Controversial plans for Hulme student flats given green light under delegated powers

Despite calls to reinstate the council planning committee, plans for student accommodation in Hulme were approved by the chief executive. Councillors and campaigners say the council’s emergency arrangements for the coronavirus crisis are undemocratic, with locals feeling excluded and threatening legal action. Last week, Manchester City Council’s chief executive approved controversial plans for a nine-storey […]

‘Community wealth building’ is key to creating stronger local economies post-pandemic, says Manchester based think tank

If we want to own the post-pandemic future we need to concentrate on community wealth building, and embrace the “new Leviathan” state released by the coronavirus crisis, say timely reports released by Manchester based think-do tank the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. The key to creating stronger post-pandemic local economies is ‘community wealth building’ say […]

Film released today documents Mancunians building stronger communities

Local wellbeing organisation Healthy Me Healthy Communities are showcasing their latest project in an online film launch today, and are asking communities across Manchester to share their ideas on what community action could be taken next. Access to the full film available via this article. Healthy Me Healthy Communities, a Manchester based social enterprise, are […]

Four international journalists, who graduated in Manchester, report on their Covid-19 lockdown experiences

Four International Students who graduated at Manchester Metropolitan University discuss the impact of Covid-19 around the world, finding many similarities and a shocking tendency for misinformation and conspiracy theories to spread faster than Covid-19. Four friends from four different countries all graduated as Journalists in Manchester. We may now be living worlds apart, but we […]

Cross-party calls for Manchester planning committee to be reinstated

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 […]

Meteor Events

Welcome to The Meteor’s events page. We hope you find something you like here, it would be great to see you at one of our workshops, debates or bi-monthly open mic nights. This is a rolling events page and the latest events we have organised will be added to the top of the page and […]

Street Meet soup kitchen reports increased demand for food during lockdown, and not just from Manchester’s homeless

Volunteers running an outdoor soup kitchen in city centre Manchester are reporting increased demand for food during the pandemic lockdown. People using the kitchen include many of the temporarily housed homeless, those still sleeping on the streets, the working poor and those struggling to survive on welfare payments. A band of volunteers responsible for outdoor […]

Businesses are struggling, the government’s schemes are not working and the UK economy is about to disappear

Political economist Richard Murphy believes the UK government’s business support scheme will fail to help many small and medium size enterprises survive the coronavirus crisis, and points to Europe for a workable solution. In Greater Manchester, in 2017, there were 100,510 firms fitting into the small and medium sized enterprise band, employing 1,166,740 people. I […]