Hulme Greens: Manchester City Council

Showing posts with label Manchester City Council. Show all posts

Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Green Mayoral candidate calls for immediate action on Homelessness

Shelter Request

Green candidate for Mayor of Greater Manchester Deyika Nzeribe [1] called on local councils to act on homelessness immediately.

Last week saw the deaths of two homeless men when an abandoned building was destroyed in a fire [2] as well as a group of young people placed under an eviction notice in order to remove them from the empty public-owned building they were occupying [3].

Speaking specifically about the situation in Manchester, Deyika said “This is both is both a tragic and outrageous situation the Council has created. Whilst it’s understood that government policy over the past few years has dramatically increased the levels of extreme poverty [4], local decision-making has not made things better.

Practical things that the Council can do immediately are

1. Stop chasing organised groups of homeless people out of the city centre using its legal injunction [5]. It just means that they are more dispersed, it doesn’t make them disappear.

2. Stop the eviction of the young homeless people supported by the Manchester Activist Network [6]. The building is empty and due to be demolished in over a year. The Council should be working with the group to improve the space, until they can move the young people in there into homes.

3. Re-open the homeless shelters in Hulme and Harpurhey [7]. There is no reason for them not to be available again AND they are easier to get to than other provision.

4. Create a committee to address housing and homelessness. All Councils should do this where, like Manchester, there is a crisis in these areas.

At the moment, while offering plenty of words of sorrow and condolence, Manchester’s leaders’ actions on homelessness and housing seems desperately lacking.”

Notes

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Monday, 25 April 2016

Comment: Race to the Top? Not In Manchester

April sees Bury City Council elect its new council leader Rishi Shori. He is the first Black Minority Ethnic (BME) leader [1] in the history of Greater Manchester.

With this in mind, it’s worth looking at the current composition of Manchester City Council.

Manchester City Council has 96 councillors [2]. All 96 are currently members of the Labour Party [3]. Labour has historically enjoyed solid support from the ethnic minority population of the city.

Lets look at more numbers.

The population of Manchester is approximately 500000 [4]
The ethnic minority population is roughly 30 percent of this [5]
Of the councils 96 representatives, 16 are from non-European ethnic minorities. Its about 17% of council body. [6]
Of these 15 are of ‘Asian descent’ and there is a token African Caribbean member

The Manchester City Council decision making body is the Executive Committee.

It has 9 members and of these, all are English (White) European [7]. (Interestingly enough the half of the Executive Committee 'assistants' are councillors of Asian decent.)

Whilst this is not necessary an issue, its notable that there is little discussion of how the large changes that are occurring through devolution will affect the ethnic minority population.

Take the £300 million housing fund [8]. At the moment its almost exclusively being used to support commercial property development. Given that BME population in the city are likely to be in lower socioeconomic brackets it means they are less likely to benefit from the fund.

Health devolution [9] was discussed at a public networking meeting recently, a health strategy officer presented. When pressed, the officer admitted that if the devolution plans didn’t work, that BME communities are more likely to bear to bear the brunt of any negative effects as they are already at a disadvantage in the health system. It is projected that the devolution health budget may have as much as £2 billion pounds deficit [10].

As for Greater Manchester Police and policing, ethnic minorities are more than twice as likely to be stopped and searched than the majority population [11]. Whilst there are actions that can be done to address this locally, very little effective action seems to be forthcoming the police or its Crime Commissioner.

These serious issues barely raise a ripple because

1) There is a lack of diversity on the Council. There are more people called Murphy on Manchester City Council's select Executive Committee than there are African Caribbeans on the whole council.

2) What representation there is - is whipped into obeying the local Labour party line.

Its worth noting that no councillors voted against the budget cuts this year and you will be hard pressed to find one councillor to have votes against any cuts within the past five years. [12]

Representation and diversity.

Find a Green local council candidate.

Vote for them.

Notes

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Friday, 22 April 2016

Green Candidate calls for Reversal of Cuts to Mental Health Services

Green Candidate for Manchester - Hulme, Deyika Nzeribe called for the reinstatement of mental health services cut by the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust (MHSCT).

The cuts to services [1], which are mainly aimed at keeping its users healthy and out of hospital [2], were announced last autumn in a bid to save £1.5 million [3].

The Trust agreed to go ahead with the proposals at a heated meeting last month[4].

Green candidate, Deyika Nzeribe points out though, that in Greater Manchester the health landscape has completely changed.

"As of the beginning of April, under devolution, Greater Manchester has complete control of its health budget and management of those funds [5]. The new Devolution health board can easily make the decision to maintain those frontline services which are a lifeline to many of its users.

