Please see below for a selection of the most timely and important documents. If there is a document that you or your community group don’t understand, or have heard about but can’t find below, please get in touch and the SNAG convenor will help you out. Please see the contact SNAG page for details. For SNP documents see here, for ESPB documents see here, for EAP documents see here and for Climate Change Action Plan see here.
Planning:
The Local Area Agreement (LAA) is 3 year agreement between the council, its partner organisations in the City and Government. The LAA identifies priorities that most affect the lives of Manchester people and sets targets which when achieved will raise the “performance” of the City significantly – compared to other cities.
The State of the City 08-09 report gives analysis of how well the Manchester Partnership is performing against the LAA.
The State of the Wards 08-09 report gives a blow by blow account of how each ward is performing, with essential information regarding housing, crime and health etc…
The State of the City Communities of Interest report documents to equality themes and issues arising across the city.
Core Strategy – Proposed Option stage. Consultation on this document is underway. 9th November, to the 4th January.
District Centres:
Urban Forum – Places Bases and Spaces is a report which examines the influence communities have over their built environment.
Politics:
Not entirely sure that this document is of any benefit to anyone as its rather nebulous and unspecific about – well everything… but here it is anyway – 2008/09 Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report. It “documents” what we expect Manchester and every other local authority in the nation should be doing as a matter of course and it is easy to read and goes someway to explain how the council is governed. Nobody can say that is isn’t bright any colourful, a trait no doubt paid for by the startling product placement on page 10.
Housing:
The Draft Older People’s Housing Strategy seeks to address the particular housing needs of Manchester’s older population particularly those over 85.
The Housing Strategy Statement seeks to address the changes which have occurred across society since the last housing strategy was produced.
Planning Guidlines for Housing. This document provides planning guidance about the mix of new housing provision required in Manchester to meet the requirements of the City’s planning policies and government guidance about planning policies for housing provision, as set out in Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS 3), November 2006. Briefing paper available.
The Code for Sustainable Homes was introduced in England in April 2007 following extensive consultation with environmental groups and the home building and
wider construction industries. The Code is a voluntary standard designed to improve the overall sustainability of new homes by setting a single framework within which the home building industry can design and construct homes to higher environmental standards and offers a tool for developers to differentiate themselves within the market.
Building:
Drivers Jonas has been instructed by Manchester City Council to prepare a scoping report for a Strategic Analysis of Sustainable Property Solutions for Manchester. It can be viewed here.
Environment:
Climate Futures is a lovely little report which beautifully illustrates 5 horrifyingly likely responses to the changed climate of 2030… Great reading and definitely food for climate change thought.
Road to Copenhagen – this is the UK Government’s case for an ambitious international agreement on climate change. Briefing paper available.
Meeting since early 2007, the Green New Deal Group membership is drawn to reflect a wide range of expertise relating to the current financial, energy and environmental crises. The views and recommendations of the report are those of the group writing in their individual capacities. The Green New Deal report is published on behalf of the Green New Deal Group by nef (the new economics foundation).
The Forum for the Future’s “Sustainable Cities Report” is published each year. It documents the fortunes of the UK’s 20 largest cities and ranks them in order of their sustainability. Manchester are 15th down 3 from 12th in 2007.
Manchester’s latest climate change document is the Call to Action. It talks about how the city council plans to engage the citizens of Manchester to work to help fight climate change.
In response to the Call to Action Manchester Climate Forum produced the Call to Real Action
The North West Climate Change Action Plan can be found here.
Manchester’s Tree Strategy can be found here.
AGMA Environment Commission Structure
Natural England’s State of the Natural Environment in the North West is a brief run down of what Natural England have documented the North West’s environment – what it looks like now and what it hopes the future bring for our ecosystems. The first part of the report showcases the natural assets of our region while the second part highlights areas of work needed specific to each ecosystem to ensure their security. Briefing paper available.
Wild about Manchester is the Biodiversity Strategy for the city. Briefing paper available.
Economy:
Following on from the Stern report which the Government commissioned to investigate how climate change could effect the economy of the UK. AGMA the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities commissioned it’s own report the Mini-Stern which looked into how climate change would effect the economy of Greater Manchester.
Rethinking Capital is about why capital markets fail, and what might help us emerge from the current financial crisis with more resilient, equitable and sustainable systems. Developing some key themes from Jonathon Porritt’s pamphlet Living within our Means (March 2009).
Energy:
The Regional Energy Strategy explains how the North West needs to meet the dual challenges of generating sustainable energy and reducing the region’s emissions from energy consumption.
Manchester City Council’s Decentralised Energy Infrastructure positioning statement can be read here. It’s really rather good…
The Planning and Energy Act 2008 enables local planning authorities to set requirements for energy use and energy efficiency in local plans.
After great disappointment of finding practically nothing of interest on the official planning website of Manchester City Council I came across the Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Group site which is most interesting and inspiring. Not only does it have good practical ideas of how to undertake action on the ground instead of perpetuating talking shops, but also it offers hot links to relevant report, for example the Regional Energy Strategy for the North West and the refreshing response to the Call to Action of the Manchester Climate Forum. Congratulations. I will use your initiatives as an example to follow in my survey on what the UK is doing to reduce CO2 emissions for the International Society of City and Regional Planners. Well done