Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council | |
---|---|
Third of council elected three years out of four | |
Coat of arms | |
Type | |
Type | |
Houses | Unicameral |
Term limits | None |
History | |
Founded | 1 April 1974 |
Leadership | |
Leader | |
Eddy Newman, labour Since 2017 | |
Structure | |
Seats | 96 |
Political groups |
|
Joint committees |
Greater Manchester Combined Authority Greater Manchester Police and Crime Panel |
Elections | |
First past the post | |
Last election |
2014 (one third of councillors) 2015 (one third of councillors) 2016 (one third of councillors) |
Next election |
2018 (all councillors due to boundary changes) 2019 (one third of councillors) 2020 (one third of councillors) |
Motto | |
Concilio et Labore | |
Meeting place | |
Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, Manchester | |
Website | |
http://www.manchester.gov.uk |
Manchester City Council is the local government authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. It is composed of 96 councillors, three for each of the 32 electoral wards of Manchester. The council is controlled by the Labour Party and led by Sir Richard Leese. Joanne Roney is the chief executive. Many of the council's staff are based at Manchester Town Hall.
History
Manchester was incorporated in 1838 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 as the Corporation of Manchester or Manchester Corporation. It achieved city status in 1853, only the second such grant since the Reformation. The area included in the city has been increased many times, in 1885 (Bradford, Harpurhey and Rusholme), 1890 (Blackley, Crumpsall, part of Droylsden, Kirkmanshulme, Moston, Newton Heath, Openshaw, and West Gorton), 1903 (Heaton), 1904 (Burnage, Chorlton cum Hardy, Didsbury, and Moss Side), 1909 (Gorton, and Levenshulme), 1931 (Wythenshawe: Baguley, Northenden, and Northen Etchells), and Ringway. A new Town Hall was opened in 1877 (by Alderman Abel Heywood) and the Mayor of Manchester was granted the title of Lord Mayor in 1893.[1]
Under the Local Government Act 1972 the council was reconstituted as a metropolitan borough council in 1974, and since then it has been controlled by the Labour Party. In 1980, Manchester was the first council to declare itself a nuclear-free zone. In 1984 it formed an equal opportunities unit as part of its opposition to Section 28.[2][3][4]
Political make up
Elections are usually by thirds (a third of the seats elected, three years in every four), although the 2004 elections, due to substantial boundary changes (which involved the total number of councillors reduced), saw all seats contested. Labour has controlled a majority of seats in every election since the council was reconstituted. Between 2014 and 2016 Labour occupied every seat with no opposition.[5] In the local elections held on 5 May 2016, former Manchester Withington MP, John Leech, was elected with 53% of the vote signifying the first gain for any party other than Labour for the first time in six years in Manchester and providing an opposition for the first time in two years.[6] On 7 March 2017, it was reported that City Centre Councillor Kevin Peel had been suspended from the Manchester Labour group after reports of bullying. He sat as an independent, still taking the Labour Group whip until he rejoined Labour.[7]
Year | Labour | Lib Dems | Green | Conservative | Independent | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | 95 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
2017 | 94 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||
2016 | 95 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
2015 | 96 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
2014 | 96 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
2012 | 86 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||
2011 | 75 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||
2010 | 62 | 31 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |||||
2008 | 61 | 34 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
2007 | 61 | 33 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||||
2006 | 62 | 33 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
2004 | 57 | 38 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
2003 | 71 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
2002 | 75 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||
2000 | 78 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
1999 | 82 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
1998 | 84 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Coat of arms
A coat of arms was granted to the Borough of Manchester in 1842 and Manchester was granted the title of city in 1853.[8]
- The Shield: red (Gules) with three gold (Or) bands drawn diagonally across to the right hand side.
- The Chief (the white (Argent) top segment): shows a ship at sea in full sail. This is a reference to the city's trading base.