“Its clear from reports, the Trust consultation was a sham so the Devolution Health Board should take the opportunity to develop some good will and save those services.

"Health devolution in Manchester comes with a £2 billion shortfall [6]. If the new regional health management can't retain £1.5 million of mental health services, the scale of cuts to come is going to be scary. Devolution in this city, especially health, should be rethought [7]".

Notes

1. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/nhs-trust-axed-manchester-crisis-10348427

2. http://www.manchesterusersnetwork.org.uk/2016/03/10/video-john-byron-alison-curtis-speak-crisis-mmhsct/; http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchesters-mental-health-services-crisis-10626335;

3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-34665959

4. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchesters-mental-health-bosses-push-11116054

5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35933922

6. http://clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/2015/11/helping-to-understand-health-and-social-care-devolution-in-greater-manchester/

7. http://hulmegreenparty.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/devolution-needs-to-be-

stopped-and.html

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Monday, 14 March 2016

Devolution needs to be stopped and rethought

Let me just say it. Its time to stop the Greater Manchester Devolution.

Stop it, rethink it.

There seems to be so much wrong with this process that, not only is there an independent campaign calling for a referendum [1] but even Greater Manchester’s local newspapers, including the Manchester Evening News, have bandied together to form a ‘Fair Devolution’ campaign [2] to get a better deal.

So what are some of the things wrong?

Housing. The £300 million pound fund [3] has mainly gone to private developers despite there being over 80,000 people on Greater Manchester housing waiting lists [4] and a sharp rise in homelessness. As it is currently structured it is very difficult for social landlords to access this fund to build badly needed social housing. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Health. The health budget (offered at £6 billion) [5] has been devolved and is thought to be between £1 to 2 billion less than it needs to run properly [6]. This will cause even further strain on the regional NHS. It remains to be seen if this regional approach is a threat to how the NHS operates as a whole. [7]

Democracy. The majority of people in Greater Manchester know very little about this devolution process at the moment. The last time the issue of an elected mayor came up it was rejected by Manchester [8]. Having the role now imposed as part of the devolution deal, the interim Mayor was chosen with no opportunity for public discussion or public hustings [9]. The forthcoming full Mayoral elections will require a substantial amount of money to run [10]. This greatly narrows the field of potential candidates.

As it stands, devolution doesn’t address the towns ‘left behind’ in Greater Manchester [11], the cuts to the police [12] or local Councils [13]. And it should do all of these things as well as being good for business [14].

Crucially, in addition, this devolution, ignores the potential of the process to reignite the Climate Change and Poverty agendas that are critical to the future for all of us.

Devolution as policy and principle is a good thing. When its works properly, it allows people to have a greater say in democracy, it allows greater responsiveness to the needs of those people. But that is not what is happening in Greater Manchester.

In Greater Manchester, a historic opportunity is becoming a badly thought through mess. Innovation is no guarantee of progress.

The Green Party in Manchester, as the second largest party in the city by vote, want a proper say for the people of this region.

Its not too late to stop this version of devolution. And rethink it.

Notes

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Sunday, 15 November 2015

Comment: Where are Manchester Council’s emergency homeless shelters?

There has been much criticism of Manchester City Council and its approach to homelessness over the past few months.

This has especially been the case with its suppfor evicting the homeless from various buildings and shelters from around the city centre. The most notorious example of this was supporting Manchester Metropolitan University’s double eviction of the Ark [1].

A pivotal action in altering the council’s position came when homelessness activists briefly occupied an empty office block on Charlotte Street in city centre. They aimed to make it a community hub for the homeless from which they could get shelter food and advice [2]. Although swiftly evicted, almost immediately afterwards, Manchester United football legends Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs generously offered shelter in their empty ‘Stock Exchange’ building [3].

In an about face, the Council then declared it too would make buildings available [4].

That was two weeks ago.

The site of the Ark on Oxford Road is currently empty and fenced off by MMU. There is no sign of the activity MMU evicted the Ark for.

Its been a week of cold, wet, windy weather. Under the fly-over on Oxford Road on both sides, there are homeless again.

When asked why they were there, why didn’t they go to the ‘Stock Exchange’, they said that they did but it was full.

When they were asked about the Council’s empty buildings for the homeless, they knew nothing about them. At all.

When it explained what was offered in the press the response was [to paraphrase and replace words] – ‘Goodness me, they should hurry up, this is no flowery joke being out here’.

Since then, as reported by the local press, the camp near Piccadilly train station has grown to about 30 people [5].

Its been a very bad week weather-wise. When are these buildings going to open?

What are the Council waiting for?

Christmas?

