Comment: 14.5 million reasons...

Recently a group, askthepeopleofmanchester formed in reaction to a news item that came out of Manchester City Council. At a committee meeting the Council announced that its investment in Manchester Airport had yielded a windfall of 14.5 million pounds that they could spend as they like. What are they proposing to do? Put the money into the ‘Green and Clean Initiative’, the focus of which is NOT reducing climate change OR pollution levels. It is to run activities that improve the ‘perception’ of visitors and cleanliness of the city in line with Manchester aspirations to be a ‘Global City’.   Put the decision on how to spend the...

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Comment: Manchester Council Carbon Reduction Report ‘untruth’

There has been some reaction to the Manchester Green Party response to reports that Manchester City Council had lied about the results of its Carbon Reduction Report, spinning an increase in carbon emissions into a 7% reduction. One local councillor described it as ‘petulant’ while conceding it as accurate. The report, presented at the Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Committee on July 16th, under pressure from ‘Friends of the Earth’, other environmental groups and attending councillors forced the committee to alter the report to accurately reflect the facts. What this means is that the Council’s target of reaching an interim...

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Manchester Green Party: Response to Comprehensive Spending Review 2015/16

Picture by George Hodan Yesterday the poorly performing Coalition government announced its Spending Review for 2015/16. The centre piece of the review was a further £11.5 billion of spending cuts, including £2.6bn from the Communities Department. It is expected that this will translate to an average 10% cut to local council budgets. Manchester and Manchester City Council has fared badly from previous rounds.  Under the current government, during 2011/13 the Council had been forced to make cuts of £170 million. The last Spending Review, taking effect during 2014/15 an additional £80 million is removed from local budgets. In...

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Conference: Making Education a Priority - Alternative Approaches

Making Education a Priority: Alternative Approaches – Saturday May 18th 2013 Conference Flyer Conference Booking Form ...

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Martin Luther King 'I've Been to the Mountain Top Speech' April 3rd 1968

Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4th 1968, aged 39 in Memphis, Tennessee. The day before, Dr King delivered one of his finest and final speech, commonly called the ‘Mountain Top’ speech. 45 years ago today, this is that speech. Martin Luther King, Jr: "Mountaintop" speech full length from Filip Goc on Vimeo. ...

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Manchester Greens Demand No Bedroom Tax Evictions Vote

Speaking at a cross-Party rally against the bedroom tax on Saturday, Manchester Green Party Chair Deyika Nzeribe called on the city’s Labour Council to refuse to evict any tenants because of the bedroom tax. Deyika said  “The bedroom tax and council tax changes effectively cut benefits income by 27%.  That could affect over 12000 households in Manchester. The Green Party is against this – locally and nationally.  “The coalition Government could have looked to make their reforms through local councils and housing organisations, instead they have made the bedroom tax the responsibility of the poor.   The...

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'Green Economy, Green Jobs' Event Friday March 15th

What If..? What if Manchester City Council’s economic policy is wrong? What if the jobs are not coming back as thought? What if it can’t adapt to a hostile government’s welfare reforms? What if you found out that Manchester has the highest levels of child poverty in the country? What then? We think differently about the Manchester economy. Let’s talk about the future of Manchester. We can build a model that is resilient and distributes wealth more equally in the city. A model that can build a strong city and stronger region. Manchester Green Party Presents: ‘Green Economy, Green Jobs’ Speakers: Natalie Bennett...

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Fighting for Fairness… but Who is doing the Fighting?

The Manchester City Council Leader’s Blog is an interesting piece. Called ‘Fighting for Fairness’, it is about the recent Council Executive meeting that spent most of that meeting addressing cuts to local swimming pools and libraries. From the title and text, you would think that it was the Council that was fighting to keep services open, NOT the 1000s of Manchester residents that signed, marched, occupied, lay down in roads and attended council meetings. Its unlikely that any pictures will emerge of the council leader addressing crowds, loudspeaker in hand, urging them...

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Comment: Libraries Consultation Session in Longsight. Well...

Its currently consultation season in Manchester. To deal with the £80 million cut to its finances from central government, Manchester City Council has decided that cuts to library and leisure services are amongst its preferred option choices. For libraries, that consultation runs until April 17th 2013 and consists of a questionnaire and a series of public meetings. I went to the first of two sessions which covered the ‘central’ area which includes Central Libraries, Longsight, Hulme and Moss Side. Though the fate of libraries and pools have been the subject passion and attention, it was disappointing that I was only one of 3...

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Manchester City Council Executive Meeting: Masters of Illusion at work

At least 50 members of the public  attended the Manchester City Council Executive meeting yesterday. They were mainly campaigners and supporters of local services from Withington, Levenshulme and Miles Platting hoping to have change council minds about the closure of swimming pools and libraries in those areas. 3 speakers from the public were allowed in defence of those facilities and they spoke well, the effectiveness of the Withington campaign and work of Councillor Chris Paul  were noted. The initial response from Council to keep the pools open were met with cheers. These quickly changed to shouts from the public area...

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Comment: Manchester City Council voting for Christmas

Wednesday is the meeting of Manchester City Council’s Executive where the Budget cuts 2013-15 will be discussed. More precisely its Wednesday 13 February 2013 Time: 10.00 am  Venue: Committee Room 11, Level 1, Town Hall. The Green Party is going along. We are interested to see what they have to say about the cuts in services particularly with regard to libraries and swimming pools.   The Council says that those swimming pools and libraries services under threat are going to come back in a few years. We don’t believe it.   Those facilities are not coming back in any recognizable form. Why are we so sceptical? ...

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