What is understood by ‘heritage’ has changed in recent times, and there is much more focus on intangible heritage such as community history and collective memory. This council believes that communities have a huge role to play in protecting our heritage and publicising our history, and that Manchester City Council should work with residents, community groups, schools and other interested parties to identify and promote aspects of local history and heritage, at both ward and city level.

This council notes that there are best practice guidelines available from Historic England which Manchester City Council has used to protect much of our heritage with great success, but also that further, more Manchester-specific definitions of heritage can be adopted to ensure we are protecting not just the physical characteristics of our city, but the essence of what it means to be Manchester.

This council resolves that:

A working group be established to look further into aspects of heritage and community history
The above group leads a ward level heritage audit where buildings, structures or locations that are not listed or otherwise officially protected, but are important to the history of their community, are brought to the council’s attention
That the council create and adopt a definition of “Mancunian Heritage” and work to protect our city’s look, structure, and feel by “keeping it Manchester.”