Notes

1. http://www.salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=2967

2. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/squatters-bid-set-up-homeless-10278055

3. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gary-neville-tells-homeless-protest-10283700

4. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/town-hall-follow-gary-neville-10352188

5. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/dozens-rough-sleepers-set-up-10433163

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Thursday, 29 October 2015

Hulme Green Party calls on Homeless Film Festival to boycott Manchester Metropolitan University

Hulme Green Party are calling on the upcoming Homeless Film Festival (HFF) [1] to boycott film screenings and other events hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).

The aggressive legal action that MMU have pursued in conjunction with Manchester City Council and the repeated evictions of The Ark homeless shelter have received much public attention in the last few weeks. [2]

The harassing actions of these large institutions against this vulnerable group were called out by homelessness campaigns, students and Manchester Green Party. [3]

Deyika Nzeribe, Hulme resident and Green Party campaigner said: "While we recognize the good work that the HFF are doing and have done, it is just wrong for them to ally themselves with MMU, who have aggressively pursued and evicted the Ark homeless camp twice in the last few months. It was a well organised shelter, which was doing a lot to raise awareness of homelessness and to provide support for vulnerable people.

"On the back of this ‘partnership’, MMU will be able to use HFF as an example of the good work it's doing for the homeless, to cover up what it's actually doing on the ground. HFF should do the right thing and boycott the MMU venues."

Notes.

1. http://www.homelessfilmfestival.org/#!screening/cswe

2. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/30/manchester-homeless-people-face-jail-over-city-centre-tent-camps

3. http://hulmegreenparty.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/support-ark.htm

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Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Council Leader should learn some Mancunian generosity

The comments on the Leader’s Blog [1] by Richard Leese on begging and homelessness are reprehensible. It is classic demonization of some of Manchesters’ most vulnerable.

The piece looks to draw distinctions between beggars and the homeless while describing them in almost the same terms. For beggars "the most likely beneficiaries are the nearest off-licence, drug dealer" but the homeless "are people with chaotic, dysfunctional lifestyles often with drink, drug, and mental health problems".

The Leader talks about 80% of beggars not being homeless. What does that mean? There is a noticeable increase in begging AND the homeless on the streets over the few years. We know that the "Lack of affordable housing, welfare cuts, and cuts to support services" has led to an increase in homelessness, why wouldn't it lead to an increase in begging? Foodbanks [2] and soup kitchens can't catch everyone.

The claim that beggars are commuting from London for the notable Mancunian generosity is ridiculous. When is the evidence for this? And are beggars also commuting from Liverpool, Birmingham and other large cities?

As for the generosity of Mancunians, this does not extend to the Council. This spring it cut funding to homelessness support. [3]

Since then, however, the Council has spent over £100,000 prosecuting the homeless in the city centre while at the same time promoting the huge amount of luxury flats planned for the city centre partly funded by £300 million of government funds. [4]

What use are the Council Leader's comments except to turn the public against the visible homeless on the streets. It casts doubt on any initiative announced by the Richard Leese will be anything more than a token enterprise, that it won’t approach the scale of action needed to properly address the homelessness crisis. Next thing you know, he’ll be asking people not to give to the homeless.

Manchester’s generosity is better than the comments of the Council Leader. He should do a better job of representing it. He should learn from it.

In the meantime its to be expected that the homeless themselves will do the best they can to look after themselves on the streets of Manchester.

1. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/blog/leadersblog/post/743/homelessness-and-street-begging/comment

2. http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/140773910-benefit-cuts-will-force-more-manchester-families-rely-food-banks-warns-study

3. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/number-people-sleeping-rough-greater-8745312

4. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/300m-housing-fund-designed-unlock-9570783

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Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Comment - Manchester City Council position on migrants a double standard

Manchester City Council and its Labour leadership showed some double standards in its recent statements on the refugees coming to Britain.

Nationally, the government has been shamed into accepting more refugees. On the back of this, in Greater Manchester, Labour politicians have been falling over themselves to welcome the refugees (however conditionally). According to a recent newspaper report, Council Leader Sir Richard Leese "says the city will gladly play its part in housing destitute people".[1]

On Manchester's destitute people, the City Council along with Manchester Metropolitan University is taking legal action to evict the homeless camp that has come together under the motorway flyover on Oxford Road.[2]

The organised camp is one of several to have formed over the past year as the homelessness crisis in the city has grown worse and with the City Council recently cutting support services.[3] It is estimated that over 200 people are sleeping rough.[4]

If Manchester City Council wants to show its caring side, it can start by stopping the legal action its pursuing against The Ark and the other homeless camps. [5]

While we welcome the Council's plans to aide and support refugees, it should extend this compassion to those already destitute on the streets of this City.

