And this time we really are calling it a night - thank you very much for your company!

Image source, PA

The candidates were asked about their ideas for boosting skills and growth across the city region.

Conservative Phil Eckersley said: "I'm going to be the most pro-business mayor this area has ever seen.

"And how you do that is by business rate reform, cutting business rates for small businesses and working with the boroughs to reduce parking fees and give people free parking, even if it's just 30 minutes.

"It allows people to go into the town centres and make a quick purchase. And that is valuable to our small businesses."

Bev Craig, of Labour, said her "priority is young people".

"I want every young person growing up in this city region to feel like they've got that clear path to success," she said.

"It's what I talk about, beginning in early years, working with our school system to help people get the soft skills that they need to get guaranteed work placements.

"I'd go further than the powers we have at the minute. From day one, I will call on Andy Burnham to devolve the whole skills budget post-16, because if we can't reform the apprenticeships, we can't be pro-business and we can't be pro-young people."

Richard Kilpatrick, of the Liberal Democrats, said: "Greater Manchester as a city region is a hub for the digital industry.

"Actually, when you compare it to the rest of the United Kingdom, we need to build on that and we need to build on the amazing universities we have across the city region."

That concludes tonight's debate - the last hour has really flown by!

Before we leave you for the night, we will bring you a few more details from the debate.

You can watch the whole programme again at your leisure on the BBC News website and on the iPlayer.

This time next week, polling stations across Greater Manchester will be little more than an hour away from closing.

And, on Friday, we should know who will be the region's mayor.

Independent candidate Marcus Farmer says Greater Manchester's public sector housing policies have been left behind by private investment.

"It's evident the housing policy for Manchester is poor at best," he says.

"The whole city, certainly the skyscrapers in the city centre, the whole combined authority and Manchester City Council, have been outclassed by business people.

"There's no affordable housing. There's a couple of towers. I don't think anybody even lives in them. They've been bought by foreign pension funds or whatever."

Phil Eckersley, the Tory candidate, says one of his "key pledges" is "to protect the green belt and our green spaces".

The Trafford councillor adds: "I'm on the planning committee in Trafford. And for far too long, I've seen our green spaces eaten away at.

"And we need to look at our green spaces as amenities, not just prime development land.

"We've had massive issues across Greater Manchester with the focus being on funding and giving cheap, subsidised loans to developers to build luxury flats and skyscrapers at the expense of building affordable housing.

"There have been section 106 payments that haven't been paid. That is the contribution developers pay towards affordable housing. Where's that money? That's what I want to know. And as the Greater Manchester mayor, I will be the most transparent mayor this Greater Manchester area has ever had."

Green Party candidate Geraldine Coggins is asked about their pledge to create a new publicly owned provider to build 20,000 affordable homes within 10 years.

Coggins says: "I think of some of the children I know in my wards in Altrincham, where I'm a councillor. They haven't got a safe, secure place to call home.

"They know they could be moved at any moment, uprooted from their communities and from their schools. And I can see that this is the legacy that Labour have left us in Greater Manchester.

"That and the huge increase in our rents. And I need to put housing at the heart of what we are doing.

"My plans for homes for Greater Manchester are we want to create 20,000 new, genuinely affordable homes. 10,000 we're going to build, the other 10,000 we're going to buy, fix up and retro-fit and we're going to rent them all out at genuinely affordable rents.

"And that means if you're on housing benefit, you'll be able to afford it."

Labour's Bev Craig says the focus in policing must move to help people feel safer and focus on "the issues on the ground".

"I think Richard [Kilpatrick] makes good points around trust and making sure that everyone in our community feels safe," she says.

"I think we've started to see violent crime come down, haven't we? But people still don't feel safe.

"So thinking about what I would make my priority, on day one... I want to reduce serious crime and halve knife crime by 2030.

"But we need to talk more about antisocial behaviour. You know, a new neighbourhood guarantee that binds in Greater Manchester Police with councils and housing providers that take the blight away from our community.

"I want us to spend some time whilst we're rolling out neighbourhood police officers, whilst we improve trust to make people feel safe, but actually talking about the issues that matter to people on the ground."

Continuing with the policing theme, Richard Kilpatrick for the Lib Dems suggests he "might be one of the only candidates here that currently sit on the police and crime panel".

"So I see on a regular basis, actually, our police force and the journey that it has had since it's come out of special measures and we have to talk about that period of time because it's a really important one," he says.

"There was miss-spending. There was a breakdown of trust.

"The people's trust in politics and politicians is at an all-time low, because whether it is something that is serious [as grooming] or whether it is basically trying to navigate services, it's almost impossible for them to do that.

"I think it's really important. And the work that I see every day is I think we need to focus on neighbourhood policing, because I think trust is a really important part of that."

