THE Wirral peninsula is an area often characterised by the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’.

From Birkenhead and Bidston to Heswall and West Kirby, the split in poverty and wealth may be among the UK’s clearest contrasts within such a relatively small area.

On closer inspection, that divide appears to be specifically between the east and west, and is defined by a famous piece of transport infrastructure – the M53.

The issue was most recently raised in parliament by Wallasey MP Angela Eagle last year, when she described the pattern of poverty in Wirral as “particularly stark”, adding: “If a line is drawn down the M53, the difference in life expectancy between the west side and the poorest parts of the east side is 10 years.”

Mike Royden, a historian who grew up in Wirral, said the M53 divide was an “unconscious” thing, but clear nonetheless.

“The unique thing about the Wirral is you think of Birkenhead and you’ve got the working class and industrial factor, and then you look to the west and you have the ‘escapism’ of the mega rich. It’s poverty mixed with vast wealth,” he explained.

“That kind of thing has always been there, but it’s unconscious. You can see it if you look historically at the Birkenhead area – it’s right on the river where all the occupations were concentrated, or where people would live to be able to travel over the river to Liverpool for work.”

Mr Royden said dating back centuries, Birkenhead has always been a working class area “from the earliest of times”.

People would work their way up before moving across to more affluent areas in the west – once they could afford it.

“I don’t think really it’s escaped that. Once you have made your books you start to migrate and move westwards to the fresh, seaside air – it’s just always been like that.”

It seems much of the reason for deprivation on the east side of the borough centres around Birkenhead, a once thriving area of industry.

According to MP Frank Field’s history of the town on his website, the 19th Century saw rapid increase in its population, rising from around 100 in 1800 to 40,000 people less than 50 years later.

People wanted to live in homes in Wirral away from the now-overcrowded Liverpool, and famous ship makers Cammell Laird began operations in 1824, with the company that would become Unilever established in 1860, meaning an abundance of jobs.

But, like so many other once-thriving industrial around the UK, Birkenhead saw great decline in the late 20th century as jobs slipped away. Workers there are now believed to be among the country’s lowest average paid, and it was recently named by lovemoney.com among England’s poorest towns and cities.

The east-west split has not gone unnoticed in local authority documents.

Wirral’s local development framework describes the “sharp contrasts between the east and west of the borough” revealing that at the start of this decade, areas of Bidston, Birkenhead, Tranmere, Seacombe Leasowe and Woodchurch fell within England’s 3% worst off. The Wirral Intelligence Service found in 2014 that Heswall had twice the average household income as Bidston.

That led to the local council for many years at the start of the 21st Century seeking to restrict house building in the west to support regeneration and development in the east – a drive that has continued even up until now, but one which some may argue has had limited success.

Furthermore, the 2017 Wirral council annual report from the director of public health said while life expectancy at birth has improved over several decades in the borough, there are still “inequalities”, which can be seen by the average life expectancy in people on both sides of the M53.

The bottom five areas for life expectancy for both men and women are all in the east. Men in Bidston and St James’ have the lowest life expectancy of just over 72 years, while for women it is Rock Ferry, where they it is just under 78 years of age.

Compare that then, to the top two for both men and women in Greasby, Frankby and Irby and Heswall wards, where men are expected to live to just over 83 years of age – women to 88. Their location? All west of the M53.

Perhaps the starkest of these stats is the life expectancy between Bidston – 72 and towns like Moreton and Greasby – 81 and 83 for men.

The areas are only finely separated by the M53, but have a huge 10-year difference in how long people will live. So how has such a fine line been drawn by one of Merseyside’s main arteries? Is it just a coincidence?

Opened to the public little over 45 years ago, the busy 18-mile mid-Wirral motorway connects the Kingsway Tunnel in Wallasey and the A55 in Chester.

Mr Royden said the motorway divide may just be a coincidence, albeit a coincidence qualified by the more general gap in wealth between east and west.

He said: “There are complex reasons for the poverty, but we can use [the M53] as a convenient arbitrary demarcation – the way it seems to come up Wirral it skirts around the rich and poor areas that were already there.

“But when you look at how areas of the east originated in the mid to late-1800s as working, industrial dockside areas, poverty round there was rife. Areas like Birkenhead and Ellesmere Port have always had a tough time.

“During the First World War, in Ellesmere Port there were 3,000 men walking the streets – it’s only a tiny place for that many to be looking for work.

“Poverty has been around in various guises for a long time. You still see it around, it’s just how you quantify it.”

So aside from Birkenhead’s decline, how did the more general east-west poverty develop?

According to a residential market commentary paper written at the start of the decade, local estate agents in Wirral said the difference in demand for housing in the east and west is due to “a range of factors”, that include the greater variety of housing stock in the west, the quality of the public realm and environment, the location of reputable grammar schools in West Kirby, and the views from the west coast over the Dee Estuary and Welsh hills.

That difference in demand is a “long-standing issue in Wirral”, it said, adding: “Wirral has a diverse polarised housing market. The west of Wirral contains the most desirable properties and its neighbourhoods have witnessed rapid house price increases in recent years to the extent where affordability problems have begun to emerge.

“This contrasts massively with the neighbourhoods in Wirral’s main urban areas on its eastern coast where housing market decline is now clearly evident.”

We spoke to Wirral Food Bank manager Richard Roberts about the borough’s “unusual” situation when it comes to poverty.

He said most of the demand for the service in Wirral comes from the eastern locations around Wallasey and Birkenhead, but the “confined geographic area” worked to the charity’s benefit.

He explained: “Having a Wirral-wide food bank means we can get support from the likes of Heswall, West Kirby and the wealthier areas like that.

“They come and they donate – the big picture is that the whole of Wirral supports the work of the food bank. People here are very generous indeed.”

Speaking about the divide, Cllr Phil Gilchrist, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrats group, added: “Sadly the gulf has existed and persisted for all the years I have served on the council.

“Regeneration schemes have come and gone with limited effect. The struggle to manage runs through generations in some communities. Campaigns to urge people to eat more wisely, take regular exercise and have health checks have made some progress.

“Determined efforts have been made to give people hope and opportunity, to ensure that provision for a better start in early childhood years is of real benefit.”

He said despite that, many have left Wirral for “jobs and opportunities elsewhere”.

Cllr Gilchrist added: “Wirral needs a share of the money available to the Liverpool City Region to turn the situation round.”

Wirral’s local plan has been brought under intense scrutiny in recent months and huge house-building targets could be set following this autumn’s green belt consultation, with fears that towns may merge by falling into an “urban sprawl”.

It’s yet to be seen how that could alter the east-west split, and whether towns like West Kirby, Heswall and Irby will continue to financially dominate the borough.