Whilst Labour were the main beneficiaries of a slump in support for the Coalition Parties, taking all the seats contested on the night, the Green Party took second place in six of the seats.  Greens beat Tories in 18 wards altogether, and Lib Dems in 14 wards.

Best ward results were Deyika Nzeribe in Hulme, who increased last year's vote to 28% and David Mottram in Levenshulme who increased his vote to 20%.      

Green Party speaker Brian Candeland said 'The vote is an overwhelming rejection of the Governing coalition's policies, which are hitting Manchester hard.  Labour have played on that, despite the fact that their national leaders advocate similar policies.  In the process we are pleased to have held our vote generally, and increased it in some areas.   We've defeated the Tories city-wide and are closing in on the Liberal Democrats in wards which were previously seen as safe Lib Dem (Levenshulme) or Lab/Lib marginal (Chorlton).   Whilst I congratulate Labour on their success, Manchester is in danger of becoming a one-Party state.   With the Lib Dem decline likely to continue, it will be up to us increasingly to challenge that.'

Green Party candidate votes and percentages can be seen here:  2012 Election Results - full results in the Manchester Evening News or the Council website 

David Mottram, Manchester GP Secretary and candidate for Levenshulme said "There are three conditions for renewing English local democracy.

Firstly, Councils need constitutional independence and freedom from arbitrary interference by successive governments; the current position is that governments can simply legislate to remove functions or cut the powers of local authorities at will.

Secondly, Councils need to be able to raise their own money. At the moment the overwhelming proportion of Manchester's income is from central government; the piper calls the tune.

Thirdly, we need proportional representation for local elections to secure more a diverse and accountable body of councillors."

Replacing Leese with an elected mayor doesn't begin to address the real issues and could introduce the sort of 'personality politics' seen in mayoral contests elsewhere.  Furthermore it would add administrative cost to the City whilst vital public services are cut.  

Labour are the only other party with a full slate of candidates this year (the Lib Dems and Tories have 31 apiece). 

The Greens will be standing on a commitment to fairness and providing decent and valued local services.

for details of our policies for the City see here

For a full list of our candidates see here 

Working in tandem with the Manchester Green Party, seven Young Greens from the University of Manchester are standing as Green candidates in the upcoming city council elections.

Despite the fact that the local Young Greens branch was established only this academic year, the student activists have already participated in the Hulme and Levenshulme campaigns, and are now turning their attention to their own wards. To this end they have produced a manifesto specific to the interests of students, titled A Fresh Start.

The manifesto highlights three key policy areas, namely education, economy and environment. The candidates naturally have a particular interest in education policy, but in all policy areas, the Young Greens stand for the same principles as the Green Party itself: protection of the environment and transformation of the economy, a society which is truly green, equal, and local.

Gareth Price-Thomas, who is a member of both the Manchester Green Party committee and the Young Greens, says that ‘The rapport between both groups has been fantastic from the start. The MGP committee wholeheartedly stands with the Young Greens campaign, and is proud to be able to field such enthusiastic and committed activists in areas where students, as well as the general public more broadly, deserve better representation than they get at present.’

Nick Wilkinson, Chair of the Manchester Young Greens, says ‘I am proud of our Green campaign. A new economy with fairness at its heart, environmental policies for the future and education as the building block to achieve our goals. We are putting ourselves forward to represent all the progressive Mancunions who have been without a voice for so long.’

Organiser of the meeting David Mottram, of Levenshulme Green Party, says ‘This is a big issue for all our futures but we're hoping that ideas from the meeting will also enthuse our local allotment holders with fresh energy for the new spring and summer growing season’. 

The launch meeting was held at the Friends Meeting House in Mount Street. Adrian was joined by panel members Deyika Nzeribe, Green Party candidate for Hulme, and Amy Howard from Manchester Young Greens for the event; Adrian spoke to Manchester Young Greens at Manchester University later on that evening before travelling on to Liverpool for this weekend's Green Party conference. 

The manifesto identifies four priority areas - jobs, housing, children & young people, and transport - and describes the local election campaign as taking place against a background of job losses and public service cuts. 'There is an alternative', it says. 'The Green Party proposes a Green New Deal to generate jobs, build a sustainable low carbon economy, protect the environment and create more equal opportunities and rewards for everyone.' The Green Party offers a programme focused on the local economy, environment and equality.

