What's on the horizon for Hulme?

Hulme has changed in the past and will change again. Hulme in the 1870s was home to 75,000 people and was predominately made up of terraced housing. Then the 1960s and 1970s saw the building of big blocks of flats like the Crescents. Now the large blocks have gone and where they once stood we have Hulme Park and private houses. Recently Hulme has seen Manchester Metropolitan University building on Birley Fields.

Hulme and the surrounding area is about to change again. The Council has drawn up plans to drastically change many areas in and around Hulme. This blog entry is the first in a series which will be seeking to inform people about the changes planned for the area and to spark debate over whether these plans are what the people of Hulme want.

This article focuses on the Council’s strategy to develop the area around Great Jackson Street, which is just across from Hulme Park. The plans include proposals for a 58 storey tower and five other towers over 20 storeys high. While there are also some houses, the Council have ruled out providing any social housing or affordable housing. We believe that if the demand to build is so great for developers then surely the Council can push them to build some social housing or affordable housing. The Council claims that the site will have a mix of different types of properties but if the plans exclude affordable and social housing this mix seems to be pretty shallow.

There is also little provision for new shops or any other amenities. Without new plans these new properties will put a strain on doctors’ surgeries, dentists and schools in the area. In fact the Council has specifically mentioned that residents would be using existing services in Hulme. The people of Hulme need more jobs but this plan does not offer them. The building work would be covered by the same work schemes that the MMU Birley Fields campus was and the building work there created only a handful of jobs for local residents.

The plans have also not considered how these buildings will look to the people of Hulme. The plan makes an effort to show how the buildings will look from different positions around the city centre, but when it comes to Hulme there has been no consideration. The proposals also have little provision for public space.

Manchester does need new homes and Hulme Greens are not opposed to building in general. However, we believe that all changes to Hulme should have the clear backing of residents. The Council thinks that putting a consultation form on its website is sufficient and that this is reaching out to the public. We disagree and believe that the Council should consult more with the public before endorsing plans to radically change an area. It’s not just the public who aren’t properly consulted about new plans in the area. At a meeting on the 29th of July, Labour Hulme Councillor Lee-Ann Igbon complained that she had not been consulted about plans proposed for Cornbrook. This is despite the fact that another Labour Councillor for Hulme, Nigel Murphy is part of the Council executive which runs the Council.

The plans are just that at the moment and can be changed. At this stage it is important to make your views heard whether they be positive or negative. The Council may not be interested in hearing your views but we are, so get in touch and tell us what you think.

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Hulme Green Party Newsletter Election Special 1 (2014)

Thanks to Amir and Leona for their input.

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Comment: Corporate Social Responsibility and Climate Change

With the recent release of the IPCC report on top of the many, many warnings on Climate Change and the effects it will have on the planet, its hard to fathom the lack of response from the business and corporate communities. The lack of an adequate response from government.

Sometimes an honest response is better than none.

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A Sense of History and Responsibility: Manchester and Climate Change

Its not uncommon for Manchester’s Leaders to evoke the city’s industrial heritage and spirit of innovation.

Manchester is the home of The (Manchester) Guardian, the first computer with memory, the first ‘nuclear-free’ city. It has a history of ‘firsts’.

Manchester is also arguably known as the first industrial city, with the advent of the cotton industry, mechanical innovation, the building of factories and a huge increase in population transforming the conurbation and the country.

Of the many things written about Manchester at the time it was described as a ‘great city rising before us as the very symbol of civilization, foremost in the march of improvement, a grand incarnation of progress.’ [Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, 1858; quoted by Briggs, Victorian Cities, 88]

But at the same time it was described ‘Earth and air seem impregnated with fog and soot. The factories extend their flanks of fouler brick one after another, bare, with shutterless windows, like economical and colossal prisons’ [Girouard, Cities and People, 257-258]

In describing Manchester as that first industrial city which influenced the world, so it can be argued that the origins of man-made Climate Change also began in this city.

This city, as much as any, needs to take ‘Climate Change’ and its effects as seriously as the global threat it is. In the same way that Manchester has historically been a technological and cultural leader, today it needs to be an environmental one.

The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report's focus was to look at ways of reducing the effects of climate change. Its message is that catastrophic climate change can be averted without sacrificing living standards. It suggests that the transformation required to a world of clean energy is eminently affordable. The implication of this statement is that action is ‘doable’, it’s possible, if action is taken quickly.

