Metropolitan Borough of Stockport

For the main settlement, see Stockport.

Borough of Stockport
Metropolitan borough
Stockport Town Hall
Coat of arms
Motto(s):  Latin: Animo et Fide, lit.  'With courage and faith'
Stockport shown within Greater Manchester
Coordinates: 53°24′20″N2°09′33″W / 53.40556°N 2.15917°W / 53.40556; -2.15917
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	England
Region	North West
City region and ceremonial county	Greater Manchester
Historic counties	Cheshire Derbyshire Lancashire
Incorporated	1 April 1974
Named for	Stockport
Administrative HQ	Stockport Town Hall
Government [1]
• Type	Metropolitan borough with leader and cabinet
• Body	Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
•  Control	No overall control
•  Leader	Mark Hunter (LD)
•  Mayor	Graham Greenhalgh
•  Chief Executive	Caroline Simpson
•  House of Commons	4 MPs Andrew Gwynne (L) Navendu Mishra (L) Mary Robinson (C) William Wragg (C)
Area [2]
• Total	49 sq mi (126 km2)
• Rank	178th
Population  (2021) [3]
• Total	295,243
• Rank	50th
• Density	6,070/sq mi (2,342/km2)
Demonym	Stopfordian
Ethnicity (2021) [4]
•  Ethnic groups	List 87.4% White 7.3% Asian 2.6% Mixed 1.2% Black 1.6% other
Religion (2021) [4]
•  Religion	List 47.5% Christianity 39.6% no religion 5.5% Islam 0.8% Hinduism 0.4% Judaism 0.3% Buddhism 0.2% Sikhism 0.4% other 5.2% not stated
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Postcode area	SK
Dialling codes	01457 0161
ISO 3166 code	GB-SKP
GSS code	E08000007
ITL code	TLD35
GVA	2021 estimate [5]
•Total	£7.2 billion
•Per capita	£24,370
GDP (nominal)	2021 estimate [5]
•Total	£8.1 billion
•Per capita	£27,425
Website	stockport.gov.uk

The Metropolitan Borough of Stockport is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is south-east of central Manchester and south of Tameside. As well as the towns of Stockport, Bredbury and Marple, it includes the outlying villages and suburbs of Hazel Grove, Bramhall, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Reddish, Woodley and Romiley. In 2021, it had a population of 295,243, making it the fourth-most populous borough of Greater Manchester. ^[3]

History

The borough was created in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, from the former area of the County Borough of Stockport and from the administrative county of Cheshire the urban districts of Bredbury and Romiley, Cheadle and Gatley, Hazel Grove and Bramhall and Marple.

Stockport became a county borough in 1889 and was enlarged by gaining territory from Lancashire, including Reddish in 1906 and the Four Heatons in 1913. ^[6] The Marple Urban District of Cheshire, formed in 1894, gained parts of Derbyshire in 1936 including Mellor and Ludworth from Chapel en le Frith Rural District. ^[7]

Prior to its creation, it was suggested that the metropolitan borough be named "Norchester", but this was rejected as "a concocted name", being beaten by "Stockport" by a vote of 16 to 5. ^[8]

Geography

• Adswood
• Bramhall, Bredbury, Brinnington
• Cale Green, Cheadle, Cheadle Heath, Cheadle Hulme, Compstall
• Davenport
• Edgeley
• Gatley
• Heaton Chapel
• Heaton Mersey
• Heaton Moor
• Heaton Norris
• Hazel Grove, Heald Green, High Lane
• Marple, Mellor
• Offerton
• Portwood
• Reddish, Romiley
• Woodford, Woodley, Woodsmoor

Governance

Parliamentary constituencies

There are four parliamentary constituencies in the Stockport Metropolitan Borough: Stockport, Cheadle, Hazel Grove, and Denton and Reddish. Stockport has been represented by Navendu Mishra (Labour) since 2019. Mary Robinson (Conservative) has been MP for Cheadle since 2015. William Wragg (Conservative) has been MP for Hazel Grove since 2015. The constituency of Denton and Reddish bridges Stockport and Tameside; the current member is Andrew Gwynne (Labour).

