![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_FLAGS.jpg\")
Steve Rotheram backed plans for an official flag during his first candidacy<\/p>\nMetro Mayor Steve Rotheram first backed the plan in 2016 and it was thought a design would be unveiled last yearSteve Rotheram backed plans for an official flag during his first candidacy<\/p>\n
Almost a decade on from first being outlined by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, we are still no closer to the Liverpool City Region\u2019s first ever flag.<\/a> Back when he stood as a candidate for the inaugural City Region Mayoral election, the former Walton<\/a> MP said he would like to reintroduce a banner for the area after the former Merseyside emblem fell by the wayside.<\/p>\n Last year, the ECHO <\/a>revealed how as part of a major change to transport branding, work would get underway to bring forward the flag alongside the move from Merseytravel to Transport for Liverpool City Region<\/a>. There had been thoughts this could have been introduced by the end of 2024.<\/p>\n Now, with 2026 on the horizon, 10 years on from Mr Rotheram\u2019s first declaration of desire for a flag, we now know a bit more about the way the wind is blowing. Ben O\u2019Brien, the combined authority\u2019s head of communications and marketing, gave an update earlier this week on progress for a design.<\/p>\n In 2016 during his campaign, Mr Rotheram said he would not rule out reviving the old Merseyside flag for the wider city region \u2013 but said it may need \u201cbringing into the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI would have a public consultation on how the flag should look and let the talent we have within the Liverpool City Region decide the makeup of it.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1974, the now defunct Merseyside county council was launched and with it the flag of Merseyside<\/a>. It includes white waves on a blue background, representing the river Mersey.<\/p>\n It also features six gold crowns, which symbolise the old county boroughs of Birkenhead<\/a>, Bootle<\/a>, Liverpool, Southport<\/a>, St Helens<\/a>, and Wallasey<\/a>. The current city region comprises Liverpool, Wirral<\/a>, St Helens, Knowsley<\/a> Halton<\/a> and St Helens.<\/p>\n Last year, the ECHO reported how as part of the Merseytravel rebrand, an official crest and flag would be designed for the wider city region, expected by the end of 2024. A performance document scrutinised by city region members said the next \u201cdevelopment phase\u201d of the flag\u2019s design would commence in the third quarter of the year.<\/p>\n Mr O\u2019Brien explained: \u201cWe\u2019re looking at developing the crest and flag as an independent item but we\u2019ve sought to align it with the work we\u2019re doing with the place brand for the city region and that\u2019s linked to how we recognise the strengths of our brand already and our history and particularly the strength of our culture, about how we modernise that and bring it up to date with the innovation within the city region.<\/p>\n “We committed that we would hold a workshop with visitor economy and inward investment colleagues from within the combined authority but also wider partners and that took place on November 12.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr O\u2019Brien said a timeframe for the design still did not exist but a paper was being prepared internally for the executive team to propose a timescale and project plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram first backed the plan in 2016 and it was thought a design would be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,1835,8838,8892,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-599287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-liverpool-combined-authority","13":"tag-nostalgia","14":"tag-steve-rotheram","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115627620084547299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_This-is-the-flag-of-the-short-lived-Merseyside-County-Council-which-was-established-in-1974-but-wa.webp\")
This is the flag of the short-lived Merseyside County Council, which was established in 1974 but was abolished in 1986(Image: Orionist)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_Liverpool-waterfront-and-narrow-boat-journey-at-Mann-Island-Photo-by-Colin-Lane.jpg\")
The Mann Island building where the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is based(Image: Colin Lane\/Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n