Hello,
Here is the address for Manchester’s Climate Change Action website:
http://www.manchesterclimate.com/
This website supports residents, communities, schools, local businesses and organisations in changing our individual and combined behavior to act on climate change, principally in reducing emissions to the tune of over 1 million tonnes by 2020. It goes beyond changing lightbulbs and is the the most comprehensive climate change action plan of any city in the country.
Hello Everyone.
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband will take part in a public rally in Manchester on the 8th December at Manchester Central. This event is jointly hosted by DECC and Friends of the Earth Manchester and it will be Ed Miliband’s last event before he travels to Copenhagen, and an opportunity for participants to take part in a Q & A discussion.
The Leader of Manchester City Council has been invited to attend and will use this opportunity to launch the city’s stakeholder climate change action plan, Manchester: A Certain Future.
This event will take place:
Tuesday 8 December,
Doors at 5PM for a start at 6:30PM
The Exchange Auditorium, Manchester Central (ex G-Mex)
If you wish to attend, please email RSVP@decc.gsi.gov.uk, with Manchester, 8 December in the subject line. Please make sure to include your name and names of people who wish to attend with you if relevant. You will receive a confirmation by email that your tickets have been booked.
It effects you all, each and everyone of you.
This is the Climate Change Action Plan for the City. Manchester: A Certain Future available on the SNAG documents page, goes before scrutiny committee today. Once ratified my the Council the document will be published and launched in December, coinciding with the UN Copenhagen Conference. For more information on Copenhagen please see: http://en.cop15.dk/ or get in touch for info on Climate Change and what Manchester is doing to reduce it’s carbon footprint.
Best Wishes, Tim
Listen Up!
The 2008 Planning Act introduced a new planning system for applications to build “nationally significant infrastructure” facilities in England and Wales.
National Policy Statements (NPSs) are the foundation of this new planning system, and they set out the Government’s policy on “nationally significant infrastructure”. Twelve National Policy Statements are being prepared by the relevant Government departments, based on existing government policy. Before being finalised, they will each be subject to public consultation and scrutiny by parliament:
These NPSs have been produced by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and are out for consultation from now until 22nd February 2010.
These NPSs are the work of the Department for Transport (DfT). Ports is out for consultation from now until 15th February 2010; National Networks opens in spring 2010 and Aviation late next year.
These are being produced by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and will be out for consultation in spring, summer and autumn of next year respectively.
Under the new planning system the decision making for power for planning applications has been taken away from Government and placed in with the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC). However, a quick look at there web-site revealed that they are part of Central Office of Information (COI) the Government’s centre of excellence for marketing and communications! So how independent the IPC is I can’t say…
Until a NPS is formally designated by the Secretary of State, following public consultation and parliamentary scrutiny, the IPC (although up and running) does not have the power to decide applications just yet.
So why get involved?
It is important to make your views known because once finalised the NPSs will provide the framework for future decisions by the IPC on individual applications. Issues relating to the need for specific types of infrastructure will not be debated again.
Except for NPSs on nuclear power stations and airports, specific locations for infrastructure are not identified (meaning they could go anywhere whether you like it or not) although criteria may guide developers to appropriate types of area.
Planning Aid North West have provided me with some guidance on the NPSs out for consultation now, they can be found on the SNAG documents page: www.snag.org.uk/documents. I’ll touch back on this in the new year once the Core Strategy and Waste Plan consultations are out of the way.
Best Wishes, Tim.
Hello All,
The SNP Forum scheduled for 8th December is no more : (
Instead Councillor Richard Cowell, Executive Member for Environment, on behalf of Manchester City Council, invites you to attend the Core Strategy Seminar : ) !!!
So what is the difference? Unlike a normal SNP Forum there will be some issues covered such as the Airport and Transport and Economy which aren’t aren’t normally discussed.
With the Core Strategy nearing its final stages Planning Strategy are keen to get your views on the Proposed Options document which can be found on the documents page of this website. For the first time in this process, the Proposed Options proposed policy ideas in line with submissions from the last round of consultation, Refining Options.
The Event will be run in two sessions, one afternoon and one evening – see booking form below for details.
You get to choice which session to go to and which workshops you’d like to attend out of the following:
Housing, District Centres, Environment, Airport, Transport, Economy and General.
If you would like to attend please fill out the attached form:
It will be assumed that attendees have already read the document or at the very least chapters relevant to the workshops selected to attend. SNAG members will be issued with a briefing paper which will summarize the content and the emerging policy.
OK we’re almost there now
Welcome to the Proposed Options Stage the Core Strategy for Manchester. Consultation opens on Monday the 9th of November until 4th January 2009.
I can tell you that Option B was the most popular option following the refined options stage earlier this year (72% of us preferred B), which should please most of you no end.
As ever I’ll be sending a briefing paper to SNAG members ASAP to give you the low down on how the Proposed Option is shaping up. Certainly none of the headline Spatial Policies have change, but I am yet to see if there is any devil in the detail; I should think not.
So what’s in the option which will lead to the flourishing of Manchester into a green and pleasant, sustainable 21st century haven of well-being and knowledge based industrial excellence? I’ve only had a quick flick through so these are but my first impressions:
The usual slugs in the pottage include the preference of economic growth over economic development, airport growth (although there are mentions of high speed rail links) over greenbelt protection and a focus on development of the city centre as opposed to effectual sites for employment in the burbs.