The full Manifesto can be found under the 'Policies for Manchester' section of the website.

“Greater Manchester public transport needs more capacity, reduced fares based on an integrated & zoned fare structure, and the introduction of a Greater Manchester 'Oyster' card”, says Green Party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay (1), who will be in Manchester on Thursday (23^rd February) on the way to his party’s Spring conference in Liverpool (2).   
 
The Greens says large-scale investment is needed for the future of public transport in Greater Manchester. “But we can also transform access to the current system.” With over 80% of public transport journeys in London now using the Oyster card he asks “Why are bus, train and tram users in Greater Manchester still left waiting? Let’s make a start right now with a competition to choose the card’s name”, he adds.  
 
Cities around the world use the smartcard technology of London’s Oyster card and it is urgent for Transport for Greater Manchester to raise the funds and make this happen, according to the Green Party (3). 

Green Party candidate for Hulme, Deyika Nzeribe, adds that inner city wards like his pay the price for the failure of Greater Manchester’s public transport: “People in Hulme don’t want to see our streets reduced to city centre fringe parking lots”, he says, “and new city centre parking charges – without thinking through the wider impact on parking in peripheral areas – will simply make this worse. 
 
Speaking for Manchester Young Greens, Amy Howard says "Travelling by train, tram and bus in Manchester is unaffordable on the student budget, and cheaper public transport is essential to make higher education more accessible”.  

 
The Manchester Green Party on Thursday launches its manifesto for City Council elections on 3^rd May, which includes transport as one of four priority areas (4).

Notes 
 
(1) See www.adrianramsay.org.uk 
 
(2) The Green Party of England & Wales is meeting for its Spring conference in Liverpool from Friday 24^th-Monday 28^th February.  
 
(3) A further bid to the Department For Transport’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund was announced by Transport for Greater Manchester on Monday (20th February) following previous unsuccessful attempts to secure funding. 
 
(4) The manifesto – titled Green, Left, Local – gives priority to jobs, housing, children & young people and transport. Other transport policies include:

 
- Cutting overall commuter motor traffic flows, and promoting switch to electric car use

- Developing plans to further the extension of the tram network, particularly into areas of the city with poor rail links 

- Consulting people across the city on schemes to change road traffic priorities in favour of walking & cycling.  

The document claims ‘the Council's daycare operation may be having an adverse impact on the functioning of the day care market within the city, discouraging investment and growth’. In response Manchester Green Party says ‘More private companies may enter the childcare market when high quality, lower cost City Council daycare has gone, but parents know that the quality of private provision will be hit-and-miss and that without any statutory cap to fee levels the costs can go through the roof’. 
 
The City Council claim that they will regulate standards in the private, voluntary and independent sector, but campaigners from Save Manchester Sure Start (2) have revealed that staffing in the quality assurance section of Manchester’s Children’s Services has recently been reduced from over 20 to just 6 posts. 

Under the cuts proposals Sure Start early intervention will shift to a targeted service for families identified with the highest needs. ‘Ending the universal service will remove a vital factor in neighbourhood cohesion. The rising number of children in Manchester, from a wide diversity of ethnicity and backgrounds, need to share social experiences in their neighbourhood in the early years, and an integrated Sure Start service for all children and families has an essential role to play’, says David Mottram.  ‘What’s more, it is simply not possible to identify children with the highest need for support on the basis of, for example, family income or housing tenure. Any family with young children may have a very high claim for support based on specific family circumstances. Those who don’t fit the general criteria for being “targeted” might just slip through the cracks.’ 

The City Council also say that they have saved Sure Start centres from closure, but the services provided from the buildings are being ‘hollowed out’, says the Green Party. There is no guarantee that the local authority’s revenue budgets will meet the costs of providing other services in the buildings to keep them open in the longer-term. ‘It looks like a political quick fix to avoid the opprobrium of closing Sure Start centres’.   

Representatives of Save Manchester Sure Start, Unite the Union and the Manchester Green Party each spoke out against the proposals at the Scrutiny Committee, and are all supporting a lobby of the City Council’s Executive meeting this Wednesday.

 Notes 

(2) Save Manchester Sure Start: see Facebook for background to the campaign.

