Little Altcar is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton on

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

, within the boundaries of the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

and on the

West Lancashire Coastal Plain The West Lancashire Coastal Plain is a large area in the south west of Lancashire, England. The plain stretches from the Rimrose Valley in Seaforth, near Liverpool on the Mersey, to the south, to Preston on the Ribble, to the north. To the e ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The village forms part of the built-up area of

Formby Formby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 22,419 at the 2011 Census. Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under "Fo ...

. It had a population of 892 in the 2001 Census, increasing to 910 at the 2011 Census.

Etymology

The name Altcar is Norse meaning 'marsh by the

River Alt The River Alt is an urban river that flows across Merseyside in England. The river has suffered from heavy pollution from industry and sewage upstream and run-off from farmland in its lower reaches. It empties into the River Mersey, near to wher ...

Governance

Local Government

Little Altcar has two tiers of local government, at parish and metropolitan borough level: Little Altcar Parish Council, and

Sefton Council Sefton Council is the governing body for the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in the county of Merseyside, north-western England. The council was under no overall control from the 1980s until 2012 when the Labour Party took control. It is a cons ...

. Sefton is also a constituent part of the

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) is the combined authority of the Liverpool City Region. The Liverpool City Region includes the City of Liverpool local authority area plus the Metropolitan Boroughs of Knowsley, St Helens, ...

. The civil parish now called Little Altcar was created in 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, which split the former parish of Altcar between Lancashire and the new metropolitan county of Merseyside. The parts in each county became new parishes, with the parish in Lancashire taking the name

Great Altcar Great Altcar is a village and civil parish in West Lancashire, England, close to Formby on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain. The population as taken at the 2011 census was 213. The name Altcar is Norse meaning "marsh by the Alt". The church ...

. The parish in Merseyside was initially called simply "Altcar", changing to "Altcar-in-Merseyside" in 1977, before changing again to "Little Altcar" on 19 November 1987. For elections to

the village of Little Altcar is part of Ravenmeols electoral ward which has seven

councillors A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

, the recent election in May 2015 has resulted in an influx of Formby Residents Action Group representatives becoming the majority party.

Parliamentary representation

From 1950 until 2010 Little Altcar was within the boundaries of the

Crosby Crosby may refer to: Places ;Canada *Crosby, Ontario, part of the township of Rideau Lakes, Ontario *Crosby, Ontario, a neighbourhood in the city of Markham, Ontario ;England *Crosby, Cumbria *Crosby, Lincolnshire *Crosby, Merseyside ** Crosby (U ...

constituency, whose MP from 1997 until 2010 was

Claire Curtis-Thomas Claire Curtis-Thomas (formerly Curtis-Tansley; born 30 April 1958) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Crosby from 1997 to 2010. Curtis-Thomas' time as an MP was most notable for her involvement in ...

, a member of the Labour Party, prior to her election the Crosby seat was generally considered to be a safe Conservative Party stronghold with Tory MP's elected at every election barring the

1981 Crosby by-election The 1981 Crosby by-election was a by-election held in England on 26 November 1981 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the House of Commons constituency of Crosby on Merseyside. It followed the death of Crosby's MP Sir Graham Page, of th ...

where

Shirley Williams Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, (' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

was elected to represent the constituency. As a result of boundary revisions for the 2010 general election the Crosby constituency was abolished with its northern parts, including Little Altcar, being merged with the Eastern parts of Sefton that were formerly part of the Knowsley North and Sefton East constituency, to form the new constituency of Sefton Central, which is currently represented by the Labour Party MP

Bill Esterson William Roffen Esterson (born 27 October 1966) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sefton Central since 2010. He has been Shadow Minister for International Trade since 2016. He was Shadow Min ...

References

External links