As a central and influential organisation in the region, Manchester City Council has been notable for

• Aggressive expansion of its airport interests (Manchester Airport Group)
• Fiddling of its own carbon emission reports
• Being fined by the European Union for breaking pollution laws
• Under-resourcing of its own Manchester: A Certain Future climate change organisation

Manchester Green Party has been critical of the Council for this particularly as its actions or inaction are ultimately political decisions.

We call upon Manchester City Council to

• take IPCC report seriously
• properly resource and focus carbon and pollution reduction emission actions and environmental improvement actions so that they maximise climate improvement not economic growth
• engage fully with long-term advocates of climate change actions such as The Tyndall Centre, Dr Kevin Anderson, Manchester ClimateMonthly, Steady State Manchester, MERCi, Friends of the Earth amongst others.

 Manchester was also home of Emmeline Pankhurst the leading Suffragette. Their motto was ‘Deeds not Words’.

That is the spirit the City’s Leaders need to evoke.

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Comment: Manchester City Council's Climate Change planning failure

News that Manchester City Council is to miss its carbon emission target again  is unacceptable state of affairs especially after it was caught out for producing misleading carbon reduction figures last year.

The Council over the past few years has made great play of its plans to reduce climate emissions over the past few years with its

• 17 Principles for Tackling Climate Change
• Climate Change Call To Action Plan
• Climate Change Action Plan - 'Manchester: A Certain Future'
• Greater Manchester Climate Change Strategy

It seems with all of its work producing Action Plans and Strategy documents, it has no time to do any actual work on actually reducing carbon emissions.

Given the serious effects climate change has begun to have on the country, this is dangerous behaviour.

Manchester Green Party calls for the Council to take seriously its responsibility to reduce carbon emissions as part of its duty of care for the lives and well-being of its citizens.

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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?

1. 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’.  
2. Put the decision on how to spend the whole £14.5 million in the hands of the Chief Executive, Howard Bernstein (in ‘consultation’ with others)

It’s nonsense.

For the last 3 years, Manchester City Council has been complainingthat the cuts to services have been forced on them by the Government and there has been no choice in decisions it had to make.

Now it HAS some money its choosing NOT to look at saving those services, services which help the people of Manchester.

What would we do? A number of things including

• Keep open the libraries and swimming pools that people have campaigned
• Create a fund for people affected by the bedroom tax to prevent evictions
• Look at pilot projects that support the employment of young people in Manchester
• Improve and extend Manchester cycle lanes
• Create a fund for small social enterprises and voluntary sector organisations offering up to 20% matched funding for grants or contracts that offers a public service to the people of the city
• Invest in proper ‘joined-up-thinking’ planning, education and activities that reduce the climate change emissions and pollution in the city.

There are also a range of things that can be done around the food banks, investing in start-up microbusinesses and child poverty.

But really, who is to blame for this proposal being considered at the full Council meeting on October 9^th?

Manchester’s Labour councillors. As a group.

They were the one’s wringing their hands saying ‘its not our fault’ when the cuts were happening and now they actually have a chance to do something about it, they are silent.

Manchester has had enough of them.

What can you do?

1. Signthe petition TODAY!!!  Askthepeopleofmanchester are a campaign worth following
2. Contact Manchester councillors, ask them why they are supporting this proposal
3. VOTE!!!

In Manchester Labour councillors only seem to react if they think their seats might be threatened. OnThursday October 10th, is the Ancoats and Clayton by-election.

Of course, we are asking people to voteGreen Party or if you can’t vote get in touch to help out.

There are 14.5 million reasons to do so.

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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 16^th, 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 20% reduction in carbon emissions by 2013/14 is in disarray and assumption of trust in the council’s reporting of progress, gone.

It’s a depressing state of affairs.

You could say ‘It’s a local council sleight-of-hand, what does it matter?’

In 1992 the historic Rio Earth Summit was held where global issues of climate and environment were discussed in a meaningful way for the first time by a significant number of countries.

Following that rousing event Manchester, in 1994, organised and hosted the follow up event, the Global Forum. Though it had its problems, it was aspirational.

Next year will be that event’s 20 year anniversary.

And in that time the Council leadership has gone from Global Forum to major airport investor and ‘misrepresenting’ its Carbon Reduction Reports.

