An extensive canal network also remains from the Industrial Revolution. [208] The Manchester Football Association is the sport's governing body in Greater Manchester, and is committed to its promotion and development. [256] The People's History Museum is "the national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people in Britain". [120], Clover, sorrel, nettle and thistle are common, and grow wild in Greater Manchester. [32], The Royal Commission's 1969 report, known as the Redcliffe-Maud Report, proposed the removal of much of the then existing system of local government. [286] The sports grounds in the county also host large pop concerts. Manchester city centre is noted for its high-rise apartments,[160] while Salford has some of the tallest and most densely populated tower block estates in Europe. [122][123][124] The house sparrow, starling, and blackbird are among the most populous bird species in Greater Manchester; magpie and feral pigeon are common and breed in habitats across the county. The empowerment of female founders is an opportunity too big to miss and Greater Manchester is poised to seize it. [199] The system is owned by TfGM and operated and maintained under contract by a Keolis / Amey consortium. [131] The lowest formal tier of local government in Greater Manchester are the parish councils, which cover the various civil parishes in Greater Manchester, and have limited powers over upkeep, maintenance and small grants. Monthly Transportation Statistics is a compilation of national statistics on transportation. [56] That eight of the ten borough councils have (for the most part) been Labour-controlled since 1986, has helped maintain this informal co-operation between the districts at a county-level. [204] The airport handled 21.06 million passengers in 2008. Common cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium), a plant with fluffy white plumes native to wet hollows on high moors, was announced as the county flower of Greater Manchester. Now under the direction of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, these joint boards are Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating public transport across the county; the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, who are administered by a joint Fire and Rescue Authority; and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. [257] Manchester United, Manchester City, and Lancashire CCC all have dedicated museums illustrating their histories. [126] Functional executive bodies, such as Transport for Greater Manchester, are responsible for delivery of services in these areas. [205] A mix of new and existing facilities were used. [227], The Greater Manchester Community Basketball Club is an association which represents Greater Manchester in basketball. [225] The Greater Manchester Marathon is a long-distance running event along a 26-mile and 385-yard course throughout the borough of Trafford. Greater Manchester continues to be associated with guitar and dance music. Questions about Manchester Metro Area (NH), Gross and Real Gross Domestic Product for State of Iowa, IFC Investment By Industry - Annual Summary. [221][222], Horse racing has taken place at several sites in the county. [126] Upon formation, it consisted of ten indirectly elected members, each a directly elected councillor from one of the ten metropolitan boroughs that comprise Greater Manchester. This was roughly in line with national figures, except for the proportion of jobs in agriculture which is only about a third of the national average of 1.5%, due to the overwhelmingly urban, built-up land use of Greater Manchester. The Iowa GDP a state counterpart to the Nation's GDP, the Bureau's featured and most comprehensive measure of U.S. economic activity. [144][145] At the 2019 general election in Greater Manchester, Labour won 18 seats and the Conservatives won 9. Stagecoach has set out a package of proposed partnership measures in Greater Manchester to help the post-Covid acceleration of bus use in the region and act as a trailblazer for other locations across the country. [25] However, the English term "Greater Manchester" did not appear until the 19th century. Much of the infrastructure converges at Manchester city centre with the Manchester Inner Ring Road, an amalgamation of several major roads, circulating the city centre. Greater Manchester Police was formerly overseen by a joint police authority, but was briefly overseen by the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012[137] until the functions of that office were subsumed into the new regional mayoralty upon its creation in 2017. [249] Separate from the GMMG is The Lowry at Salford Quays, which has a changing display of L. S. Lowry's work alongside travelling exhibitions. The ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester – Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan – represent the largest city region economy outside London, with a gross value added (GVA) of £62.8 billion. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of the value of all goods and services produced in a region minus the value of the goods and services used up in production. Professional ice hockey returned to the area in early 2007 with the opening of a purpose-designed rink in Altrincham, the Altrincham Ice Dome, to host the Manchester Phoenix. [33] The area had roughly the same northern boundary as today's Greater Manchester (though included Rossendale), but covered much more territory from Cheshire (including Macclesfield, Warrington, Alderley Edge, Northwich, Middlewich, Wilmslow and Lymm), and Derbyshire (the towns of New Mills, Whaley Bridge, Glossop and Chapel-en-le-Frith – a minority report suggested that Buxton be included). [58], A decade after they were established, the mostly Labour-controlled metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council (GLC) had several high-profile clashes with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, with regards overspending and high rates charging. 