1974-1986 жылдардағы Манчестер Үлкен Аймағының Каунті Кеңесі

Local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986

The Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) was the top tier local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services and waste disposal, it was composed of 106 directly elected members drawn from the ten metropolitan boroughs of Greater Manchester. The Greater Manchester County Council shared power with ten lower tier district councils, each of which directed local matters. Established with reference to the Local Government Act 1972, elections in 1973 brought about the county council's launch as a shadow authority, several months before Greater Manchester (its zone of influence) was officially created on 1 April 1974. The Greater Manchester County Council operated from its County Hall headquarters on Portland Street in central Manchester, until it was abolished 31 March 1986, following the Local Government Act 1985. Its powers were passed to the ten district councils of Greater Manchester, which had shared power with the GMCC. Some powers of the county council were restored when the district councils delegated strategic responsibilities (such as emergency services and public transport) to the county wide Association of Greater Manchester Authorities and joint boards.

The Local Government Act 1972 reformed local government in England by creating a system of two tier metropolitan and non metropolitan counties and districts throughout the country. The act formally established Greater Manchester as a metropolitan county on 1 April 1974. The first election for the Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) was held in 1973, operating as a shadow authority alongside the old councils until it formally assumed its powers on 1 April 1974. The leading article in The Times on the day the Local Government Act came into effect noted that the "new arrangement is a compromise which seeks to reconcile familiar geography which commands a certain amount of affection and loyalty, with the scale of operations on which modern planning methods can work effectively".

By January 1974, a joint working party representing Greater Manchester had drawn up its county Structure Plan, ready for implementation by the Greater Manchester County Council. The plan set out strategic and long term objectives for the forthcoming metropolitan county. The highest priority was to increase the quality of life for its inhabitants by way of improving the county's physical environment and cultural facilities which had suffered following deindustrialisation—much of Greater Manchester's basic infrastructure dated from its 19th century industrial growth, and was unsuited to modern communication systems and life styles. Other objectives were to reverse the trend of depopulation in central Greater Manchester, to invest in the county's country parks to improve the region's poor reputation on leisure and recreational facilities, and to improve the county's transport infrastructure and journey to work patterns. The council built County Hall on Portland Street in Manchester city centre at the cost of £4.5 million (£ as of ), which served as its headquarters. The building is now known as Westminster House. Because of political objection, particularly from Cheshire, Greater Manchester covered only the inner, urban 62 of the 90 former districts that the Royal Commission had outlined as an effective administrative metropolitan area. In this capacity, GMCC found itself "planning for an arbitrary metropolitan area  abruptly truncated to the south", and so had to negotiate several land use, transport and housing projects with its neighbouring county councils. and GMCC's creation of five new country parks within its boundaries. Greater Manchester Transport was established from the former SELNEC PTE to operate the county's public transport. GMCC was, however, criticised for being too Manchester centric by representatives from the outer suburbs.

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 regard to overspending and high rates charging. Government policy on the issue was considered throughout 1982, and the Conservative Party put a "promise to scrap the metropolitan county councils" and the GLC, in their manifesto for the 1983 general election. Greater Manchester County Council was abolished on 31 March 1986 under the Local Government Act 1985. That the metropolitan county councils were controlled by the Labour Party led to accusations that their abolition was motivated by party politics: Most of the functions of GMCC were devolved to the ten Greater Manchester metropolitan district councils, though some functions such as emergency services and public transport were taken over by joint boards and continued to be run on a county wide basis. The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) was established to continue much of the county wide services of the county council. The metropolitan county continued to exist in law, and as a geographic frame of reference,

Although the metropolitan county council was abolished in 1986, the county area continues to exist, for Parliamentary representation, in mapping, and especially for statistical purposes. and has its own Lord Lieutenant (the Monarch's representative in a county) and High Sheriff. The last leader of Greater Manchester County Council, Bernard Clarke, became the manager of the YMCA's Training for Life project and a director of Manchester Travel Services and of Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry.

The Greater Manchester County Council was a strategic authority running regional services such as public transport, health provision, planning and emergency services. It served to provide a strategic regional framework within which the differing plans of its ten metropolitan borough councils could be harmonised. Bernard Clarke served as leader of the GMCC.

The county council had its main administrative offices at County Hall, an office building at 11 Portland Street in Manchester, built in 1974. Council meetings were held at Manchester Town Hall.