Research reveals Greater Manchester Pension Fund’s fossil fuel investments devalued by £375m over the last 3 years, casting doubt on the Fund’s claim that it is merely fulfilling its fiduciary duty to employers and pensioners by investing in gas and oil companies.
Pressure grows on Andy Burnham to scrap plans for school-based police officers
Deputy metro mayor Beverley Hughes insists SBPOs will create “positive relationships between young people and the police”. Campaigners say police presence in schools causes “harm”, urging the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to “divest from penal approaches”.
Greater Manchester to proceed with franchising bus network
Bringing buses under public control is ‘better value for money’ for the city region in spite of ‘severe’ impact of Covid-19 on bus patronage and revenues, Greater Manchester leaders hear at a meeting this week.
Manchester’s Planning Committee approves luxury hotel and defers controversial Deansgate office block
Manchester City Council’s Planning Committee agreed plans to build a £27m luxury hotel in Piccadilly, while also ruling on a site visit to a controversial proposed 17-storey Deansgate office block.
Manchester’s teachers and Co-op Academies Trust clash over school safety
Workers at Co-op Academy Manchester write to headteacher and the Co-op Academies Trust calling for school closures and better working conditions, while Andy Burnham lends support for partial closures under a “tier system” during the winter.
Protestors blast Manchester Metropolitan University for attempting to fence off Ryebank Fields
Manchester Metropolitan University workmen attempted to put up permanent fencing around Ryebank Fields yesterday morning allegedly because of the presence of “potentially hazardous material”. Protestors argue hazardous material is buried deep underground, and that MMU’s planned development and resulting disturbance of the land is the real cause for concern.
No luxury offices on former Central Retail Park in Ancoats, locals tell Manchester city council
90% of locals in survey thought the area did not need any more luxury offices, as campaign group Trees Not Cars brand Manchester city council’s public consultation on future of site of former Central Retail Park “tick box activity”
Manchester teachers union slams Burnham for putting more police in schools
Motion passed by teachers union condemns plans for school-based officers and says evidence supporting their use is ‘non-existent’.
We Are Many: interview with director Amir Amirani
Amir Amirani’s stirring documentary We Are Many (2014) concerns the events of 15 February 2003, the day the world took to the streets to march against the invasion of Iraq.
Stop using pandemic as cover to ‘fire and rehire’, Unite warns Manchester bus company
Unite leader Len McCluskey warns Go North West parent company Go Ahead Group it risks industrial action if it continues with plans to “fire and rehire” nearly 500 Manchester bus drivers, which would see each driver lose an estimated £2,000 a year.