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Manchester Governance and AGMA

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#1 ·
How many seats does Greater Manchester have?

I know we've got the 4 "city of manchester" seats, but there are plenty of places in greater manchester that aren't included in this, like Stretford, Oldham, Rochdale etc.

How many seats do we have in total, and how does it compare with rival cities like Liverpool and Birmingham?
 
G
#3 ·
We have...

Altrincham & Sale West

Ashton under Lyne

Bolton North East

Bolton South East

Bolton West

Bury North

Bury South

Cheadle

Denton & Reddish

Eccles

Hazel Grove

Heywood & Middleton

Leigh

Manchester Blackley

Manchester Central

Manchester Gorton

Manchester Withington

Oldham East & Saddleworth

Oldham West & Royton

Rochdale

Salford

Stalybridge & Hyde

Stockport

Stretford & Urmston

Wigan

Worsley

Wythenshawe & Sale East
 
#5 ·
Aryan said:
I know we've got the 4 "city of manchester" seats, but there are plenty of places in greater manchester that aren't included in this, like Stretford, Oldham, Rochdale etc.

How many seats do we have in total, and how does it compare with rival cities like Liverpool and Birmingham?
There are four entirely within the city of manchester but also Wythenshaw and Sale East which is obviously part Manchester and part Trafford.
 
#6 ·
that may av changed now, cos Denton (tameside) and Reddish (stockport) are no longer tied together under an MP . I think? herd sumfin about them goin back to their respective metro boroughs. which makes sense.
 
#8 ·
chasedwar said:
that may av changed now, cos Denton (tameside) and Reddish (stockport) are no longer tied together under an MP . I think? herd sumfin about them goin back to their respective metro boroughs. which makes sense.
There's a periodic rejig of constituency boundaries to tidy things up. I recall Labour did quite well out of the lest one. Amazing what you can do with a cheeky redrawing of boundaries
 
#10 · (Edited)
The GMC

Was this a good idea in principle that got lost somewhere, or a waste of money?

The thing is you read threads on here like the Velodrome one, and all the lack of Central Government support with regard Metrolink and so on.

I was a supporter of the Regional Assembly but after thinking about it, couldnt bare to be associated with Scousers (old habits die hard).

Might it be worth going it alone and developing our own voice? Or is the cost too high?
 
#11 ·
GMC - well we need something similar but with teeth. There seems to be a lot of work going on in central government at the moment which is looking at city-region governance and revising their economic role as the following article proves.

White paper to revise councils' economic role

Ben Walker, Regeneration & Renewal - 18 November 2005

Communities minister David Miliband will this summer launch a local government white paper that will seek to redefine the economic development role of local authorities.


The paper is likely to be published in June and will draw heavily on the long-awaited State of the Cities (Soc) report, which is being led by Liverpool John Moores University urban policy expert Professor Michael Parkinson. The Soc report is due to be published at the end of January.

It is understood that the white paper will look at the strategic and economic development role of local authorities. The white paper will itself feed into the delayed Lyons Review of local government finance, which is due to be published at the end of 2006.

The news comes as Miliband completed his tour of the core cities, the eight biggest English city regions outside London, in Nottingham last week. The Office for the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed that the minister will now extend his research to the 48 non-core towns and cities with populations above 125,000. It is not yet clear what form this research will take.

Planning academic Sir Peter Hall urged strong reform of urban governance.

"Take Manchester," he said. "It should have embraced Salford and Trafford years ago."

I think the idea of all powerful and truly representative cities is an an idea whose time has come....
 
#12 ·
Planning academic Sir Peter Hall urged strong reform of urban governance.

"Take Manchester," he said. "It should have embraced Salford and Trafford years ago."


Personally I think it's more important that the city of Manchester boundaries are amended to include of it's suburbs and of course that starts with Salford, trafford, Tameside, Prestwich etc. Once we get a city with it's real 1.25 million citizens, we can then sort out the arrangements for the Met county. City incorporation must come first.
 
