Cllr Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton Council, answers your concerns every month. 

ONE of the things which is moving very quickly at the moment is the devolution of powers and responsibilities from the government to Greater Manchester.

As readers may know, in order to unlock the new powers, we needed to agree to elect a Greater Manchester mayor by 2017.

This is a big step to take – but the 10 councils in Greater Manchester have worked together for over 25 years, so we have been able to come up with a model that works for all of us.

Over the past two years, councils have set up a GM Combined Authority (GMCA) to support devolution, made up of the leaders of all 10 councils. The new mayor will be the eleventh member of the GMCA, with the same rights as the other 10 members.

This is where our model is different to elected mayors – ours is one of 11, and all of us have the same voting rights.

The mayor will chair the combined authority, but will not have a casting vote.

This means Bolton is in a strong position to influence the way GMCA works; and for some vital services, I think we will always have a local veto on proposals if we need it.

No one can dispute that Greater Manchester has delivered real economic benefits – we have the highest economic growth outside of London.

The challenge now is to keep improving the economy and at the same time find new ways of working that help to improve people’s lives and communities.

All of us will need to think differently about the range of services provided by councils and their partners, and how they provide them.

Over the coming months, we want to talk to people about their suggestions, aspirations and concerns so that we can understand what our priorities need to be.