The Green Party has clear policies on how responsible investment can help build a more ethical and sustainable mixed economy. Public institutions such as Universities should aim for complete transparency in all financial trading, and allow key stakeholders (including staff and students) influence over investment decisions. The Deputy Leader of the Green Party, Adrian Ramsay, will directly challenge the University's investment strategy during a public meeting on campus on 23rd February.

Nationally the Greens have been at the forefront of campaigning for secure, ethical banking, and against institutions such as JP Morgan and Bank of America who play Russian roulette with virtual dollars, rather than invest in local business and social enterprises. We have condemned the hazardous peak-oil exploration practices of companies such as BP and Shell, instead supporting the creation of a truly renewables-driven energy sector. We have been vocal opposers of the unsustainable agriculture and poor record of animal welfare shown by supermarkets such as Tesco, and call for a radical overhaul of Food policy. We have openly criticised Vodafone for their tax dodging practices, the result of which causes billions of pounds to drain from our economy every year. And it is reprehensible that the University is investing in Halliburton, a company that has been accused by BP of holding partial responsibility for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Passed away 21st January. 

It is with great sadness that we have heard of the untimely death of Gayle O'Donovan who was one of Manchester Green Party's most active members in recent years and who stood for the Party in the Manchester Central constituency in the general election. She also stood in the city council elections in Hulme ward, where she polled the highest number of votes ever for a Green Party candidate in a Manchester ward.

As well as working within the Green Party, Gayle was very active in building bridges with other progressive organisations and campaigners, and was very involved with initiatives such as 'Convention of the Left'. She was elected to the Green Party's national executive in 2010, as Local Party support co-ordinator, and subsequently moved to Norwich.

Manchester Green Party Membership Secretary Anne Power, who worked closely with Gayle during her time as an activist in Manchester, said

"Gayle came to my attention in Manchester Green Party when we were campaigning to get a Green MEP in the North-West in 2009.  She was clearly a dynamic person attracting people and invigorating them.  She was to be seen in Green Party meetings and Climate Change events around the city.  There was always laughter and serious debate.  She seemed ready for anything, bold, enterprising, challenging.
Working closely with Northenden Lib Dem Councillor Martin Eakins she played a leading role in organising the 'Save Hasty Lane' campaign against airport expansion.
She decided to stand in Hulme returning to live in Hulme in a tiny one room flat.  She set about campaigning in her own original way and soon had fellow students and Green Party members gathering round her in support.  She was tireless in her efforts to win in Hulme.

With limelight on the general election she was prevented from gaining that seat on the Council, but no one could have worked harder, more efficiently or rallied more friends than Gayle.

The next phase of life for her in Manchester was very hard as exhaustion set in.  She had a bicycle accident and was in pain and restricted for weeks, but she had gone for election to the Green Party National Executive and was travelling to London and working into the night as ever, as well as helping Salford Green Party set up independently.  She was in the law courts in Trafford in icy conditions helping the climate activists with their defence. 
Finally she decided to move to Norwich where the Green Party is well established on the Council and there was more opportunity for her to be effective.
She had found good accommodation and life looked so much more positive for her.

We were all deeply shocked and sad to hear of her death on Saturday 21st January 2012.

The Green Party has lost a valiant worker and I personally have lost an amazing friend."

There is a tribute page for Gayle on the Hulme Green blog 

The reality is likely to be very different.  The Airport City is a concept which is popular in some circles².  Such a concept assumes continuing growth in the importance of aviation; climate change, Peak oil and the ongoing economic crisis all threaten this cosy assumption.   Manchester City has a strategy of reducing Carbon emissions from the city by 48% by 2020 - this will make that laudable aim much harder.  

Apart from the environmental impact the economic case is also seriously flawed.   The aviation industry has a record of huge exaggerations in its claims for providing jobs.  Fourteen years ago, Manchester Airport's second runway was billed as providing 50,000 new jobs.  According to former Treasury advisor Brendan Sewell calculated that by 2006 using the ratios usually quoted in the industry the total was only 6,400³ .  If the same factor is applied to the 13,000 jobs quoted for this initiative, the true figure is likely to be under 2,000.  