It has fallen a long way.

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"A Graveyard of Trees"

Its been an important week for Alexandra Park.

Manchester City Council stepped up the felling of trees and in response the ‘Save Alex Park Trees’ (SAPT) campaigners mobilised to having a physical presence. There is currently a small tented group resident.

Though SAPT , supported by 100s of local residents have managed to halt most of the felling, most people who got to the park were shocked and angry about what they saw. This Green Party member had similar feelings.

It was commented that the park had become ‘a graveyard of trees’.

Some of the images and video of the week are below. They are from the area called ‘Sycamore Avenue’ (running along the Claremont Road side of park). It’s gone now.

Residents filmed the footage below just after the felling began.

There is though a significant area of trees that is still being protected by campaigners and they need your help to do so.

To get further information and to help, you can contact organisers on their website.

Images from http://savealexandraparkstrees.wordpress.com/ and individual contributions. 

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Alex Park protesters take to trees to stop “Felling Vandalism"

A plan by Manchester City Council to fell over 400 healthy trees and destroy over three acres of wildlife habitat are being condemned by Whalley Range residents. The fellings planned as part of a £4.6 M series of changes to the popular Alexandra Park in Moss Side have led to protests.

Chrissy Lowe of the Save Alexandra Parks Trees campaign said "This action by the council is completely unjustified and deliberately ignores the wishes of local residents. The Council has misled the public about both
the extent and reason for felling the trees and park users regard this as an act of municipal vandalism by a council hell-bent on riding roughshod over the local residents."

The intended changes to Alexandra Park also include controversial plans to fell many much loved mature trees to make way for tennis courts despite the fact that existing courts in the park are unused and there are already
9 tennis clubs within a mile.

"Yesterday felling began and we were able to slow things down by taking to the trees. We will continue our peaceful but firm resistance to Council actions today and we urge anyone who is able to come down and support us.  The Council also failed in its statutory duty to consult local residents. We are confident that this doesn't fulfil their legal requirements and could be grounds for judicial review." says Ian Brewer also of the campaign.

Manchester Green Party Chair Deyika Nzeribe commented “The campaign group has done everything right. They got over 2000 signatures asking for the plans to be reconsidered, they got local experts to show how the councils plans could be altered to preserve trees and they have been in dialogue with both the Council and funders the Lottery every step of the way. They have been completely ignored.

To draw a parallel, last week Manchester City Council made a great show of how unfair the cuts to local budgets were and how the government were ignoring them. The council are acting in exactly the same way as the government to this local issue.”

Anyone concerned about the Council's plans is urged to contact the Save Alexandra Parks Trees Group. A similar plan to fell 476 in Whalley Range was abandoned a year ago following a public outcry.

To get involved contact

Ian Brewer and Chrissy Lowe

savealexandraparkstrees@hotmail.com

07757639668

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Alexandra-Park-Trees/405847552830652?fref=ts

http://savealexandraparkstrees.wordpress.com/

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Green Party Leader, Natalie Bennett in Manchester supporting the Alexandra Park campaigners

Natalie Bennett, newly elected Green Party Leader is in Manchester today supporting the Alexandra Park campaigners.

The group are fighting Manchester City Council whose plans to ‘improve’ the park involve cutting down over 250 trees. 

Their petition set up only a few days ago has already got over 500 signatures.

Natalie will be at Alexandra Park TODAY (December 3^rd) at 3pm talking to the protesters and the press. If you can make it along to support the action, do so. 

Thanks.

This evening Natalie will be speaking to students at Manchester University at 7pm.

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Hi Greens and Green Supporters,

A pilot anti - climate change campaign is being run in Greater Manchester for the next 5 weeks. It's challenging businesses to switch off lights when they're closed.

The aim is to get the general public to email in photos when they're out in the evening of shops/offices that have left light on and they'll use it to challenge the business.

Watch this YouTube to get more information: http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=mV1RkK2Rctw

It's called The Light Brigade. The website is: www.lightbrigade.org.uk

The facebook group is: http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?drop&ref=mb#/group.php?gid=405437965219

And the twitter account is: Lightbrigadeorg.

The group would be really grateful if you could circulate the details of this project and spread the word, as without people knowing, the impact won't be as big.

Best Wishes

Gayle O' Donovan

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