Moving on to policing, Reform's Sian Astley says there must be transparency in how the police deal with grooming gangs.

She says: "I think that there are things which need resolving, there are subjects which need resolving and on day one I do want to go in and I will open up the books and I will ensure that there is full compliance with any review or investigation going forward.

"This is an issue which comes up on our doorsteps over and over and over again."

Independent candidate Marcus Farmer praises new Prime Minister Andy Burnham's work on transport across Greater Manchester during his time as mayor.

He also praised Burnham's wider plan to bring in a £2 bus fare cap around England.

"I think we've got to acknowledge the good work that Andy Burnham has done for bringing this into the forefront of Manchester politics," he says

"I think he's done an excellent job. He's moving in the right direction to get some sort of £2 cap. I think he's doing doing really well there. And if you can link the trains, the buses and the trams, I think that will be my big play for Manchester."

Image source, Liberal Democrats

Richard Kilpatrick, for the Liberal Democrats, said it was "really important" to ensure transport is reliable across the board.

"Before we went to franchising, we lost a lot of the routes," he says of the bus network.

"We actually lost a lot of the orbital routes, and we lost a lot of the rural routes.

"So reliability is really important to people. And actually I think reliability in your service, making sure that it is as reliable as the Metrolink when it is running, it's really important."

Sian Astley, of Reform UK, said cycle lanes "cannot be at the expense of everybody" and respect must be paid to motorists too.

"I was talking to a councillor in Rochdale today who was describing a scheme to me where eight cycle lanes have been put in a high street and the shops are closing because no-one can just park the car and nip in.

"They have to be sensible."

Image source, EPA

The debate moves on to consider the future of public transport across Greater Manchester.

"Let's be honest, integrated public transport is a good idea," said Phil Eckersley, of the Conservatives.

But he added that some services don't currently reach all areas adequately.

This, he says, would be something he would focus on were he to be elected as Greater Manchester's mayor next week.

Independent candidate Marcus Farmer says there "has to be evidence that transport helps employment" in the region.

Image source, Phil Eckersley

Image source, Reform

Sian Astley, of Reform UK, says: "I think it's all very well and good for the Labour candidate to say we need a plan, when people have been waiting for that for 50 years.

"You had 50 years to deliver this."

Image source, Green Party

Geraldine Coggins, of the Green Party, responds to Bev Craig.

!I'm tired of hearing Labour bleating on about the economic success of Greater Manchester, because I've spoken to people and people are feeling very, very left behind," she says.

Image source, Labour Party

Speaking first, Labour's Bev Craig has been asked if people are feeling Manchester's economic boom in communities across the city region.

She said: "I'm standing to be mayor because I think that we can take some of the city centre growth.

"We've started to see and make sure that we spread that out right across Greater Manchester.

"It's one of the reasons that Andy [Burnham] and I set up the Good Growth Fund. It's one of the reasons why I want to invest in our town centres, and I think there's a lot more we can do."

Debate host Annabel Tiffin has kicked the evening off by welcoming the candidates to tonight's debate, being held here at Media City in Salford.

Six of the seven people vying to become Greater Manchester's new mayor are about to set out their key pledges and discuss a wide range of topics.

Restore Britain candidate Marlon West has declined to attend.

BBC Radio Manchester

BBC Radio Manchester has been talking to listeners about their thoughts and concerns on the upcoming mayoral election, and clearing up confusion around where the Greater Manchester Mayor's responsibilities lie.

Kevin Fitzpatrick
Greater Manchester political reporter

The 14 directly elected regional mayors in England do not all have the same level of devolved powers, with the Greater London and Greater Manchester mayors having the broadest remits.

The Greater Manchester role saw its powers strengthened significantly through what was billed by the last Conservative government as a "trailblazer devolution deal" negotiated with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), a body run by the mayor and the leaders Greater Manchester's 10 boroughs.

They hold the post of the police and crime commissioner for the region.

Other powers held by the mayor include responsibility for the fire and rescue service, oversight of the Local Transport Plan, a range of powers relating to land including the ability to buy land to enable development, responsibility for some skills and adult education and governance of a number of local health commissioning budgets.

According to the GMCA, the mayor also "helps lead the city region and works with local councils, businesses and public services to improve life for people across Greater Manchester".

It said: "They represent Greater Manchester at a national and international level, speaking for the city region, helping build relationships with government and attracting trade and investment."

Read more here.

Annabel Tiffin
BBC North West political editor

A voting system which may be unfamiliar to some voters is being used in the mayoral election.

It's called the supplementary votes system.

Unlike in Westminster and local council elections, which use the first past the post system, voters select two candidates, a first choice and a second choice, with the latter coming into play if no candidate gets more than 50% when the first votes are counted.

Read more here.