Unparished Areas

Showing former status (prior to 1974), the entire district is unparished (note that Offerton Park, called "Offerton Estate" until 2006, existed from 2002 to 2011):

1. Bredbury and Romiley (Urban District)
2. Cheadle and Gatley (Urban District)
3. Hazel Grove and Bramhall (Urban District)
4. Marple (Urban District)
5. Stockport (County Borough)

Council

Further information: Stockport local elections

There are 21 electoral wards in Stockport, each with 3 councillors, giving a total of 63 councillors.

From 2002 until 2014, the Liberal Democrats had a controlling majority on the council. ^[9]

Following the 2014 Local Elections, no party had overall control. The Liberal Democrats remained the largest party, despite losing a seat, but decided not to form a minority administration and strongly refused any possibility of a coalition with the Conservatives. ^[10]

Following the 2016 Local Elections, no party had overall control with the Liberal Democrat council leader Sue Derbyshire losing her seat and Labour taking over as largest party. ^[11]

Following the 2022 Local Elections, the Liberal Democrats took control of the council and Mark Hunter became leader. ^[12]

Party political make-up of Stockport Council

	Party	Seats							Current Council (2022–23)
		2014 [13]	2015 [14]	2016 [11]	2018 [15]	2019 [16]	2021	2022
	Lib Dems	28	26	21	21	26	26	28
	Labour	22	21	23	24	26	25	25
	Conservative	10	13	14	13	8	8	5
	Heald Green Ratepayers	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
	Green	0	0	0	0	0	1	2

Demography

Population pyramid of Stockport in 2020

At the 2001 UK census, the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport had a total population of 284,528. ^[17] Of the 120,456 households in Stockport: 38.0% were married couples living together, 30.3% were one-person households, 8.3% were co-habiting couples and 9.4% were lone parents. ^[18]

The population density is 2,257/km² (5,850/sq mi) ^[19] and, for every 100 females, there were 93.2 males. Of those aged 16–74 in Stockport, 25.7% had no academic qualifications, lower than 28.9% in all of England. ^[17] 5.0% of Stockport's residents were born outside the United Kingdom, significantly lower than the national average of 9.2%. ^[20] The largest minority group was recorded as Asian, at 2.1% of the population. ^[21]

Population change

The table below details the population change since 1801, including the percentage change since the last available census data. Although the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport has only existed 1974, figures have been generated by combining data from the towns, villages and civil parishes that would later be constituent parts of the borough.

Population growth in Stockport since 1801
Year	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891
Population	18,901	23,957	29,745	39,027	50,340	51,232	67,034	82,837	98,693	114,252
% change	–	+26.7	+24.3	+31.2	+29.0	+1.8	+30.8	+23.6	+19.1	+15.8
Source: Vision of Britain [22]

Population growth in Stockport since 1901
Year	1901	1911	1921	1931	1941	1951	1961	1971	1981	1991
Population	135,156	159,884	172,025	185,087	204,265	225,433	256,848	292,695	288,977	288,354
% change	+18.3	+18.3	+7.6	+7.6	+10.4	+10.4	+13.9	+14.0	−1.3	−0.2
Source: Vision of Britain [22]

Population growth in Stockport since 2001
Year	2001	2011	2021	2031	2041	2051	2061	2071	2081	2091
Population	284,544	283,300
% change	−1.3	−0.4
Source: Vision of Britain [22]

