In response to the coronavirus crisis and lockdown, Manchester City Council suspended the planning committee and delegated planning powers to the Chief Executive. Thanks to new legislation, planning committees can now legally make decisions virtually. With other councils moving to online decision-making – and controversial schemes being decided this week – councillors, the Opposition, and […]
Leadership candidates lay out their visions for the future of the Labour Party at Manchester hustings
A lively hustings for Labour Party leadership candidates at Manchester’s Central Convention Complex last night covered a lot of ground including issues around: Brexit, housing, transport, political reform, the environment and antisemitism. The three contenders for the Labour Party leadership, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Keir Starmer, laid out their visions for the future of […]
Legal challenge launched against council car park plans for Central Retail Park
Environmental campaign group Trees Not Cars are taking the council to court in an attempt to overturn their decision to turn the former Central Retail park into a car park. Manchester City Council announced their short- and long-term vision for the old Central Retail Park on Great Ancoats Street, on 10 February. The site has […]
Rebecca Long-Bailey pledges to democratise UK economy and push for Green New Deal
Labour leadership hopeful Rebecca Long-Bailey launches her campaign in Manchester. She slams austerity and promises to create a fairer economy for all that will also tackle climate change. Rebecca Long-Bailey pledged to fight climate change, democratise the UK economy and replace the House of Lords with a senate outside of London if she became prime […]
Sir Richard Leese says ‘we are open to working with anybody’ – we asked campaign groups what they thought (pt.4)
In response to a recent blog post by Sir Richard Leese, we’ve been asking local groups to share their experiences of working with Manchester City Council. Sir Richard Leese says the council are open to working with any parties interested in environmental and development issues. This is the fourth article in a Meteor series called […]
The Peterloo Memorial shows a shameful lack of solidarity with the disabled community
This year is the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre. Around 70,000 people gathered peacefully in St Peter’s Field, Manchester, calling for the right to vote so that marginalised communities across England could have a say in who represented them in parliament. Representatives that could fight for the rights of the marginalised and reduce the […]
Families in Manchester to create A Carnival of Creatures to protect life on Earth
Next Saturday 1 June, family climate action group Rising Up! takes to Manchester streets with A Carnival of Creatures to raise awareness and demand that action is taken to protect nature. There will be animal and insect parade puppets, children in costume, circus folk and musicians, with activities leading up to the Carnival. Local families […]
HSBC take flak for funding massive overseas coal projects, undermining Paris Agreement on CO2
Highstreet bank HSBC’s activities funding new CO2 emitting fossil fuel projects are under attack by campaigners across Greater Manchester, who are demanding the bank make a “Big Shift” to funding renewable energy Christian Aid’s on-going climate campaign (#BigShift) is now focusing on HSBC because of their continued funding of massive new coal projects in Bangladesh, […]
Greater Manchester plan for jobs, homes…and the environment?
After several delays the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has published the new draft of its Spatial Framework. The previous version, published in late 2016 met considerable criticism, especially from groups campaigning on green space but also from other quarters, including our own critique of its assumptions of accelerated “economic growth”. On the other side the […]
Philosophy Café: ‘Should democracy tolerate those who wish to destroy it?’
In what feels like a time of increasing social and political uncertainty, I have found myself employing a few strategies to keep my mind from imploding. They include thinking about the ‘big’ questions, as they tend to withstand the relentless plot twists of the theatre of current affairs, paying more attention to the questions posed, […]