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Greater Manchester

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greater Manchester
Geography
Status:	Ceremonial and Metropolitan county (no county council)
Origin:	1974
Region:	North West England
Area: - Total	Ranked 39th 1,276 km²
ONS code:	2A
NUTS 2:	UKD3
Demographics
Population: - Total (2004 est. ) - Density	Ranked / km²
Ethnicity:	91.1% White 5.6% S.Asian 1.2% Afro-Carib.
Politics
Members of Parliament
Hazel Blears, Graham Brady, Andrew Burnham, David Chaytor, Ann Coffey, David Crausby, Jim Dobbin, Paul Goggins, Andrew Gwynne, David Heyes, Beverley Hughes, Mark Hunter, Brian Iddon, Gerald Kaufman, Barbara Keeley, Ruth Kelly, John Leech, Ivan Lewis, Tony Lloyd, Ian McCartney, Michael Meacher, James Purnell, Paul Rowen, Ian Stewart, Graham Stringer, Andrew Stunell, Neil Turner, Phil Woolas
Districts
City of Manchester Stockport Tameside Oldham Rochdale Bury Bolton Wigan City of Salford Trafford

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England established in 1974 which covers an area roughly encompassing the conurbation surrounding the City of Manchester. The metropolitan county consists of ten metropolitan boroughs, including the City of Manchester and the City of Salford.

Greater Manchester's county council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts are now effectively unitary authorities. The county however, still exists legally, and is also a ceremonial county.

Prior to its creation, the name Selnec had been used for the area, from the initials 'South East Lancashire North East Cheshire'.

Greater Manchester borders with the ceremonial counties of Cheshire (including Warrington), Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire (including Blackburn with Darwen) and Merseyside.

As well as Manchester, the county includes major centres such as Bolton, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Stockport and Wigan. Greater Manchester is not entirely built-up. Although Manchester forms a conurbation along with Salford, Trafford, Oldham and Stockport, other towns, such as Bury, Rochdale and Wigan are clearly separate.

Local government

Greater Manchester is divided into ten districts, known as metropolitan boroughs, these are: Bolton, Bury, the City of Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, the City of Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan.

For the first twelve years after the county was created in 1974, the county had a two-tier system of local government, and the metropolitan borough councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council.

However in 1986, along with the five other metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council, the Greater Manchester County Council was abolished, and most of its powers were devolved to the boroughs, which became effective unitary authorities.

Despite the abolition of the county council, the boroughs jointly administer some services on a county-wide basis. Including:

• The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, (GMPTE) which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating public transport across the county.
• The Greater Manchester Police, who are overseen by a joint Police authority.
• The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, who are administered by a joint "Fire and Rescue Authority".
• The Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority


• The Greater Manchester Ambulance Service

These are administered by joint-boards which are made up of councillors appointed from each of the ten boroughs.

The authorities of Greater Manchester are represented by the Association of Greater Manchester Local Authorities (AGMLA). Which meets to create a co-ordinated county-wide approach to many issues.

The boroughs jointly own the Manchester Airport Group which controls Manchester International Airport and several other UK airports. Other services are directly funded and managed by the local councils.

Greater Manchester is a Ceremonial county with a Lord-Lieutenant, and is still recognised for statistical purposes.

History

Main article: History of Manchester.

Before 1974 the area of Greater Manchester was split between Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire with numerous parts being independent county boroughs. A comparable area was informally known as 'SELNEC', for 'South East Lancashire North East Cheshire'.

SELNEC had been proposed by the Redcliffe-Maud Report of 1969 as a 'metropolitan area'. This had roughly the same northern boundary as today's Greater Manchester, but covered much more territory in north-east Cheshire - including Macclesfield and Warrington. It also covered Glossop in Derbyshire.

In 1969 a SELNEC Passenger Transport Authority was set up, which covered an area smaller than the proposed SELNEC, but different to the eventual Greater Manchester. Compared to the Redcliffe-Maud area it excluded Macclesfield, Warrington, and Knutsford, but still including Glossop and Saddleworth, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Unusually, it excluded Wigan, which was in both the Redcliffe-Maud area and in the eventual Greater Manchester.

Although the Redcliffe-Maud report was rejected by the Conservative government after the 1970 general election, it was committed to local government reform, and accepted the need for a county based on Manchester. Its original proposal was much smaller than the Redcliffe-Maud Report's SELNEC, but further fringe areas such as Wilmslow, Warrington and Glossop were trimmed from the edges and remained instead in the shire counties. Other late changes included the separation of a proposed Bury/Rochdale authority into the Metropolitan Borough of Bury and the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Greater Manchester was eventually established in 1974.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Greater Manchester South at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added4	Agriculture1	Industry2	Services3
1995	15,242	32	4,077	11,133
2000	21,604	20	4,879	16,705
2003	24,950	26	4,788	20,136

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Greater Manchester North at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added4	Agriculture1	Industry2	Services3
1995	10,126	27	4,267	5,833
2000	11,391	18	3,938	7,435
2003	13,350	22	4,185	9,143

Note 1: includes hunting and forestry

Note 2: includes energy and construction

Note 3: includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Note 4: Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

Towns and villages

See the list of places in Greater Manchester.

Places of interest

• Buckton Castle
• Bramall Hall, Bramhall
• Salford Quays, Salford
• Smithills Hall
• Wythenshawe Hall
• Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne
• Museum of the Manchester Regiment, Ashton-under-Lyne
• Park Bridge Heritage Centre
• Old Trafford, home of Manchester United FC
• Old Trafford, home of Lancashire County Cricket Club
• Imperial War Museum North
• City of Manchester Stadium, home of Manchester City FC

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