Ethnicity

Ethnic Group	Year
	1991 [23]		2001 [24]		2011 [25]		2021 [26]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
White: Total	277,648	97.6%	272,230	95.7%	260,819	92.1%	257,530	87.3
White: British	–	–	264,279	92.9%	252,044	89%	245,831	83.4
White: Irish			4,155	1.5%	3,938	1.4%	4,174	1.4
White: Roma	–	–	–	–	–	–	132	<0.01
White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller	–	–	–	–	58	0.02	90	<0.1
White: Other	–	–	3,796	1.3%	4,779	1.7%	7,303	2.5
Asian or Asian British: Total	4,532	1.6%	7,282	2.6%	13,762	4.9%	21,464	7.3
Asian or Asian British: Indian	1383	0.5	1,867	0.7	2,786	1.0	4,433	1.5
Asian or Asian British: Pakistani	1579	0.6	2,949	1.0	6,673	2.4	10,953	3.7
Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi	226	0.1	353	0.1	705	0.2	963	0.3
Asian or Asian British: Chinese	943	0.3	1,315	0.5	1,722	0.6	2,306	0.8
Asian or Asian British: Other Asian	401	0.1	798	0.3	1,876	0.7	2,809	1.0
Black or Black British: Total	1,122	0.4%	1,181	0.4%	1,958	0.7%	3,416	1.2
Black or Black British: African	231	0.1	352	0.1	976	0.3	2,030	0.7
Black or Black British: Caribbean	493	0.2	660	0.2	745	0.3	896	0.3
Black or Black British: Other Black	398	0.1	169	0.1	237	0.1	490	0.2
Mixed or British Mixed: Total	–	–	3,026	1.1%	5,104	1.8%	7,668	2.6
Mixed: White and Black Caribbean	–	–	953	0.3	1,734	0.6	2,215	0.8
Mixed: White and Black African	–	–	413	0.1	775	0.3	1,236	0.4
Mixed: White and Asian	–	–	915	0.3	1,460	0.5	2,359	0.8
Mixed: Other Mixed	–	–	745	0.3	1,135	0.4	1,858	0.6
Other: Total	1093	0.4%	809	0.3%	1,632	0.6%	4,692	1.6
Other: Arab	–	–	–	–	727	0.3	1,509	0.5
Other: Any other ethnic group	1093	0.4	809	0.3	905	0.3	3,183	1.1
Total	284,395	100%	284,528	100%	283,275	100%	294,773	100%

Religion

The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Stockport.

Religion	2001 [27]		2011 [28]		2021 [29]
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Christian	214,610	75.4	179,005	63.2	139,951	47.5
Muslim	4,977	1.7	9,431	3.3	16,332	5.5
Jewish	1,654	0.6	1,340	0.5	1,234	0.4
Hindu	1,331	0.5	1,666	0.6	2,388	0.8
Sikh	190	0.1	330	0.1	503	0.2
Buddhism	610	0.2	853	0.3	964	0.3
Other religion	643	0.2	964	0.3	1,207	0.4
No religion	40,346	14.2	71,126	25.1	116,749	39.6
Religion not stated	20,167	7.1	18,510	6.5	15,445	5.2
Total	284,528	100.00%	283,275	100.00%	294,773	100.0%

Economy

Stockport Compared
2011 UK Census [30]	Stockport	North West England	England
Population of working age	178,400	4,839,669	35,532,091
Full-time employment	43.3%	38.8%	40.8%
Part-time employment	12.5%	11.9%	11.8%
Self employed	8.4%	7.1%	8.3%
Unemployed	2.5%	3.6%	3.3%
Retired	14.8%	14.3%	13.5%

The Stockport pyramid, previously a call centre for The Co-operative Bank

The Co-operative Bank opened a telephone banking centre in the Stockport pyramid in 1994. ^[31] In 1999, the Stockport pyramid became the administrative home of smile.co.uk, an internet bank owned by the Co-op. The Co-op moved out of the pyramid building in 2019 and it is now available to let. Experian ranked Stockport fifth in North West England for shopping. The Merseyway Shopping Centre underwent a £15m redevelopment. ^[32] Other shopping centres in Stockport include the Grand Central Stockport and the Stockport Peel Centre.

Medical equipment and technology, financial and professional services, computer and internet based services, and creative industries have been identified as growth industries in Greater Manchester, all with concentrations in Stockport. With employment at 2.0%, Stockport has the lowest rate of unemployment of all Greater Manchester's boroughs. ^[33] Average house prices in the Stockport are second out of all the metropolitan boroughs in Greater Manchester, 27.7% higher than the average for the county. ^[34]

At the 2001 UK census, Stockport had 204,812 residents aged 16 to 74. 2.4% of these people were students with jobs, 3.3% students without jobs, 5.4% looking after home or family, 5.0% permanently sick or disabled and 2.4% economically inactive for other reasons. These figures were generally in line with the national averages, although the proportion of people looking after home and family and students without jobs was significantly lower than the national average. ^[35]

In 2001, of 136,059 residents of Stockport in employment, the industry of employment was: 17.3% retail and wholesale, 14.7% manufacturing, 13.8% property and business services, 11.7% health and social work, 8.9% education, 7.7% transport and communications, 6.1% construction, 5.3% finance, 4.6% public administration and defence, 4.1% hotels and restaurants, 0.7% energy and water supply, 0.6% agriculture and 4.3% other. This was roughly in line with national figures, except for the proportion of jobs in agriculture which is less than half the national average, reflecting the town's suburban nature and its proximity to the centre of Manchester. ^[36]

Landmarks

See also: List of Scheduled Monuments in Greater Manchester, Grade I listed buildings in Greater Manchester, Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester, and List of public art in Greater Manchester

The east side of Bramall Hall, a Grade I listed building and Tudor mansion.

