Wirral folk aren’t real Scousers, says Map poll

Mar 3 2008 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

YOUR votes are in for the first phase of our Liverpool Map project and there are some shock results.

According to responses to our online poll, which closed on Friday, 74% of you want to exclude Southport, and over half do not want to see Wirral on the map.

Clear favourites for inclusion are Bootle, with 67.2% of you deciding it is part of Liverpool, and Huyton, which scored 62%.

Places already within the Liverpool boundaries will automatically be included, but some suburbs were added to the list of nominations because they had often attracted controversy in the past.

Examples of this are Woolton and Allerton, which clearly have your seal of approval.

Areas with low scores for inclusion were Wigan and Wrexham, both with 9.7%, and Hindley with 9.4%.

The campaign will now move on to assess Liverpool’s global influence, when we will ask you to vote for places around the world to be featured.

The Liverpool Map project is aiming to define the city’s boundaries geographically, historically and culturally to celebrate 2008.

Culture chief Phil Redmond said: “Is it just a line on a map or is it more to do with where your family and friends live, or where you go to work and shop?

“That brings us on to the Scouse Diaspora, the Scousers who have moved away for employment or just to enjoy a different lifestyle. Like the Irish, does it make them any less a Scouser?” The new map will show where the people of Merseyside think Liverpool’s borders are and it will also highlight Liverpool’s local, national and global influences.

The final outcome will be an artistic representation of the Liverpool Map, which will be donated to Museum of Liverpool.

Your votes have already secured the Liver Bird as the artwork’s motif, with a 53% seal of approval.

It will now be left up to the chosen artist to interpret your votes in the final artwork.

The project is part of Open Culture – a platform to enable the people of Liverpool to engage with the celebrations for 2008.

It is a collaboration between Radio City, BBC Radio Merseyside, the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, Phil Redmond with the International Centre for Digital Content (ICDC), and Liverpool Culture Company.

lizawilliams