Local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

Greater Manchester County Council 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 ...

, a

Metropolitan County Council The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each di ...

encompassing Greater Manchester, were held on 7 May 1981, resulting in large swings to Labour, giving them control of the council. This would be the last election to the Greater Manchester County Council, with metropolitan county councils being scrapped on 31 March 1986 under the

Local Government Act 1985 The Local Government Act 1985 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Its main effect was to abolish the six county councils of the metropolitan counties that had been set up in 1974, 11 years earlier, by the Local Government Act 1972, ...

by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. The councils' abolition came following several high-profile clashes between mostly Labour metropolitan county councils and the Conservative government over issues including overspending and high rates charging.

Results

Overall Results

Borough summary

, - class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left", Borough ! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
! %
!Cllrs
!rowspan=2, Total
Cllrs
, - class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="" , Labour !colspan=2 bgcolor="", Conservative !colspan=2 bgcolor="" , Liberal !colspan=2 bgcolor="" , Green !colspan=2 bgcolor="white", Independent !colspan=2 bgcolor="white", Others , - , align="left", Bolton , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 49.0 , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 7 , 34.4 , 2 , 16.2 , 1 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.4 , 0 , 10 , - , align="left",

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

, bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 49.6 , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 5 , 34.0 , 1 , 14.2 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 2.3 , 0 , 0.4 , 0 , 6 , - , align="left", Manchester , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 55.7 , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 16 , 27.7 , 3 , 15.0 , 1 , 0.5 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 1.1 , 0 , 20 , - , align="left", Oldham , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 50.5 , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 7 , 30.5 , 1 , 18.0 , 1 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 1.0 , 0 , 9 , - , align="left", Rochdale , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 43.5 , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 5 , 29.7 , 0 , 24.3 , 2 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 2.5 , 0 , 7 , - , align="left", Salford , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 59.8 , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 11 , 23.8 , 0 , 15.3 , 1 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 1.1 , 0 , 12 , - , align="left",

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

, 29.0 , 3 , bgcolor="lightblue", 37.7 , bgcolor="lightblue", 6 , 32.1 , 2 , 0.7 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.4 , 0 , 11 , - , align="left", Tameside , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 57.3 , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 9 , 29.7 , 0 , 11.9 , 0 , 0.6 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.4 , 0 , 9 , - , align="left", Trafford , 36.6 , 3 , bgcolor="lightblue", 43.1 , bgcolor="lightblue", 6 , 20.4 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 9 , - , align="left", Wigan , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 65.8 , bgcolor="#EEA2AD", 12 , 16.5 , 0 , 14.5 , 1 , 0.0 , 0 , 0.0 , 0 , 3.2 , 0 , 13 , - class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" style="background:#C9C9C9" , align="left", Total , 49.6 , 78 , 30.6 , 19 , 18.4 , 9 , 0.2 , 0 , 0.2 , 0 , 1.0 , 0 , 106 , -

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 1981 1981 English local elections

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...