Stockport has 386 listed buildings. ^[37]

There are six Scheduled Ancient Monuments in the borough. Two date to the Bronze Age, a cairn in Ludworth and the Brown Low bowl barrow. ^{[38] [39]} Two related to medieval halls, Peel Hall in Heaton Moor and Torkington Moat. ^{[40] [41]} The final two were both built at the start of the 19th century, Oldknows Limekilns and the Marple Aqueduct. ^{[42] [43]}

Stockport has 14 local nature reserves: Abney Hall Park, Carr Wood, Chadkirk Country Estate, Crookilley Woods, Etherow Country Park, Gatley Carrs, Heaton Mersey Common, Happy Valley, Mersey Vale Nature Park, Poise Brook, Reddish Vale Country Park, Tangshutts Fields, Woodbank Park and Wright's Wood. ^[44]

Education

See also: List of schools in Stockport

Overall, Stockport was ranked 21st out of all the Local Education Authorities in SATs performance in 2006 and was 2nd in Greater Manchester. ^[45] Authorised and unauthorised absences from Stockport secondary schools in 2006-07 were 6.7% and 1.3% respectively, almost the same as the national average (6.8% and 1.3%). ^[46] In 2007, the Stockport LEA was ranked 30th out of 148 in the country, and 2nd in Greater Manchester, based on the percentage of pupils attaining at least 5 A*-C grades at GCSE including Maths and English (50.0% compared with the national average of 45.8%). ^[47]

In 2006, Cheadle Hulme School was the most successful school in Stockport at both GCSE and A-level; 99% of the pupils gaining five or more GCSEs at A*-C grade including Maths and English. At A-level, it was also the 72nd most successful school in the country. ^{[48] [49]}

Twin towns

The Borough of Stockport has formal twinning arrangements with two European places: ^[50] Béziers was originally twinned with the County Borough of Stockport and became twinned with the Metropolitan Borough on its creation in 1974. ^[51]

• Béziers, France, 1972
• Heilbronn, Germany, 1982

• Greater Manchester portal

References

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4. UK Census (2021). "2021 Census Area Profile – Stockport Local Authority (E08000007)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics . Retrieved 5 January 2024.
5. Fenton, Trevor (25 April 2023). "Regional gross domestic product: city regions". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
6. Vision of Britain Archived 27 September 2007 at archive.today - Heaton Norris UD
7. Vision of Britain Archived 30 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine - Marple Urban District
8. Clark 1973 , p. 101..
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16. "Local Elections Results 2019". www.stockport.gov.uk.
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23. Data is taken from United Kingdom Casweb Data services of the United Kingdom 1991 Census on Ethnic Data for England, Scotland and Wales (Table 6)
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30. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
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34. "House prices for Greater Manchester Local Authorities". BBC News Online. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
35. "Stockport Local Authority economic activity". Statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
36. "Stockport Local Authority industry of employment". Statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
37. "Listed Buildings". Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
38. Historic England. "Bronze Age cairn in Ludworth (890910)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 4 January 2008.
39. Historic England. "Brown Low (78554)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 4 January 2008.
40. Historic England. "Peel Hall, Stockport (76845)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 4 January 2008.
41. Historic England. "Torkington Moat (78351)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 4 January 2008.
42. Historic England. "Oldknows Limekilns (78346)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 30 December 2007.
43. Historic England. "Marple Goyt Aqueduct (78557)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 30 December 2007.
44. "Local Nature Reserves". Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
45. "LEA SATs performance". BBC Online. 7 December 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2007.
46. "Stockport schools". BBC Online. 11 January 2007. Retrieved 26 December 2007.
47. "How different LEAs performed". BBC Online. 17 January 2007. Retrieved 18 December 2007.
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49. "Top A-level results". BBC Online. 11 January 2007. Retrieved 18 December 2007.
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Bibliography

• Clark, David Michael (1973). Greater Manchester Votes: A Guide to the New Metropolitan Authorities. Redrose. ISBN   978-0950293202.