Association of Greater Manchester Authorities
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The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) is an association which represents the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. It was created in 1986 after the Greater Manchester County Council was abolished.
AGMA seeks to act as a single voice for Greater Manchester, and also seeks to promote co-ordination on strategic issues affecting the county. It also provides some services across Greater Manchester, and also funds the Greater Manchester County Record Office.
AGMA has a permanent office in Brussels to represent Greater Manchester at a European level.[1]
In recent years the AGMA has invited representative from local unitary authorities in North West England to be associate members. These are Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen and Warrington.
[edit] Country-wide transport improvement vote
At a meeting of AGMA, Tuesday 12th May, cross-party agreement was reached between representatives of all ten Greater Manchester authorities for an increase in the AGMA portion of levy on the Council Tax to cover a large package of transport improvements [1], [2], [3].
The list of 10 schemes costing £1.4 billion includes some road, rail, bus and Metrolink improvements For the Metrolink system the money will go a long way towards filling the gap in funding left by the shortfall of the "3a" scheme.
The money is to be found by a combination of an increase in council tax (by approx £2 per year per council tax payer in Greater Manchester), contributions from Manchester Airport, increased revenue from passenger journies and the early release of some central government money, previously earmarked for transport improvements in the conurbation will also make up the £1.4billion. [4].
The only remaining proposals not to be covered following this announcement (they were not anyway envisaged as being part of the "Big Bang" unless private sector funding was attracted) are:
- The Trafford Park/Trafford Centre line
- The completeion of the Manchester Airport loop
- The full extension of the Didsbury line into Stockport Town centre (it will stop just short at Heaton Mersey or East Didsbury)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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