Cheshire West and Chester

Cheshire West and Chester
Cheshire West and Chester
Unitary authority area and borough
	Chester, the county town of Cheshire and the largest settlement in Cheshire West and Chester
	Cheshire West and Chester shown within Cheshire
	Coordinates: 53°12′47″N 2°54′07″W / 53.213°N 2.902°W
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North West
Ceremonial county	Cheshire
Incorporated	1 April 2009
Administrative HQ	The Portal, Ellesmere Port
Government
• Type	Unitary authority
• Body	Cheshire West and Chester Council
• Executive	Leader and cabinet
• Control	No overall control
• Leader	Louise Gittins (Lab)
• Chairman	Robert Bisset (Lab)
• MPs	Six MPs Aphra Brandreth (Con) ; Andrew Cooper (Lab) ; Samantha Dixon (Lab) ; Justin Madders (Lab) ; Esther McVey (Con) ; Sarah Pochin (Reform) ;
Area
• Total	363 sq mi (941 km2)
• Land	360 sq mi (920 km2)
• Rank	31st
Population (2022)
• Total	361,694
• Rank	24th
• Density	1,020/sq mi (393/km2)
Ethnicity (2021)
• Ethnic groups	List 95.3% White ; 2.0% Asian ; 1.5% Mixed ; 0.6% Black ; 0.6% other ;
Religion (2021)
• Religion	List 54.5% Christianity ; 37.8% no religion ; 1.0% Islam ; 0.4% Hinduism ; 0.3% Buddhism ; 0.1% Judaism ; 0.1% Sikhism ; 0.3% other ; 5.5% not stated ;
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Postcode areas	CH1–4; CH33–34; CH64–66; CW6–10; SY14; WA4–6;
Dialling codes	01244; 01270; 01477; 0151; 01565; 01606; 01829; 01925; 01928; 01948;
ISO 3166 code	GB-CHW
GSS code	E06000050
Website	cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

Cheshire West and Chester is a unitary authority area with borough status in Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 local government changes, by virtue of an order under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. It superseded the boroughs of Ellesmere Port and Neston, Vale Royal and the City of Chester. The remainder of the ceremonial county of Cheshire is composed of Cheshire East, Halton and Warrington. Cheshire West and Chester has three key urban areas: Chester, Ellesmere Port and Northwich/Winsford.

The decision to create the Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority was announced on 25 July 2007 following a consultation period, in which a proposal to create a single Cheshire unitary authority was rejected.