Manchester Governance and AGMA

[Aryan]

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?

[dgnr8]

My house alone has 8. I feel I win this contest.

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

i.e. 27 (I think).

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Aryan

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.

[chasedwar]

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.

The list above is off the BBC's web site, it is quite acurate.

[andyains]

Originally Posted by chasedwar

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

[Jonesy55]

This map shows who won what last time around. There are less Scottish constituencies this time but apart from that it's pretty similar I think. Virtually all urban areas are tory free zones, the only places they do well are rural seats and rich commuter town areas.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2...html/map05.stm

[TheGrand]

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?

[SleepyOne]

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....

[skymann]

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.

[SleepyOne]

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.

..

[Manchester Planner]

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

[Sir Miles Platting]

Originally Posted by Manchester Planner

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

MP, the taxes raised will not be additional to existing ones. They will be in lieu of taxes coming from the national coffers. The economies of this are supposed to be more efficient resulting in a lower tax rate.

[tlhf]

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.

[skymann]

Originally Posted by tlhf

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.

[Farsight]

Skymann: whilst the arrangement you suggest will be a problem to some, I'm sure even Salford and Trafford realise that the current "divide and rule" arrangement is a problem that needs addressing.

Here's a motto: UNITED WE STAND

[Manc Guy]

divided we fall...

pffft get it right!

[kebabmonster]

I've said this before, but how are you going to convince people in Salford/Trafford/Tameside to join Manchester? The idea of asking these people to join the city to increase Manchester's tax base doesn't seem sellable.