SNP Forum / Core Strategy 8th December November 9, 2009

Hello All,

The SNP Forum scheduled for 8th December is no more : (

Instead has been 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:

Pre-Registration 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.

Corridor Manchester August 19, 2009

Investigations have been made into the utilities and services infrastructure of one of the Manchester’s most bustling areas.  The oxford Road Corridor is a major destination for work, education and health as well as for leisure act ivies and serving as a major transport artery to the south of the city.

Corridor Manchester is the new name for Manchester City South the partnership – a group of major institutions based in the corridor itself – which are working together to improve the area through their own programmes of development – but in a combined way.

This latest study investigates the capacity of the Oxford Road Corridor’s electricity and gas distribution network, sewerage and waste water systems and digital infrastructure (i.e. the stuff which enables us to make a phone call or use the internet and watch cable.)  It also predicts the demand that planned and future developments along the corridor such as new buildings for example will have on these infrastructures and what if any extra capacity must be installed to meet this demand.

The Executive Summary of this report is available here and my notes which are pretty similar but worded a little less “executively” are here.

Transforming Places August 3, 2009

In July 2008, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) published their draft Framework for Regeneration known as ‘transforming places; changing lives’. Following a consultation period Urban Forum produced this document which sets out how the government is taking forward the delivery of a new national framework to shape the way that regeneration is carried out in England.

This document can be seen here UF Transforming Places

Latest EAP July 24, 2009

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:

• the headline aim of the CCAP is to reduce emission by a minimum of 1m tonnes;
• focus on mitigation but where ever possible include adaptation issues if they do not detract from the emissions reductions;
• focus on mitigation but remember that some mitigation exercises will direct us away from a the end goal of low carbon lifestyles…

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.

Notes from SNP Board Meeting July 22, 2009

Board held Thursday 17th July (postponed from 17th June)

SNP Board Papers Review

16^th July 2009 (postponed from 17^th June)

Item 1 – Welcome and Apologies

Richard Sharland has excepted his appointment onto the SNP Board in his capacity as Head of Environment Strategy.

Item 2 – Minutes of the last Meeting

No matters arising from previous minutes.

Item 3 – SNP Forum Report

Report Noted and Cllr Andrews commented that it was well attended and very useful.

Item 4 – Consultation and Delivery of the Housing Strategy

Housing have commissioned a number of thematic focus groups to feed into the delivery of this strategy from the thematic partnerships, including children’s, adults’, crime & disorder. Northwards Housing in their capacity as the city’s ALMO¹ have been commissioned to produce a report on the “Golden thread” of Housing Policy – from National to Local, with the intent to produce a report and recommendations this September.

I explained that during consultation on the Core Strategy, SNAG members had raised the issue of utilizing city centre apartments for use by older people due to the many benefits they provide for older people and asked if this had been examined by Housing in their own research. Gail Heath² explained that it had been raised, but that older people found it more important to live in areas with a sense of community. If a strong older people’s community could be established in the centre then city apartments would be ideal. Gail added that further work was to be carried-out around the inter-relation between older people in large homes and fuel poverty. This work would be in tandem with work being progressed by VOP on fuel poverty. Further consultation will target key business areas using partners as the conduit for this process.

Overview and Scrutiny (Housing Sub-group) remain committed to the 60% target in owner-occupier by 2015 (this may be altered to 60% or 50,000 new owners) due to the recession.

SNAG have been asked to make comment on the Housing Strategy and comments must be submitted by the end of August. I shall issue a questionnaire which will enable you to pass comment fairly easily and quickly.

Item 5 – Neighbourhood Focus Strategy

Vicky Rosin stated that more work is being carried out on the outcomes of the Neighbourhood Focus Strategy before work can begin on its implementation. Vicky Rosin is to brief the CEOs of many of the Council’s partners such as the RSLs³ PCT⁴ and members of thematic partnership boards with the aim to report to the Executive in September. This is one of the most important customers strategies in the Council’s framework.

SNAG to be issued with a briefing paper ASAP.

Item 6 – LAA Quarter 4 Performance Report

Vicky noted that in future there may be a case for performance reporting by thematic partnerships to be conducted at different scales depending on the level of the indicator i.e. 1, 2, 3 or 4.

Item 7 – SNP Action Plan (draft).

The draft action plan highlights a number of quick fire actions which the SNP can deliver straight-away. It also highlights some larger actions which need special devotion. It will be important to the efficiency of the process for SNP partners such as the PCT to illustrate areas of best practice e.g. world class commissioning, so that SNP can replicate the processes.

1Arms Length Management Organisation

2Standing in for Paul Beardmore – Head of Housing

3Registered Social Landlords

4Primary Care Trust

Manchester Becomes Ethical Shopper July 3, 2009

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.