#13 ·
Experts demand city region tax-raising powers

Joey Gardiner, Regeneration & Renewal - 24 November 2005
City regions should be given the powers to raise their own taxes to finance regeneration infrastructure, says a report this week by the reformed Urban Task Force.


The report, which is critical of current regeneration policy (R&R, 18 November, p1), recommends that tax-raising powers should be granted to London-style city mayors.

It also calls for two pilots of 'tax increment financing' (TIFs) - a way of raising money for infrastructure from land value increases that has been used successfully in the US. One should be in a city in the Northern Way growth strategy area and one in the Thames Gateway, it says.

Chris Brown, task force member and chief executive of regeneration investor Igloo, said: "We recognise there is political resistance to new taxation measures, so TIF could be a real way forward."

TIFs work by defining a physical area in which infrastructure investment is planned. Any rises in land value in the area are taxed using normal measures and the cash invested in the area.

- Towards a Strong Urban Renaissance is distributed with this week's Regeneration & Renewal.
..
 
#16 ·
I'm worried that sucking up nearby areas will just lead to Manchester dominating. If unification were to occur, I feel it should include all of the councils, and make a true real city of the current urban area.

"Surely lowering taxation and therefore attracting people and businesses is the way forward..?"

While I agree in concept, imho the best way of improving Manchester would be massively investing in local transport. The best way forward is even further enlarging the metrolink. A number of extra routes planned - especially radial ones - as well as a cut & cover down oxford/wilmslow road would be amazing. What Manchester needs most right now is some real infrastructure.
 
#17 ·
tlhf said:
I'm worried that sucking up nearby areas will just lead to Manchester dominating. If unification were to occur, I feel it should include all of the councils, and make a true real city of the current urban area.

"Surely lowering taxation and therefore attracting people and businesses is the way forward..?"

While I agree in concept, imho the best way of improving Manchester would be massively investing in local transport. The best way forward is even further enlarging the metrolink. A number of extra routes planned - especially radial ones - as well as a cut & cover down oxford/wilmslow road would be amazing. What Manchester needs most right now is some real infrastructure.
No one would be sucking in any areas that aren't already Manchester in every way other than in local govt. It's no more illogical for Salford, Prestwich, Denton or Stretford being under one Mcr city authority than it is for Headingly or Garforth to be under Leeds. Leeds and Sheffield include all their suburbs, it's just lunacy and bad govt that all Mcr's 1.3 million aren't under one. I'd never say include Bolton or Wigan wtc. in Mcr city itself, these are separate and definable in their own right - though as part of the city region/county of Gtr Mcr, Mcr city would still need to be partner's with its satellite towns on things like transport, police, fire svs, waste and other things that are better done on a countywide basis.

Manchester's first step must surely be to have its suburbs treated like Leeds or Sheffield and fully incorporated in the one authority. It's the natural state of things. It's these mickey mouse boroughs like Trafford, Tameside, Sefton or Knowsley that need to go. They simply disadvantage Manchester and Liverpool compared to cities that are half their size like Leeds or Sheffield. If Mcr wants to be a world city it needs to start by incorporating all Manchester suburbs (though leaving the satellite towns) and having a tax base that reflects its real population. Nothing controversial about that.
 
#21 ·
Thats the whole point , Manchester should'nt have to ask ,i dont want the whole of them bourgh's to join Manchester ,just the rightful districts of them , such as Audenshaw, Droylesden and Denton in Tameside ,Old Trafford and Stretford of Trafford , Middleton from Rochdale , Preswich and Whitefield from Bury these SRE Manchester districts full stop
 
#24 ·
TheGrand said:
I was a supporter of the Regional Assembly but after thinking about it, couldnt bare to be associated with Scousers (old habits die hard).
We're all gutted mate. :cry:

Seriously though, of course there should be Greater Manchester Assembly. Liverpoo & Brum should have one too. However, it would only be viable and justified if the government was willing to grant it significant powers, at least along the lines of the Greater London Assembly. However, the GLA's powers include overseeing transport strategy, emergency services and culture (ie Arts Board). Unfortunately, the government has either merged or in the process of merging all of these up here. These renders a Greater Manchester mayor near to pointlessness and increases the justification of a regional administration. I think this is idea anyway, though I don't reckon people will start calling themselves North Westerners just because they happen to share an army regiment with their neighbours.

