The decision to form a Parish Council for Formby was made at a public meeting on Wednesday 18 April 1894. The resolution was agreed unanimously at a Township meeting held in the Jubilee Hall, now known as Victoria Hall.
The news and details were published in The Liverpool Mercury on Thursday 19 April,
(Source: British Newspaper Archive)
A short extract from the article in the newspaper is reproduced below.
FORMBY AND THE PARISH COUNCILS ACT.
Mr. Miles, Formby, presided last evening at a township meeting held in the Jubilee Hall, and well attended, to consider the carrying out locally of the Parish Councils Act. It was unanimously agreed, in harmony with an informal resolution passed by the vestry on March 28, that Formby be divided into wards. The report of a committee appointed to draft a scheme of wards division was read. The committee recommended five wards, namely, Ainsdale Ward, 252 occupiers, £3888 rateable value; Freshfield Ward, 131 occupiers, £4723 value; Old Town Ward, 244 occupiers, £6070 value; Duke Street Ward, 317 occupiers, :£6934 value; and RavenMeols Ward, 301 occupiers, £5475 value. The report added that the building in Freshfield would soon bring that ward up to the average numerically and the value was already high.....
Originally it was intended to include Ainsdale as a ward within the Parish Boundary, but residents from Ainsdale indicated they too wanted to form a Parish Council and the meeting agreed to support them in their efforts.
I thought this was an interesting story in the light of the new developments in online newspapers, the forthcoming local elections and finally to challenge the accuracy of the Wikipedia entry about the history of local governance in Formby. Their article implies that Formby was an Urban District Council until 1974. In practice Formby remained a Parish Council for some years after it's original formation in 1894.