I am picking up heightened levels of climate change related activity compared with the previous incarnation of this strategy but the dedicated climate change info measures just 1 small paragraph here and another one there on my climate change policyometer. The waste management enthusiasts amongst you may find this rather disappointing.
So what’s coming up roses? If I take number of pages as a proxy to the level of good policy, housing and design are smelling the sweetest. Economic growth is of course the compost feeding everything in our great Mancunian City.
Watch this space.
Best Wishes, Tim.
Dear All,
Sustainable Neighbourhoods Partnership Forum
You are invited to the next Forum: which will focus upon:
Climate Change Action in Manchester’s Neighbourhoods.
It will be held on: Wednesday 30th September, 6-8pm
In: Committee Room 1, Manchester Town Hall.
The Forum will include a presentation from Richard Sharland, Head of Environmental Strategy, Manchester City Council.
The short presentation will be followed by facilitated workshops in which you will be encouraged to contribute constructive suggestions for priorities and actions.
The Green City Team have prepared this outline report about the CCAP.
If you would like to attend the Forum please inform Su Goldthorpe on the below details.
Please also forward this information to others as appropriate.
Best wishes, Tim.
s.goldthorpe@manchester.gov.uk
Tel 0161 234 4125
Hello,
Well a very short meeting but one attended at least by the Leader Sir Richard. It always makes me a little happier when the big guns turn up.
Right so what happened? Er… I have to say not very much sadly. In a nut shell “The main thrust of the discussion centred around the divide between focus on mitigation at the expense of adaptation or we can and should do both because they are so interlinked it wouldn’t work any other way.” At the end of the meeting I couldn’t help that many were still on the fence or were slightly confused as to whether a decision had been made.
There were no matters arising from the previous minutes and they were passed as a true and accurate reflection of the previous session.
There was a very short talk through the minutes of the ESPB meeting held on 9th July to which the only comment from the panel was to question the dedication of ESPB officers sitting on the Board due to apologies given and/or deputies sent. It is worth mentioning here that there a very many number of other meetings – meetings with contractors, developers, GONW, service providers which may very well take priority over business meetings because no attendance would slow delivery. There are also great efforts going into informing officers of potential and significant initiatives such as the Deep Geothermal seminar which was held in a full Lord Mayor’s Parlour.
There followed a question as to the scrutiny of environmental strategy with suggestions the OSC should be doing more perhaps to drive the agenda forward as should input from opposition councillors. Sir Richard answered accordingly that OSCs don’t drive forward anything – they scrutinise; neither do opposition councillors, so perhaps engaging with both the executive and the party in power might be a more successful method of driving any agenda.
The last item on the agenda was “the role and remit of the 5 thematic groups” but this seemed to be abandoned in favour of discussing mitigation vs adaptation. Arguments included but were not exhaustive of:
Although I failed to see any concrete adoption of any of the above – I sensed that the the second argument got the most votes in people’s minds.
Obviously from a Transition point of view, it is important to start from a vision – the end goal and working backwards plan each and every move so that all mitigation and adaptation can be planned to achieve the vision. I think the problem here is that we have until mid September to sort something out. Time is a luxury right now that we can’t afford. So mitigation first, then with more time on our side, construct the adaptation plans (which as was pointed out are largely determined by what happens in Copenhagen anyway) post December.
Worth mentioning that adaptation here = climate change adaptation such as flood defense and not behavioural adaptation – which is a worry. Other points to develop at a later date are international connections and interactions, using the core cities to progress national transition thinking and peak oil. (I did plant the question of peak oik and where its related issues fits into the CCAP; the response was that CCAP Energy Group will cover this, to which I responded it’s not really an energy issue it’s re-skilling and behavioural change issue. A debate perhaps for another time…?).
Thoughts on a postcard please… you know the address, Tim.
On Tuesday August 4th, the people of Greater Manchester have an opportunity to come together to share knowledge and ideas about Climate Change and what to do about it.
A meeting at the Friends Meeting House will “look back” from August 2010 at three vital events:
the Copenhagen Climate Conference of December 2009
UK national election, to be held no later than June 2010
Manchester City Council Action Plan, produced in the second half of 2009, and “rolled out” during 2010.
On each theme, experts will speak briefly of the likely outcomes at each of these levels and their consequences. There will be ample time for questions, comments and suggestions.
Confirmed speakers include:
Dina Baird, the city mobiliser for Manchester of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition
Cllr Richard Cowell, Manchester City Council Executive Member for the Environment
A speaker from the grass-roots “Call to Real Action” group
A Conservative Party representative (invited)
The meeting has three purposes – info-sharing, networking and brainstorming.
The meeting will take place at the Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, Central Manchester (behind the Central Library). Stalls will be open from 7pm, with the meeting starting at 7.30pm. It will finish no later than 9:10pm. MCF will produce a booklet for the event with information on each of
the three themes.
The evening is free to attend, but we will be shaking a bucket and hoping to get a gold coin or two out of everyone.
The meeting is co-hosted by Manchester Climate Forum (www.manchesterclimateforum.org.uk) and Call to Real Action (www.calltorealaction.wordpress.com)
Manchester City Council has released its Sustainable Procurement Policy and takes another step towards transistion. In brief the new document gives preference to goods, services and products that are better for the environment, for society and for the local economy. Preferences are given to small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and community and voluntary sector (CVSs) businesses and those which are magority owned by groups protected by legislation such as disabled, women and older people. For greater detail please read the SPP Statement of Intent.
