Whilst CEM has been socially distancing in lockdown, we decided to have a ‘non-away day’ to discuss some more strategic points that we felt needed more time than we could dedicate to them in one of our shorter regular online meetings. We know how significant this pandemic is and felt we have to adapt accordingly to what we’re now all facing as the ‘new normal’.
We thought some of you out there keeping a distance might be interested in us sharing a few points of what happened:
- We started with a little warm up exercise of picking someone from the city council who we’d be willing to go into lockdown with – this threw up an amusing set of answers ranging from grinding down the leader on greater climate action through to a variety of backbenchers – from all parties, including the independents.
- Reflected on how the group has been impacted by the pandemic – the way we work, the priorities we have, what we should be doing differently and what should stay the same. Apart from doing things online now, we know there’s people out there in isolation that might need support so we’ll be looking to get in touch and to see how they’re getting on. We also know the council is facing unprecedented pressures on its services, finances and staff than ever before, but nonetheless transparency and scrutiny are every bit as important now as they ever were.
- Reflected on our current projects and how they might need to be reprioritised considering our circumstances. We think that there’s a few interesting things we can be getting on with whilst in lockdown such as developing a Climate Citizenship curriculum and keeping tabs on how the city council manages to fill its ever expanding budgetary black hole…
As ever, if you want to support what we’re doing, in ways big or small, please get in touch. We’re always looking for people who want to see action taken on climate and environment in Manchester and have time and energy they can put to good use. We’ve got a summary of current projects to give you an idea of what we’re up to and might give you an idea or two of how you could get involved.
