Stockport), Proud FM (Preston), Buzz 97.1 (Birkenhead), Tower FM (Bolton), Radio Wave 96.5 (Blackpool), and Wish FM (Wigan).
• Local regional newspapers are the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, North-West Evening Mail (Barrow-in-Furness), Lancashire Evening Post (Preston), Liverpool Daily Post, Blackpool Evening Gazette, Oldham Evening Chronicle, Chester Evening Leader, Lancashire Telegraph (Blackburn), and Bolton News.

See also

• List of North West England cities and metropolitan areas by Population
• List of schools in the North West of England
• Envirolink Northwest
• Northwest Development Agency

Wikipedia information about North West England This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "North West England". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.