What's needed is some campaigning. I've heard that the GM boroughs have floated the idea of a city-wide administraton. Indeed, over here, a few of our MPs tried to get this going, though funnily enough, the councils and their respective councillors seemed less enthusiastic. It could be of mutual benefit if a campaing got going representing all the metropolitan cities. This may help the governement actually lsiten to what the people want for once. One for the 'Core Cities Initiative' maybe?
 
#25 ·
Two interesting article again showing the positive direction this debate is going within central government.

Advisers call for city-region pilots

Ben Walker, Regeneration & Renewal - 16 December 2005

A Whitehall-commissioned report has advised ministers to set up city-region pilots and create a cabinet committee to focus investment on big city priorities ahead of a possible long-term move to formal metropolitan devolution.


The report was written for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister by the Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures and the Centre for Urban Policy Studies. A copy has been obtained by Regeneration & Renewal ahead of its planned launch in the new year.

The details emerged as think-tank the New Local Government Network's inquiry into city-regions published its final report (see p3).

The report, called a Framework for City Regions, says that Whitehall is now convinced by the economic case for big conurbations. Recent economic output figures that show that the proposed major city-regions outperform their surrounding regions have bolstered the case for change.

The framework also confirms reports that the Government is working on a policy statement, provisionally called a New Deal for Cities and Regions, which will focus on major conurbations' economic role (R&R, 9 December, p13).

It recommends that so-called city-region pathfinders are created in a few conurbations. Leeds and Manchester are recommended because both have shown "significant potential for growth". If chosen, these city regions would be offered financial incentives, such as mainstream departmental cash being pooled into a city-regional pot.

A cabinet committee devoted to coordinating spending on city regions should be set up, the report says. It argues that the committee could coordinate central government spending decisions so they are made in the best interests of the city-region pathfinders.

The report largely rejects the case for immediate wholesale local government reorganisation in the big conurbations, as backed by planning academics such as Sir Peter Hall. But it leaves the door open to future reorganisation, saying this "should remain a long-term option depending on the experience with more immediate arrangements".
 
#26 ·
... and another.

Experts back city-region creation

Ben Walker, Regeneration & Renewal - 16 December 2005

A federation of UK city-regions with revenue-raising powers should be formed to boost their competitiveness with European rivals, an influential group of city leaders, economists, development agencies and MPs said this week.


Think-tank the New Local Government Network's City-Regions Commission this week urged councils in England's big city conurbations to "blaze a trail" and form powerful city-regional bodies that could pool business rates and spend the cash on city-wide goals.

Its report calls on central government to offer financial incentives, including greater spending freedoms and decision-making powers, to persuade urban councils to create formal coalitions.

It hopes that local government minister David Miliband will become a champion of city-region bodies. The report recommends radical reform in Greater Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, and says there could be a case for city-regional bodies in Greater Sheffield, Newcastle and Bristol.

The commission contains Professor Tony Travers, Sheffield City Council chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake, Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese and historian Dr Tristram Hunt.

Leadership of the new "city states", as Dr Hunt calls them, should be via a senate of council chiefs or an elected city-regional mayor, the commission concluded. Some big city-regions, such as Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield, have already submitted to government plans for a group of leaders made up of collaborating councils. In this model, all council leaders would be equals, the report says.

Some members of the commission want powers to be handed to city-regions from regional development agencies, the report reveals.

One group within the commission, led by Graham Stringer MP, would like to see RDAs dissolved in favour of city-region development agencies (R&R, 9 December, p1). Stringer has written an exclusive article for Regeneration & Renewal this week explaining the group's position (see Analysis p12).
 
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