Proponents of Airport Cities argue that a strength of the concept is that business activity can be focused in and around the airport site, without having to travel further afield.  How much benefit is that likely to be for those living in Manchester's deprived communities, particularly in the north and east of the city (furthest from the Airport)?  After years with one of Europe's busier airports Manchester is still the 4th most deprived borough in the country, worse than the comparable city of Sheffield which has no airport at all to speak of. 

Enterprise Zones themselves are a very dubious commodity, which are more to do with cutting business taxes and weakening planning laws than about providing a sustainable economic future.   Instead the government should be investing in true regeneration of local communities via measures such as

• - improving housing stock, including better insulation 
• - new social housing
• - local public transport 

along the lines of the Green New Deal⁴ published when the banking crisis first struck (a genuine Deal, unlike the Government's current half-baked Green Deal proposals).          

1.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-16526677

2.  http://www.insightgrp.co.uk/airport-cities-the-evolution.html

3.  http://www.aef.org.uk/uploads/Airport_jobs___false_hopes_cruel_hoax.pdf

4.  http://www.greennewdealgroup.org/?page_id=19                    

There has been a consistent campaign of door-knocking for several months now in Levenshulme. The 2012 candidate, David Mottram, working in tandem with other party members, has been listening to the concerns of residents and discussing all things political with them. He is in the process of speaking to residents of sheltered housing complexes, and in early December, he and a team of Young Greens – eight came along to do solid footwork on a wet, cold December evening – distributed the latest Green Party Levenshulme Newsletter.

It is through many such instances of personal dedication that a manifesto has been drafted. The Manchester Green Party has come to know the issues which are really important to the people of Levenshulme, and this manifesto – to be launched in the new year – is truly written for them. This is in marked contrast to a recent Labour Levenshulme leaflet, which is effectively a template, barely mentions Levenshulme, is intended to be relevant to everyone and ends up being helpful to no-one. (See David’s blog post on the topic here: http://levenshulmegreenparty.blogspot.com/2011/11/levenshulme-labour-or-manchester-labour.html)

David’s campaign manager, Nick Wilkinson, had this to say: ‘David has increased his share of the vote year after year in Levenshulme. He will fight, and has fought, ceaselessly to become a progressive Green voice on Manchester City Council. Our campaign for Levenshulme will show all of Manchester that fair is worth fighting for.’

The Green Party instead calls for the abolition of tax havens and for the immediate implementation of a financial transaction tax. It’s in part through such radically fair measures that the party would fund a citizens’ pension scheme – one which would shield the most vulnerable members of our society from poverty in a time of particular economic hardship.

The most recent monthly meeting of the Manchester Green Party highlighted the serious risks posed by fracking in Lancashire, which has been carried out on an experimental basis by the energy company Cuadrilla with the aim of creating up to 400 drill sites on the Bowland Shale.

‘Fracking’, or hydraulic fracturing, refers to a process by which natural gas is extracted from geological formations by means of boring holes in the rock and creating seismic activity deep underground. The process uses a great deal of water which is mixed with a wide range of chemicals – some of which are known carcinogens. Fracking is being brought to the UK for largely economic reasons: the technology required has become more affordable, and gas prices in general have become higher.

However, the outcomes of this complex process are today still very unclear.

Cuadrilla’s activities have recently received a great deal of coverage in the media, particularly after the company itself admitted that the recent earthquakes in Blackpool were likely to have been the result of the fracking process.

Lancashire County Councillor Sam Riches commented that the earthquakes are just the tip of the iceberg. She further explained that 'groundwater pollution and air pollution seem to occur as side-effects of the process, in the US experience at least; there is also the possibility of a chemical leak and of the pollution of agricultural land'. She also stated that despite claims that because natural gas is 'greener than coal' shale gas should be welcomed, fracking is demonstrably an energy-intensive method of gas extraction and as such carries a large embedded carbon footprint, thus contributing to climate change far more than other forms of natural gas.

A common argument used in favour of fracking is that it will create jobs. However, Eve McNamara, member of the residents’ association Ribble Estuary Against Fracking, argued that there is little evidence to this end. She also commented that ‘the focus on Shale Gas extraction will very likely detract from investments which could be made in renewable forms of energy, a sector which might lead to the creation of half a million jobs by 2020’.