Notes

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Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Support The Ark

Homeless Shelter on Oxford Road, Manchester

You may have noticed the ‘homeless camp’ that has set up on the edge of Hulme, specifically under the flyover on Oxford Road.

Since Manchester City Council evicted the camps in St Peters Square, St Anne's Square and King Street [1], the few individuals living under the flyer has grown into a small shelter. They call it 'The Ark'.

That shelter is now currently under threat of eviction by Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester City Council [2].

Its inhabitants, about 12 people, were served legal papers last week and are due in court from 7th September.

Deyika Nzeribe from Hulme Green Party said "That Manchester City Council is continuing its campaign to harass the homeless of Manchester is as scandalous as it is immoral. The fact that Manchester Metropolitan University is a partner in this action is deeply disappointing.

"It is common for the homeless of Manchester have to live together for protection from the attacks that they frequently endure in the city centre. The shelter, a mile from Piccadilly, can hardly be considered 'political' or 'campaigning'."

Over the six months Manchester City Council has embarked on dual high profile campaigns. The first is to highlight the proposed 1 billion pounds worth of housing investment planned for central Manchester [3]. The Council is planning to use the £300 million pound housing investment fund granted as part of the Devolution deal to do this [4]. So far, 22% of that funding has been committed to support luxury housing within similar developments earmarked [5].

The second is the pursuit of Manchester's homeless. The Council has spent over £100,000 on legal fees [6] to gain injunctions to move the homeless camps from the city centre. This was soon after cutting council funding to organisations supporting the homeless [7].

Manchester City Council and Manchester Metropolitan University are some of the largest institutions who, between them have recently spent hundreds of millions on buildings [8] or promoting buildings [9]. The pursuit and harassment of the homeless and particularly the Ark is shameful. Both institutions should stop this action immediately and put those resources to helping people get off the streets.

Notes

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A thought on the Labour Party ahead of the announcement of their new leader.

The 18th of August marked the anniversary of the Battle of Peterloo, when 60,000 people protested in Manchester in support for the vote and political reform. The struggle for a democracy which is truly representative of the people continues today. In Manchester, the latest threat to democracy is the Government’s devolution deal. Devolution in general something we support. We believe important decisions about local areas should be taken by those closest to those areas. However, the devolution deal does not offer more accountability to the people but less. For example Greater Manchester is currently represented by an unelected Mayor, former Labour MP Tony Lloyd, and this will be the case until 2017.

There seems to be an ongoing argument within the Labour Party over whether the leadership contest will cause or is causing a split. It is hard to see what the debate is about. It seems apparent that there is a split. Greens in Manchester were aware of a split long before the leadership campaign began. The gaps were apparent in the differences in views between Manchester City Council and local MPs over the devolution deal for Greater Manchester. While the Council was and is very happy to sign a deal with George Osborne, local MPs were and are much more skeptical about the long-term consequences of the deal.

If Jeremy Corbyn is elected it does appear that the gap between him and Sir Richard Leese (the leader of Manchester Council) will be a large one. For a start Mr Leese has given his backing to Yvette Cooper. The differences are the greatest when it comes to housing and tackling poverty. While Mr Corbyn agrees with the Green Party and argues for the building of new social housing, the Council prioritizes the building of private homes. It has recently unveiled plans for new projects across the City Centre. Of the thousands of new flats and houses, none of them are set to be social housing; and none of them are even to be set as ‘affordable’. This is despite the fact that there are currently 20,000 people on the social housing waiting list in Manchester. The Council sees rising rents as a positive economic indicator and recently spent over £100,000 on evicting and taking legal action against homeless protesters in the City Centre. We believe that this approach from the Council has encouraged social housing conglomerate One Manchester to come up with plans for Hulme which don’t include any social housing.

We look forward to working with the supporters of Mr Corbyn in developing and implementing plans to create more social housing and combating inequality across Manchester.

Read Full Article >>

Friday, 21 August 2015

What's the future for Cornbrook and Pomona Island?

The Canal at Cornbrook

The last entry talked about the Council’s proposed development of Great Jackson Street. This article is about the Council’s plans for Cornbrook and Pomona. The Council plans to build a large hotel, a ‘commercial business hub’ and a number of flats. In addition, it is working with Trafford Council to build a large number of flats on Pomona Island in the future.

As with the Great Jackson Street plan, the Council has no desire to build any affordable homes or social housing on the site. The promise of some new commercial space at least shows that the Council does know that people need to have somewhere to work as well as just live. However, the Council does not look set to overturn its existing policies of attempting to attract in new employers rather than supporting local businesses to grow. We want to see some of the commercial space be set aside for either small businesses, or for an office to support small businesses and local charities. We also want to the plans to have more imagination when it comes to retaining the current environment of Pomona Island.

