Local campaigners are joining forces to protest Manchester City Council’s plans to build a five-year, temporary 440 space car park on the former Central Retail Park in Ancoats, as well as the Great Ancoats Street Improvement Scheme, which removes cycle lanes. A protest was held on Thursday by the Northern Quarter residents and cycling campaigners […]
Who is representing you on Greater Manchester’s local councils?
Three weeks ago, Greater Manchester elected one-third of its councillors to local government. Seats were contested in all ten boroughs, but with a turnout of just 31% across the region, which is typical for local elections, few of us actually had a say in who represents us on the local council. Bolton went to the […]
European elections: find out who your local candidates are and where you can vote for them
The unexpected and ill prepared for European elections are fast approaching on Thursday 23 May. Theresa May repeatedly insisted that we would not take part in these elections because we would have left the European Union by now. But here we are still in the EU, Brexit has not yet occurred, and the European elections […]
Podcast Review of One at HOME Manchester
“Nasi is on a ladder. Heʼs not coming down any time soon”. As we file into the theatre Nasi is there in front of us, standing high up on the very tall ladder. His demeanor is casual and relaxed but unconvincing. This tense sight amplified by the sense that we had intruded midway through a […]
It’s time for Manchester Museum to decolonise
Imagine that news emerged of 18,000 undiscovered historical artefacts relating to Manchester were illegally taken out the country by a museum in North Africa. We can only think what the response in the city would be in such circumstances. Political leaders would demand the return of the stolen goods, public protests would break out and […]
Food Poverty Action Plan aims to tackle hidden crisis in GM
The latest estimates are that 620,000 people in Greater Manchester are living in poverty, and struggle to put food on the table. Of those, around 200,000 are children experiencing food poverty. £30 billion per year has been cut from welfare budgets since 2010. By 2020, Local councils will have lost 60% of central government funding […]
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, […]
Can the Homes Act fix slum conditions in the private rented sector?
You move into the only place you could afford in your area. The wallpaper is hanging and bubbling off and there are large areas of mould mottling the walls, like the house has caught some kind of disease. The doors and windows are draughty and there are mouse droppings all over the kitchen. Welcome to […]
10 reasons why the bus companies’ partnership proposals will not ‘revolutionise’ our buses: we need regulation
Why do passengers and staff want a regulated network when £100 million has been offered for the alternative – partnerships? The fact that bus companies are suddenly offering a £100 million partnership package as an alternative to regulation shows just how great re-regulation of our buses is, and how much bus companies will do to […]
76% in favour of re-regulating bus services in Greater Manchester poll results show
As the Greater Manchester mayoral office deliberates on how best to organise bus services across the region a poll has shown that 76% of those questioned would prefer bus services to be re-regulated, on a model similar to London’s. The poll also showed that 82% agreed that local authorities “should have more control over bus […]