This may seem like a problem local to the Blackpool area, but if not met with resistance now then the practice of fracking could become much more widespread within the UK. Furthermore, the need to treat and dispose of the 'produced water' – vast quantities of contaminated water which is one product of the process – means that the impact of fracking will come to locations which are not themselves near drill sites. Davyhulme is one example – bringing the impact of fracking to Manchester residents' doorsteps.

The Green Party of England and Wales – and of course the Manchester Green Party – is asking for a moratorium on fracking, based on the precautionary principle. That means that unless we are convinced factually that the technology is safe, then the government must prohibit it from being used. Green MP Caroline Lucas has tabled an Early Day Motion to this effect.

23 OCTOBER 2011

The student population of Manchester is Greener than ever before.

At the University of Manchester freshers’ fair in late September, approximately 185 students signed up to become members of the newly founded Manchester Young Greens student society.

It seems likely that the principled and consistent stance of the Green Party against the rise in tuition fees carried out by the coalition government has played a role in this apparent surge in Green student support.

A committee of ten members has been established, and several projects are already in development, notably a student food cooperative which will – in the words of committee co-chair, Nick Wilkinson – ‘not only combat climate change, but also student poverty by supplying students with affordable food. The Young Greens don’t just agitate for change. We are bringing the change right now.’

What’s more, a food recycling campaign is underway, to supply appropriate bins to students who do not possess them and to encourage those who do to use them. And Manchester Young Greens will be participating in the Student Union’s forthcoming Climate Action Week.

Manchester Green Party committee has followed these events with great enthusiasm, and welcomed the participation of several Young Greens at its last monthly meeting. MGP Chair Brian Candeland said, ‘Here in Manchester we have the largest University campus in the country so we are delighted to welcome such a thriving Young Greens group. We look forward to working with them over the coming year.’

Green placards calling for protection for public services and for investment in a million climate jobs were very visible.  Unlike the 3 'main' Parties the Greens went into the last election calling for investment to tackle the economic crisis, with a 'Green New Deal' to provide jobs in areas like social housing, public transport, and renewable energy. 

Meanwhile  the Tory-led Government is presiding over a failing economy, chaos in the health service and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor.  In addition Manchester seems a strange place for the Tories to hold a conference: they have not had a single councillor elected in the City for nearly 20 years, and over most of the City, the Green Party outpoll the Tories in local council elections.         

Chris Gibbins of Manchester Green Party expressed disappointment at the residents’ stance and said ’We believe that FC United are genuinely willing to enter into dialogue about the environmental impact of the development’. He acknowledged that many other local residents have participated in consultation with the club and do support the scheme.

The Green Party, he said, 'supports FC United’s ambition for a stadium in the city but wants to maximise protection for the local environment & ecology in Moston. Concerns include management of road traffic and car parking for match days, and any impact on the nearby wetland at Dean Brook, a Site of Biological Interest'. The Green Party and FC United are currently in dialogue about these issues.

FC United general manager Andy Walsh said ‘We are happy to talk to the Green Party – or anyone else – with constructive points to make about improving the scheme. The Greens have also suggested we install solar panels for the stand roofs and ground source heat pumps for the pitches, and we will look at this’. He went on to say ‘We have offered several times to attend meetings with RURA but so far this has been refused. That offer remains open’.

The City Council withdrew support in March this year for FC United's original stadium proposal for a brown field site at Ten Acres Lane, Newton Heath. The reasons for this have not been made public. The secretary of Manchester Green Party, David Mottram, says that this is typical of the City Council: ‘Why aren’t they more open in the way they handle big planning applications? Some local people in Moston are up in arms because they feel that they are being made fall guys by the City Council.’ ‘We don’t know the truth’, he says, ‘but people now need to keep talking to FC United and working for the best possible scheme in Moston’.

Note

The planning application is for Ronald Johnson Playing Fields, Lightbowne Road, Moston, Manchester M40 0FJ [application number is 096289/FO/2011/N1]. The application is likely to be considered by Manchester City Council’s Planning & Highways Committee at its meeting on 15^th September 2011

Contacts:  David Mottram  

0161 224 0079  Email secretary@manchestergreenparty.org.uk

Chris Gibbins:   

07730 654708

Within this, the Council’s ‘Directorate for Adults’ is expected to reduce its budget by £39.5 million (slide 5).