We also want to see a plan which takes into consideration the environment. Pomona is currently an Oasis of green at the edge of the City Centre. The site was home to a pleasure garden in the 19^th century and it would be good to see Pomona continue to have green space rather than seeing it become overdeveloped like the rest of the former docks.

The most troublesome thing about this proposal is that it has been designed without consulting the public. It has been dreamt up by the Tory heads of Trafford Council and the Labour heads of Manchester Council behind closed doors. Even Hulme Councillors were not consulted about the plans. Cllr Lee-Ann Igbon was concerned that she had not been consulted about the plans before they were released.

The Council leader Mr Richard Leese said that as only a small amount of the plan was actually in Hulme he didn’t think it was much of an issue. That statement appears to be disingenuous as Mr Leese must have surely read the report which has plans to build hundreds of flats and directly states that existing services such as schools, dentists and doctors’ surgeries would be used by the new residents.

The impact of all these new homes and other developments on transport is also a major concern. There is no plan to deal with the increase in traffic created by these plans. Chester Road, Bridgewater Way A57 are already extremely busy at peak times and a heavily built development on this site will greatly add to this problem. While there is an existing tram stop it is not plausible that this will cater for all the transport needs of the new homes and other planned buildings.

Change is always going to occur and the Hulme Greens are not against that. But we believe that changes to the city should be made with the people, not made behind closed doors with the leaders of other Councils. In addition we will be arguing for new developments to provide affordable homes, social housing with controlled rents, space for small businesses, green spaces, and amenities for the community and be designed to tackle climate change.

Read Full Article >>

Sunday, 16 August 2015

Housing Association ‘No DSS’ housing proposal despite waiting list crisis.

Social landlord OneManchester’s [1] controversial plans to build new housing in Hulme reveal that none of the 170 properties will be available as social homes.

The scheme called ‘Hulme Living’[2], which OneManchester hopes to begin in early 2016, will be across 2 sites in Hulme, one approximately 100 property build on Leaf Street the other Chorlton Road.

Dave Power, chief executive of OneManchester justifies the proposal, saying “…Greater Manchester desperately needs to be building at least 10,000 new homes per year in order to play its part in tackling the national housing crisis” [3].

Deyika Nzeribe, Manchester Green Party and resident of Hulme said “OneManchester is supposed to be a social landlord. Where are the social homes in this plan? Dave Power is right in saying that there is a housing crisis in Manchester but that crisis is that there are 20,000 people on the council waiting list[4], the worse in the North West of England. If not organisations like OneManchester, who is going to build the social housing we desperately need?

“If all the accommodation in these plans are for rent, why not have a mix, have 40% of the tenants in there from the housing list? THAT would be a small step but it will be in the right direction.”

Manchester Green Party Chair Steffeny McGiffen commented “With 20,000 people on the housing waiting list evidence of the lack of accommodation for people in need can be seen every day on the streets of Manchester. Those charged with the welfare of the city are failing to tackle the issue and arguably, wilfully ignoring it."

Ends

Notes

1. One Manchester - http://www.onemanchester.co.uk/

2. Hulme Living - http://hulmeliving.co.uk/

3. 170 new homes expected to be built in Hulme - http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/170-new-homes-expected-built-9780001

4. Households on local authorities' housing waiting lists - http://data.gov.uk/dataset/households_on_local_authorities_housing_waiting_lists_-_excluding_households_waiting_for_transfers

Read Full Article >>

Hulme Greens

Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Green Mayoral candidate calls for immediate action on Homelessness

Monday, 25 April 2016

Comment: Race to the Top? Not In Manchester

Friday, 22 April 2016

Green Candidate calls for Reversal of Cuts to Mental Health Services

Monday, 14 March 2016

Devolution needs to be stopped and rethought

Sunday, 15 November 2015

Comment: Where are Manchester Council’s emergency homeless shelters?

Thursday, 29 October 2015

Hulme Green Party calls on Homeless Film Festival to boycott Manchester Metropolitan University

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Council Leader should learn some Mancunian generosity

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Comment - Manchester City Council position on migrants a double standard

Tuesday, 8 September 2015

Support The Ark

A thought on the Labour Party ahead of the announcement of their new leader.

Friday, 21 August 2015

What's the future for Cornbrook and Pomona Island?

Sunday, 16 August 2015

Housing Association ‘No DSS’ housing proposal despite waiting list crisis.

Hulme Ward reports on FixMyStreet.COM

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