Manchester City Council’s budget proposals

Manchester City Council’s budget proposals were announced today and included proposals to close five smaller libraries, two swimming pools, the loss of 340 places in supported homes for vulnerable homeless people, and the reduction of general household waste collections to fortnightly (recycling collections remain the same) amongst many other things.  You can download all the paperwork from the Council website: www.manchester.gov.uk/budgetproposals

Inside the M60 have also written a breakdown of the cuts.

Timetable:

• The proposals will be presented to Executive –16th February
• Scrutinised at Resource and Governance Overview and Scrutiny Committee –28th February
• The final budget will be decided at the full Council meeting –9th March

Creating the Age Friendly City report

Following Manchester ‘s acceptance into the World Health Organisation’s Global Network of Age Friendly Cities, the Valuing Older People partnership held a working policy conference in partnership with the Beth Johnson Foundation and the Centre for Social Gerontology at Keele University in the Town Hall on Monday 1 November 2010.  The full conference report is now available.

Manchester decides to reverse government’s relaxation of planning laws

Housing minister Grant Shapps unveiled new regulations last month to allow the creation of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) without the need for a planning application.  Shapps said he would allow councils “flexibility” to use Article 4 directions and require planning applications at their discretion.  Manchester have announced that they will indeed use the Article 4 direction to ensure that planning permission is required in order to turn a house into an HMO.

Sharing the City @ Bridge 5 Mill

Come along to the launch of the Sharing the City Exhibition at Bridge 5 Mill!

29^th September 2010 @ Bridge 5 Mill
From 4pm – 7pm

Come and enjoy a glass of wine with some tasty local vegetarian cheeses and vegan pâté as we celebrate the launch of this fascinating exhibition.  The exhibition is by students from the Manchester School of Architecture and showcases ideas on the future design of Manchester.  You can find out more at www.sharingthecity.org.uk.

This event is free, but please let us know by 23^rd September if you plan to attend on 0161 273 1736 or by email to katyc@merci.org.uk.

The war on clutter!

The government has declared war on so-called street clutter and has called on charities and community groups to carry out ‘Street Audits’ to ensure councils take action on the issue. Michael Donnelly spoke to Philipa Hunt from the charity Living Streets to find out what the Street Audit idea was about.

From Planning TV