Your council

Wirral: what’s happening where you live

What the council itself has published on the five things it most shapes for a household: homes, getting about, the bill, the local environment and schools. Each line is quoted from the council’s own document, with the link. This page says what was decided or proposed; it never says whether it was right.

This page is built from official registers only; the council’s own publications have not been read yet, and every line below says so where that leaves a gap.

Wirral Borough Council: Metropolitan district (unitary), England, North West; part of the LCR combined authority. GOV.UK lists it as a unitary council. ONS code E08000015.

Council website · Publication scheme

Do it online

The council’s own service pages as listed by GOV.UK’s Local Links Manager (Open Government Licence), refreshed weekly; the same list of everyday services, in the same order, for every council, in GOV.UK’s wording.

Housing

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Transport

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Council tax

Band D set by Wirral for 2026–27: £2,081.37 of a £2,500.59 total bill in the area. MHCLG, Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2026 to 2027 (Open Government Licence).

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Environment

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Education

We haven't read this council's own publications yet. The council’s website

Changes to schools in this area recorded by the Department for Education Updated automatically

No school here is currently recorded as proposed to open or close.

In the last twelve months: 4 opened (4 academy converter), 5 closed (4 academy converter, 1 closure)

Brookhurst Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 March 2026
Hoylake Holy Trinity CofE Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 October 2025
Prenton Preparatory School — closed; reason recorded: closure, 10 July 2026
St Andrew's CofE Aided Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 30 September 2025
West Kirby St Bridget's CofE Primary School (primary) — closed; reason recorded: academy converter, 31 October 2025
Brookhurst Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 April 2026
Hoylake Holy Trinity CofE Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 November 2025
St Andrew's CofE Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 October 2025
West Kirby St Bridget's CofE Primary School (primary) — open; reason recorded: academy converter, 1 November 2025

Get Information about Schools, DfE’s register of every school in England, refreshed daily (Open Government Licence). The register’s own reason is shown: most closures and openings are a school becoming an academy, which changes who runs it, not whether it is there.

What the council plans to spend, 2026–27

The budget for each service, as Wirral reported it to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The same headings, in the same order, for every council in England.

Wirral: budget by service, 2026 to 2027
Service	Budget
Education services	£322.4 million
Highways and transport services	£10.3 million
Children's social care	£97.5 million
Adult social care	£188.6 million
Public health	£42.7 million
Housing services (general fund only)	£14.2 million
Cultural and related services	£17.7 million
Environmental and regulatory services	£22.2 million
Planning and development services	£5.7 million
Police services	none budgeted
Fire and rescue services	none budgeted
Central services	£22.6 million
Other services	£10.4 million
Total service expenditure	£754.4 million

Net current expenditure: net of sales, fees and charges; spending funded by the NHS, such as through the Better Care Fund, is excluded.A minus figure means the service’s income is budgeted to be more than its spending. “None budgeted” usually means another body runs that service here. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Revenue Account Budget 2026 to 2027, individual local authority data (part 1), updated 11 June 2026 (Open Government Licence).

Wirral in numbers

Official statistics for the whole council area. Each figure is the latest published, with the period it covers.

Total population: 328,873 people 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMid-year estimate of the total number of people
Median age: 44 years 30 June 2024 · Office for National StatisticsMedian age of people
Gross disposable household income per head: £23,294 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage income per person (£) after taxes and direct benefits
Gross median weekly pay: £603 30 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsGross median weekly pay based on where people live (£)
Children in relative poverty after housing costs: 25.2% April 2024 to March 2025 · Department for Work and PensionsPercentage of children aged under 16 living in relative low income families After Housing Costs (AHC)
Claimant Count: 3.5% 2025 · Office for National StatisticsPercentage of people aged 16 to 64 who are claiming unemployment-related benefits
Average house price: £221,849 July 2026 · HM Land RegistryAverage monthly price of a property (£)
Housing affordability ratio (residence-based): 5.7 affordability ratio 1 April 2025 · Office for National StatisticsRatio of median house price to median gross annual residence-based earnings
Female healthy life expectancy: 60.1 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for females born in the given year
Male healthy life expectancy: 59.1 years 2022 to 2024 · Office for National StatisticsAverage years expected to be lived in good health for males born in the given year
Greenhouse gas emissions: 3.2 tCO2e per capita 2024 · Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGreenhouse gas emissions (tCO2e) per capita
Gigabit capable broadband: 96.4% 1 January 2026 · OfcomPercentage of premises that have coverage from a gigabit-capable service (download speeds of 1,000 Mbps or more)
Public electric vehicle chargers: 71.2 per 100,000 population 1 July 2026 · Department for Transport, sourced from ZapmapPublicly available electric vehicle chargers at all speeds per 100,000 people
Active businesses: 9,550 number of enterprises 2024 · Office for National StatisticsBusinesses with turnover or employment in current year

Gathered by the Office for National Statistics in Explore Local Statistics (Open Government Licence), refreshed daily. Some figures aren’t published for every nation, so the list can be shorter outside England.

Who runs the council

66 seats in 2026. Run by: Labour, as a minority administration. Open Council Data (public domain).