As part of these reductions the Council is running a consultation exercise on some of its proposed changes to its Social Care services and charging policy.

 Changes threatened  include 

• Greatly reducing the level at which users start being charged for services
• Replacement of human contact support with technology

The examples of the latter quoted in the consultation are

- replacing visits to dementia sufferers with  a text alert to remind them to do things

- supplying GPS for electric scooters

(see more detailed description on the Hulme Green Blog).

Whilst the consultation papers have lots of ideas about 'what could happen' it is difficult to make out what the changes are actually going to be. What is plain and not in the consultation papers is the number of services that will no longer be funded from 2012 (see table at the end of the paper).

Deyika Nzeribe, Hulme Green Party activist said

"The council are being very unclear about several aspects of what they are planning, including the extra cost to the individuals affected, and whether or not the Council will merge services with other local authorities, as they have done with legal services. 

Regarding claims of innovation if these are their best examples then this is not convincing. Also, will they trial these innovations before removing exsiting services?"    

The number of households in Manchester has increased by 37,549 in the last ten years whilst there have been 24,000 new homes built in the same period, mostly apartments. In 2010, there were 16,000 households on Manchester Council’s housing register – 7,000 more than in 2001. These are Manchester Council’s statistics.

However, according to recent official government statistics, the number of households on the waiting list was actually 22,448, a much larger number amounting to no less than 11.1% of total households in the city.

Whatever number ones takes, it is clear that in the last decade there has been a steep rise in housing need in Manchester. Nor is this pressure likely to diminish. The Council estimates that there will be another 56,000 households in Manchester in twenty years times. This is the crisis.

At the moment, the Council is building just 200 new council homes in Charlestown, Blackley and West Gorton whilst in the last two years only 255 empty houses have been brought back into use. Meanwhile, in December 2009, there were 13,760 empty homes across all tenures in Manchester, 8040 of these had been empty for more than 6 months. The Council itself states they have “a number of tools and legal powers to tackle empty homes” but they fail to use them. 

According to the Index of Multiple Deprivation, a national statistic which is an accepted measure for household deprivation, 228,235 of Manchester residents live in the worst 10% most deprived neighbourhoods nationally.  This equates to 62% of our households.  

Manchester Council has become reliant on the private sector for answering Manchester’s housing problems. No one doubts that there have been difficulties in financing social housing development, but Manchester’s Labour council has been extreme in its response.

Once, the Labour-led Council was a beacon for providing decent social housing but in recent years it has abandoned this, trying to outsource its housing department and wherever possible simply ditch its social housing responsibilities..

The Green Party believes in a Green New Deal for social housing. It believes that building new houses would not only provide decent homes for families but would also provide work for unemployed construction workers and help lift the region out of recession.

It believes that the existence of empty homes alongside tens of thousands of families on a housing waiting list is immoral particularly when the Council possess the legal power to take over empty property vacant for a long time.

Deyika Nzeribe, Hulme Green Party campaigner said "the Council should takeover and complete abandoned apartment blocks. When quizzed about their failure to do this, one councillor replied that such apartments did not fit the housing needs of most people on the waiting list. It would be interesting to see just how many of these applicants would turn down a two-bedroom apartment in a new block as ‘unsuitable’.

We challenge our Labour councillors to come up with proposals for solving Hulme’s housing crisis with similar positive proposals."

We have enough to do coping with a Cameron government without a  Labour Council oppressing some of its poorest residents. The proceedings at Manchester City Council Planning Committee meeting on Thursday were shocking. The main decision was to grant planning permission to MMU to build on Birley Fields in Hulme. Members spoke so quietly into their microphones it was almost impossible to hear.

The long statement on the MMU plan was gabbled and inaudible. The speaker for the defence of Hulme's last green space and community feelings was brilliant in content and delivery, but she 
was utterly ignored.

The developer ignored all the issues raised by the Hulme residents' speaker and and claimed amazing Green credentials for the plans with tall, extended buildings depriving local residents of light, and tiny patches of mown grass enclosed within buildings, a car park for 700 cars and no attempt to create a network of buses, buggies or many biking facilities.

One Hulme Councillor was allowed to attack residents in a very personal way throughout the meeting. If she is backing a great project for Hulme and the city, such behaviour should hardly be necessary.