Greater Manchester Council Minutes

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): GMC/1264 - 2441

Title: Greater Manchester Council Minutes

Date(s): 1973 - 1986

Level of description: Sub- fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 29 volumes

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): Greater Manchester Council

Administrative/Biographical history: After the Local Government Act of 1972 the Greater Manchester Council was established and held responsibilities for the following local authority functions: education and youth employment; personal social services; libraries, museums and galleries; town development; housing; environmental health; conservation; building preservation; transport; recreation; parks and open spaces; police; finance; refuse disposal. Minutes of all committee meetings relating to these activities were recorded between 1973 and 1986 until the work of the Greater Manchester Council was restructured into the following 10 Metropolitan Borough Councils: Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. The County Council minute books are arranged into 29 volumes, commencing April 1973- May 1974 (Reference 1264) and concluding January-March 1986 (Reference 2441). The scope and content details are based on a sample of 8 volumes covering the years 1974-1975, 1980-1981 and 1985-1986.

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: This collection comprises the printed minutes of meetings held by the Greater Manchester Council between 1973-1986. In general the minutes cover information about constitution and policy issues for the county council's main committees, the establishment of working parties and sub-committees, personnel issues (including the election of council staff), summaries of committee reports and details of decisions made at each meeting. In 1973 the following main committees were established: Policy; Finance; Personnel; Planning; Highways; Transportation; Police; Fire Service; Consumer Protection; Recreation. Information about Manchester's Black and Asian communities occurs throughout the records, particularly with regard to the impact of urban regeneration schemes in the City of Manchester, Salford and Tameside regions during the mid-late 1970s, Policy Committee reports on the progress of youth training initiatives in Moss Side (Manchester) in the early 1980s, Police Committee reports on community relations and Personnel Committee reports on the work of the council's Equal Opportunities Unit and later its Equal Opportunities Committee. For example:

• (1) The minutes of the Police Committee during 1985 (Volume 1444) document the work of the Community Relations Sub-Committee, which was responsible for monitoring and reporting on the number of racial incidents in the region, running seminars on the monitoring of racial attacks, holding joint policy meetings with the Council's Equal Opportunities Committee, appointing community liaison panels, and ethnic monitoring of complaints against the police.
• (2) The minutes of the Equal Opportunities Committee during 1985 (Volume 1444) include discussions about equal pay and fair selection practices, the work of the Race Relations Working Group, strategies for reviewing companies' policies on the basis of Equal Opportunities Commission and Commission for Racial Equality Codes of Practice, racism awareness and equal opportunities training for local authority staff, approving requests for financial assistance for organisations such as the Greater Manchester Asian Women's Aid, Rochdale Asian Women's Movement and the Manchester Immigration Wives and Fiancées Campaign in relation to the setting up of Asian women's refuges and supporting campaigns against British immigration laws (e.g. the 'Primary Purpose Rule' (Rule 41) on marriage, etc.)

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement:

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Open access. No appointment is necessary to view this collection, but visitors are required to obtain a reader's ticket on their first visit to the GMCRO, available free of charge from the record office on production of ID with name, address and signature. GMCRO is a member of the County Archive Research Network.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids: Printed catalogue

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 25 October 2001

Interest: Asian, Black

Specific group:

Subjects

Local government

Immigration

Interethnic relations

Ethnic groups

Equal opportunity

Communities

Personal/Corporate names

Commission for Racial Equality

Equal Opportunities Commission

Places

Manchester, United Kingdom

Moss Side, Manchester, United Kingdom