New Documents July 1, 2009

Hello,

I’ve just added some more documents to the SNAG library.  Including the Rethinking Capital (forum for the future), Green New Deal (NEF-ish), Road to Copenhagen (DECC & Defra) plus Manchester City Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Report 08/09.

Happy reading.

ESPB and EAP Update June 11, 2009

Session 2 of the Environmental Advisory Panel met on 4th June to continue cross sectoral talks on the advancement of the Climate Change.  It was a really useful, frank and open discussion with a presentation by Marc Hudson on the Call to Real Action.  Discussion focused mainly on the direction in which the formulation of the Climate Change Action plan.  It was understood that marketing was key in it’s delivery and that working groups should be set up with specialist from across the CVS, the public sector and private business. These groups would be tasked with the writing of topic specific sections of the plan.

Following on from this, members of Manchester Climate Forum met with Councillor Cowell on 10th June to discuss matters further.  The result of this is that the council is adopting the C2RA model for developing the Action Plan.  MCC are producing a ‘grid’ of themes which is to be produced via the EAP Forum http://eap.beproudlovemanchester.com/ The themes are to include areas such as behavioral change, technology and infrastructure.

The initiation of the process will begin immediately with suggestions for the themes being submitted to the EAP Forum (membership is closed however, nominations for new members are welcome – please get in touch for list of members or to nominate); these will be decided upon and published in the next two weeks.  The working groups as mentioned above will be established to write each of the themed sections.

The Action Plan is not to become a policy document – it will be a working document with the aim of competing for a larger share of the mainstream MCC budget and will also be used to lever larger contributions from MCC partners.

The responsibility of writing the Action Plan will lie with MCC, with the final sign off being from within the council.  Although there is a desire from Councillor Cowell that the ownership will be wider than the council and the names assigned to each theme will not be inclusively councillors.

The Environmental Strategy Programme Board met for the 6th time on Monday 8th June.  SNAG notes from this meeting can be viewed here.  Official council minutes are available here.

Best Wishes, Tim.

ESP Projects Update June 9, 2009

Introduction

In the Call to Action there was a public declaration to spend 3 months at the start of 2009 undertaking project planning. At ESPB on 24th April 2009, project updates were requested from project leads to enable there to be a review of progress of individual projects and Environmental Strategy Programme (ESP) as a whole.

Project management findings

• Wide mix of projects, from those well-developed and being delivered, to those not yet fully scoped.

• Timescales were not generally defined in projects.

• No detail provided on resource requirements, either already in place or yet to be identified. Both staff and finance (capital and revenue).

• Use of online Project Management System would assist with management of individual projects and programme as a whole. Recommend that PMS is mandatory for all MCC projects. Recommended for non-MCC projects. Need to consider training implications.

• Need to work towards each project having a signed-off Project Initiation Document.

• Once PID’s signed off then need Green City will need a monthly highlight report to track progress. (This could be accessed through PMS).

ESP-specific

• Energy infrastructure is emerging as a recurring theme within several ESP projects. Need a strategic, citywide approach to this topic. I.e. ‘Energy Infrastructure’ project within ESP. Will therefore need to consider resource implications and appropriate approach in terms of MCC and AGMA role.

• Behavioural change is emerging as a recurring theme within several ESP projects. Needs a strategic approach. I.e. ‘Awareness Raising and Engagement; project within ESP. Will therefore need to consider resource implications.

• Digital infrastructure activity has been reviewed as part of ESP review. Important to feed into ESP as may be a theme relevant to a number of ESP projects.

• Need to produce a funding strategy to support the delivery of ESP. £1m Carbon Reduction Fund will be part of this wider strategy but need to make sure the strategy maximises return on investment from the £1m and levers in match from other sources.

• Linkages between projects: As per those identified in original project summaries submitted in February. Energy Infrastructure and Awareness Raising and Engagement strong recurring themes. Need to identify linkages to any other non-ESP projects.

• Need to consider the carbon savings from each project, including target setting.

• Need to put in place a plan for the delivery of the Climate Change Action Plan, showing how and where individual projects will feed in.

Next Steps

• Project summaries from all project leads to Green City by Friday 22nd May 2009.
• ESP review final report from Green City to ESPB 8th June 2009.
• Project-specific feedback provided direct from Green City to project leads after 8th June.

Latest SNP Board Papers June 9, 2009

Hello All,

OK it’s that time of the month (well that time of every second month) again.  There are quite a lot of papers this time round so maybe select the ones that are of most interest to you and comment on those rather than the whole lot perhaps?  I think the most interesting are those in bold.

Agenda, Previous Minutes, SNP Forum Report, Housing Strategy Report, LAA Q4 Report, SNP Action Plan, Working Neighbourhoods Fund Report, SNP Risk Report and SNP Work Programme.

These documents will be available on line until the next Board Papers are published in approx. 2 months – at which point they’ll be available via e-mail only.  Just ask…

Best Wishes, Tim.