- The Crest: On a multicoloured wreath stands a terrestrial globe, signifying Manchester's world trade, and covered by a swarm of flying bees. The bee was adopted in the 19th century as a symbol of industrial Manchester being the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
- The Supporters: On the left, a heraldic antelope with a chain attached to a gold (Or) collar, representing engineering industries, and hanging at the shoulder, the red rose of Lancashire, in which county Manchester once was. On the right, a golden lion stands guardant (facing us), crowned with a red (Gules) castle (a reference to the Roman fort at Castlefield from which the city originated). The lion also wears the Red Rose of Lancashire.
- Motto: Concilio et Labore, loosely translated "By wisdom and effort" (or "By counsel and hard work").
In 1954 the Manchester Corporation successfully took the Manchester Palace of Varieties to court for improperly using the Corporation's arms in its internal decoration and its company seal. The case of Manchester Corporation v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd;[9] was the first sitting of the Court of Chivalry for two hundred years, and it has not sat since.[10]
In April 2013, Manchester City Council threatened to take legal action against The Manchester Gazette, for its use of the City's coat of arms on their website. The News Outlet claimed it already gained permission and continued to use it for a further 8 months in spite of the warnings. Withington MP John Leech said the town hall’s latest move a ‘massive over-reaction and waste of money’, adding: “Have the council’s legal department got nothing better to do?” [11][12]
Leaders
- Bill Egerton (1982-4)
- Graham Stringer (1984–1996)
- Sir Richard Leese (since 1996)
City treasurer
- Carol Culley (since 2015)[13]
Town Clerk
- Sir Philip Burrington Dingle (1906-1978), Town Clerk of Manchester: 1944–66.[14]
Chief Executive
- Joanne Roney 1 April 2017 - incumbent
- Howard Bernstein 1998- 31 March 2017
Wards
Blackley and Broughton | Manchester Gorton | Wythenshawe and Sale East |
---|---|---|
|
| |
Manchester Central | Manchester Withington | |
Sources
- ↑ Frangopulo, N. J. (ed.) (1962) Rich Inheritance. Manchester: Manchester Education Committee; pp. 59–72
- ↑ Archived August 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Archived June 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑
- ↑ "Election 2015: Labour gains total control of Manchester City Council". BBC. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2017-04-06.
- ↑ http://manchestergazette.co.uk/councillor-kevin-peel-suspended-manchester-council-3168/
- ↑ Frangopulo, N. J., ed. (1962) Rich Inheritance. Manchester: Education Committee; p. II (note by W. H. Shercliff), 59
- ↑ Manchester Corporation v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd, P 133; [1955] 1 All ER 387
- ↑ G.D. Squibb, The High Court of Chivalry: A Study of the Civil Law in England, Oxford, 1959
- ↑ "Manchester council threat to sue website over coat of arms". MEN. 30 April 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
- ↑ "Site Rebrand". MG. 1 October 2013. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
- ↑ Editor (21 June 2012). "Richard Paver on cuts, borrowing and derivatives". Room 151 - Local Government Treasury, Technical & Strategic Finance. Longview Productions Ltd. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
- ↑
Further reading
- McKechnie, H. M. (ed.) (1915) Manchester in Nineteen Hundred and Fifteen. Manchester U. P.; "Undertakings of the City Council; Social Amelioration in Manchester; Elementary Education in Manchester; Secondary Schools in Manchester; The Evening School System of Manchester", by E. D. Simon, et al.
- Manchester City Council. "Concilio et Labore" Series. No. 1-11. (Each pamphlet describes part of the council's work, e.g. no. 4: the City Treasurer.
- Redford, Arthur (1939) The History of City Government in Manchester; Vol. 2 & 3: Borough and City; The Last Half Century.
- Simon, Ernest D. (1926) A City Council from Within. London: Longmans, Green
- Simon, Shena D. (1938) A Century of City Government: Manchester 1838–1938. London: G. Allen & Unwin
- Tomlinson, H. E. (1943) "The Heraldry of Manchester" in: Bulletin of the John Rylands Library; vol. XXVIII, pp. 207–27
External links
- Manchester City Council
- Labour Party in Manchester
- Liberal Democrat Party in Manchester
- Green Party in Manchester
- Conservative Party in Manchester
- Open Data on Manchester City Council from OpenlyLocal