Campaigners call for better post-lockdown vision for #Manchester

Campaigners from various Manchester-based campaigning bodies, including Climate Emergency Manchester (1), have called for the City Council’s post-lockdown planning to be more transparent, and for it to place more emphasis on environmental and social justice improvements.

They have produced an 11 page briefing paper (pdf here), one page summary here with a series of recommendations, including –

  1. Reinstate the full Planning and Highways Committee, immediately.
  2. Commit to a broad range of consultation methods around both the June/July Budget refresh and the “Our Manchester” refresh
  3. Commit to preserving all of the environmental gains in terms of air quality, safety, carbon reductions, rather than “some”
  4. In light of the monumental changes ahead, the Local Plan should be started again from scratch, using ideas from the responses to the first consultation.
  5. Prioritise economic developments that harness the staying power of the Foundational Economy together with the transformative potential of low to zero carbon investment.

Three groups – CEM, Steady State Manchester and Rising Up Manchester Families – have produced a briefing paper in response to the City Council’s “COVID 19 – Forward Recovery Planning” document which will be discussed at a virtual meeting of the City Council’s Executive, 6th May 2020, 9am.

Chloe Jeffries from Climate Emergency Manchester said

“The Council’s response document – while admirable in parts – assumes that Manchester can only return to a future like the past – with poverty, dirty air and airport-driven growth. Our briefing paper points to the need for a fundamental rethink, makes a series of concrete recommendations while also raising specific questions about what is being done in the here and now.”

Over the coming weeks and months Climate Emergency Manchester will work with other groups to put forward an alternative, greener and more socially just set of proposal for the post-coronavirus recovery that meet the challenge of the climate emergency, which has not gone away. If you want to get involved, contact us at contact@climateemergencymanchester.net

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