2.3 Key activities in relation to the pandemic have included: The acceleration of development and use of the GM Care Record, which holds GP data and makes it available to hospitals. It reported on the "increasing demands for the exploration of the possibilities of a greater merger of public services throughout Manchester and the surrounding municipalities". [16] Other rivers traverse the region as tributaries to the major rivers, including the Douglas, the Irk, and the Roch. It has a focused central business district, formed by Manchester city centre and the adjoining parts of Salford and Trafford, but Greater Manchester is also a polycentric county with ten metropolitan districts, each of which has at least one major town centre and outlying suburbs. [275] The Lowry — Greater Manchester's most visited tourist attraction[273] — houses two theatres, used by travelling groups in all the performing arts. Through the late 50s and early 60s the track saw Scobie Breasley and Lester Piggott annually battle out the closing acts of the jockey's title until racing ceased on 7 November 1963. News . One of its first known recorded uses was in planning documents for the Manchester Ship Canal dated 1883, referring to "Manchester, Salford and the Out-Townships". [91] Combined, these factors make Greater Manchester the most complex "polycentric functional urban region" in the UK outside London. Share ; By. Most of Greater Manchester is part of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester,[154] apart from Wigan which lies within the Diocese of Liverpool. 19.7 million rail journeys were made in the then GMPTE-supported area in the 2005/2006 financial year – an increase of 9.4% over 2004/2005; there were 19.9 million journeys on Metrolink; and the bus system carried 219.4 million passengers. Before the creation of the metropolitan county, the name SELNEC was used for the area, from the initials of "South East Lancashire North East Cheshire". [283] The main classical venue is the 2,341-seat Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, opened in 1996 at a cost of £42m. [92] Outside the boundary of Greater Manchester it includes several adjacent areas of settlement and a few outliers connected to the urban sprawl by ribbon development, such as Wilmslow and Alderley Edge in Cheshire, Glossop and Hadfield in Derbyshire, and Whitworth in Lancashire. Manchester Art Gallery is a major provincial art gallery noted for its collection of Pre-Raphaelite art and housed in a Grade I listed building by Charles Barry. [255] The Museum of Transport in Manchester, which opened in 1979, has one of the largest collections of vehicles in the country. [267][268] A smaller-scale local TV station, That's Manchester, began broadcasting in May 2015. [92] This conurbation forms part of a megalopolis of 9.4 million across northern England. [182] It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors[183] and is now often considered to be the second city of the UK. [35] Seven years earlier, a survey prepared for the British Association intended to define the "South-East Lancashire conurbation" noted that "Greater Manchester it is not ... One of its main characteristics is the marked individuality of its towns, ... all of which have an industrial and commercial history of more than local significance". A season in a temporary stage in the former Royal Exchange, Manchester was followed by funding for a theatre in the round, which opened in 1976. [191] The A580 "East Lancs" road is a primary A road that connects Manchester and Salford with Liverpool. The Pankhurst Museum is based in the early feminist Emmeline Pankhurst's former home and includes a parlour laid out in contemporary style. [22], Greater Manchester is home to a diverse population and is a multicultural agglomeration with an ethnic minority population comprising 8.5% of the total population in 2001. [16] Infrastructure such as rows of terraced housing, factories and roads were constructed to house labour, transport goods, and produce cotton goods on an industrial scale for a global market. The data include breakdowns of industries' contributions. [9] The remains of 1st-century forts at Castlefield in Manchester,[10] and Castleshaw Roman fort in Saddleworth,[11] are evidence of Roman occupation. [83] The built environment of Greater Manchester utilises red brick and sandstone prominently as a building material, alongside structures composed of modern materials, high-rise towers, and landmark 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century buildings in the city and town centres. The review was abolished in favour of the Royal Commission on Local Government before issuing a final report. In 2018 Manchester’s GVA (Balanced) at current basic prices was £22,500 million (ONS). Manchester Airport, which is the third busiest in the United Kingdom, serves the county and wider region with flights to more worldwide destinations than any other airport in the UK. [180] Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce. [16] There is a mix of high density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Greater Manchester, but land use is mostly urban. and Rochdale A.F.C.. Below that are League Two sides Oldham Athletic A.F.C. Beneath the GMCA are the ten councils of Greater Manchester's ten districts, which are Bolton, Bury, the City of Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, the City of Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. [270] MEN Media "dominates Greater Manchester", reaching 7 out of 10 adults each week within the region through its portfolio of products which also includes the Oldham Advertiser, the Rochdale Observer, and the Salford Advertiser. Although used as a "successful brand",[134] Greater Manchester's politics have been characterised by "entrenched localism and related rivalries", historically resistant to regionalism. The Mayor of Salford pledged his support to the idea, stating that he looked forward to the day when "there would be a merging of the essential services of Manchester, Salford, and the surrounding districts constituting Greater Manchester.