LAWRENCE Bellamy, from the University of Chester's Padgate campus suggests a new super city could be in the pipeline.... 

BBC Radio 4 recently poked fun at the proposal that to build a more productive economy, cities could be merged.

Cities create wealth. Liverpool and Manchester, regional heavyweights, could form a metropolis of industry and commerce to rival any world conurbation.

Cultural identity and competing football teams were the main argument unfortunately and not the (less entertaining) economic issues.

London thrives because of reputation, talent and opportunities, brought about by huge scale. There are more French in London than in Nantes. London’s a magnet for investors.

Regions including the Rheinland and Ruhr area in Germany have spawned industrial giants on the world manufacturing stage.

China is building a supercity twice as big as Wales. Cities, for all their problems generate revenue and can be run efficiently.

So what if the proposal came off? World-class manufacturing, education, technology, finance and much more all collected in a geographic cluster, with knowledge resources in abundance.

Liverchester sounds a little far-fetched, being forty miles apart.

However that process started a long-time ago with the creation of Warrington New Town. Situated in the Manpool sandwich it surfs the crest of both their waves.

How long will it be before the connection is completed? Manwarpool rules!