Councillors by party: Labour Party 27, Green Party (E&W) 14, Conservative and Unionist 14, Liberal Democrats 6, Reform UK 3, Your Party 1, Independent / Other 1.

Next scheduled council election: 6 May 2027.

All 66 councillors, by ward

Ed Lamb (Green Party (E&W)) — Bebington
Jason Walsh-McDonald (Green Party (E&W)) — Bebington
Judith Grier (Green Party (E&W)) — Bebington
Brian Kenny (Labour Party) — Bidston and St James
Elizabeth Grey (Labour Party) — Bidston and St James
Julie McManus (Labour Party) — Bidston and St James
Amanda Onwuemene (Green Party (E&W)) — Birkenhead and Tranmere
Ewan Tomeny (Green Party (E&W)) — Birkenhead and Tranmere
Pat Cleary (Green Party (E&W)) — Birkenhead and Tranmere
Jo Bird (Green Party (E&W)) — Bromborough
Kieran Murphy (Green Party (E&W)) — Bromborough
Ruth Molyneux (Green Party (E&W)) — Bromborough
Cherry Povall (Conservative and Unionist) — Clatterbridge
Helen Cameron (Conservative and Unionist) — Clatterbridge
Mary Jordan (Conservative and Unionist) — Clatterbridge
George Davies (Labour Party) — Claughton
Gillian Wood (Labour Party) — Claughton
Steve Foulkes (Labour Party) — Claughton
Chris Carubia (Liberal Democrats) — Eastham
Helen Raymond (Liberal Democrats) — Eastham
Phil Gilchrist (Liberal Democrats) — Eastham
Gail Jenkinson (Green Party (E&W)) — Greasby, Frankby and Irby
Grahame McManus (Labour Party) — Greasby, Frankby and Irby
Mark Skillicorn (Labour Party) — Greasby, Frankby and Irby
Andrew Hodson (Reform UK) — Heswall
Graham Davies (Reform UK) — Heswall
Kathy Hodson (Reform UK) — Heswall
Andrew Gardner (Conservative and Unionist) — Hoylake and Meols
Max Booth (Conservative and Unionist) — Hoylake and Meols
Tony Cox (Conservative and Unionist) — Hoylake and Meols
Angela Davies (Labour Party) — Leasowe and Moreton East
Louise Luxon-Kewley (Labour Party) — Leasowe and Moreton East
Paul Jobson (Labour Party) — Leasowe and Moreton East
Graeme Cooper (Labour Party) — Liscard
James Laing (Labour Party) — Liscard
Janette Williamson (Labour Party) — Liscard
Colin Baldwin (Conservative and Unionist) — Moreton West and Saughall Massie
Gary Bennett (Conservative and Unionist) — Moreton West and Saughall Massie
Vida Wilson (Conservative and Unionist) — Moreton West and Saughall Massie
Paul Martin (Labour Party) — New Brighton
Sue Powell-Wilde (Labour Party) — New Brighton
Tony Jones (Labour Party) — New Brighton
Allan Brame (Liberal Democrats) — Oxton
Mike Redfern (Liberal Democrats) — Oxton
Stuart Kelly (Liberal Democrats) — Oxton
Ann Ainsworth (Labour Party) — Pensby and Thingwall
Mike Sullivan (Labour Party) — Pensby and Thingwall
Richie Pitt (Your Party) — Pensby and Thingwall
Christopher Cooke (Green Party (E&W)) — Prenton
Harry Gorman (Green Party (E&W)) — Prenton
Naomi Graham (Green Party (E&W)) — Prenton
Craig Walsh-McDonald (Green Party (E&W)) — Rock Ferry
Paula Basnett (Labour Party) — Rock Ferry
Tony Murphy (Labour Party) — Rock Ferry
Kaitlin Stuart (Labour Party) — Seacombe
Paul Stuart (Labour Party) — Seacombe
Tom Laing (Labour Party) — Seacombe
Jean Robinson (Independent / Other) — Upton
Jerry Williams (Labour Party) — Upton
Stephen Bennett (Labour Party) — Upton
Brenda Hall (Labour Party) — Wallasey
Ian Lewis (Conservative and Unionist) — Wallasey
Lesley Rennie (Conservative and Unionist) — Wallasey
Jeff Green (Conservative and Unionist) — West Kirby and Thurstaston
Jennifer Johnson (Conservative and Unionist) — West Kirby and Thurstaston
Simon Mountney (Conservative and Unionist) — West Kirby and Thurstaston

Each councillor’s register of interests is on the council’s own website; we have not yet located the page. Councillors from Open Council Data as recorded after the May 2026 elections; a by-election since then may have changed one seat. Attendance and allowances are not shown.

This council’s meeting papers are not yet read automatically, so decisions and motions are not listed here; they are on the council’s website.

Write to your councillors → WriteToThem (mySociety) finds them from your postcode; nothing is sent through this site.

Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every council page has the same five headings in the same order. Sources are the council’s own publications and official statistics. Council list: mySociety, UK Local Authorities (CC BY 4.0) and WhatDoTheyKnow authorities (CC BY-SA 4.0); council websites, tiers and service links: GOV.UK (Open Government Licence); codes: ONS Code History Database (Open Government Licence). Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.