Urban Splash’s vision for New Islington.

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

From Urban Splash’s own site: New Islington you can see from their images from their master-plan, they had no intention of preserving Ancoats Dispensary.  

Looking towards the centre of this image, just to the right of the grey and blue building is the site of Ancoats Dispensary but it has been replaced by another building. 

And in this image, just to the right of centre, the Chip building can be identified.  And in front of the Chip Building, Ancoats Dispensary has been replaced.  These images are from an Urban Splash web-site dated 2011, which shows Tom Bloxham and Urban Splash were not being truthful, when they said they were looking at options for Ancoats Dispensary.  It is obvious to most people, that they had other plans for the site of Ancoats Dispensary.  And if you view the time-line for Ancoats Dispensary, the roof was damaged as far back as 2005 and no attempt made to repair it.  Nor did Manchester City Council exercise their powers to repair and compulsory purchase powers to remedy such deliberate neglect/ 

Six Reasons Why Politicians Believe They Can Lie | Psychology Today

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

An interesting article on why politicians lie.  And it is very pertinent to Manchester and the Labour run council.  For years now councillor Richard Leese and Howard Bernstein have been trumpeting the success of their regeneration plans for the City.  This is despite their are hundreds of office and retails units empty, some for years since being built.  Then, there is the high unemployment, deprivation, poverty, fuel poverty and homelessness.  Even despite all this evidence, their plans have not succeeded but have been proven to be a waste of tax-payers money.  And in some cases, this money cannot be accounted for, but no criminal investigation or charges have been made.  Still, their loyal following, including members of Labour’s shadow cabinet, think everything is fine.  In the meantime, the real Mancunians (no matter what their colour), suffer.  And the reason why, is explained in the article below.

Six Reasons Why Politicians Believe They Can Lie | Psychology Today.

guttae: TRADITION AND CHANGE IN POST-REGENERATION MANCHESTER

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

A  blog which reflects my own opinions about the (de)regeneration of Manchester.  And how it has achieved nothing but put money into property developers hands.  All history of Manchester is slowly being erased, with Ancoats Infirmary to be demolished.  The blog is quite lengthy but worth a read.

guttae: TRADITION AND CHANGE IN POST-REGENERATION MANCHESTER.

Commission Rejects UK Application to Delay Compliance With Nitrogen Dioxide Laws in 12… — LONDON, June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ —

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

As part of my objection to MMU’s plans for Birley Fields campus.  I raised the matter of air pollution and how the development, especially the stopping up of certain roads, would increase to poor quality in Hulme.  I especially emphasised that it would have a detrimental affect of the pupils of St. Philips Primary School.  I also criticised their traffic, air and noise assessment as not being adequate or of being representative of the actual conditions.

The local councillors, including the councillor for the Environment, the Planning Officer and Planning Committee, ignored such concerns.  If fact, the Planning Committee never conducted a site visit, even though this is a major development.  Hulme already suffers from a high rate of ill-health, mental and physical.

No one in Government, National and Local are taking this situation seriously.  In fact at a recent council meeting, it was stated that the emissions from Manchester Airport, do not fall on Manchester but the North Atlantic?  And the National Government does not want to comply with any EU regulations, because they say they are bad for big business?

Commission Rejects UK Application to Delay Compliance With Nitrogen Dioxide Laws in 12… — LONDON, June 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ —.

ResPublica | Think Tank | Phillip Blond | Big Society | Government policy | Clubbing Together: The hidden wealth of communities

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

It is amazing that politicians need reports to tell them, what most people understand to be common sense. Though this is about social clubs and is sponsor by bingo clubs.  It does highlight the importance of community groups and volunteers.  This is why most of us were shocked when Manchester City Council, shut down Youth Clubs.  They also do not realise the importance of Public Houses, as meeting places as free meeting places for community groups.  In fact,in Manchester City Council, has actively worked to shut down any community group which it feels threatened by.  Instead of listening what these groups have to say and working with them, to bring about a win/win situation.

 

ResPublica | Think Tank | Phillip Blond | Big Society | Government policy | Clubbing Together: The hidden wealth of communities.

Manchester City Council’s Environmental Scrutiny Committee Meeting.

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

This morning I attended a Environmental Scrutiny Committee meeting, where the public were invited to attend.  Some of the committee members appeared pleased that a number of the public were their, with some of public putting forward short presentations.  Bot when the Council’s economic advisers gave their presentation, my heart dropped.  They were advocating ‘business-as-usual’, even though this is the cause of our present financial crisis.  Also a councillor dismissed the importance of local food production, stating he wanted his electorate to stop smoking and drinking.  He obviously does not understand, this is due to the inequalities of the present system and their lack of empowerment. 

And in the workshop I attended, once again a councillor argued that the airport was low carbon, as the emissions did not affect Manchester but were felt elsewhere.  And it was best the expanded Manchester Airport, because if aviation went elsewhere it would not be a low carbon as that of Manchester Airport.  The attitude of some of the councillors are totally blinkered, they cannot see the real damage the airport is doing to Manchester and the surrounding area.  And things will get worse with the building of the by-pass, so motorist can get to the airport faster instead of using public transport.  These views were reinforced by Richard Leese, he even decided that one of the action points would not be Manchester’s but AGMA’s (Association of Greater Manchester Authorities). 

It would appear the council leadership have not taken any notice of the mass of information on the unsustainability of ‘business-as-usual’.  Someone from AGMA, when someone said the council needed to show leadership, said Richard Leese had showed leadership because he gave a speech!  This is not leadership, in fact Richard Leese, is very good at saying the council is not responsible for this, they cannot do this or that.  He does not show leadership, but is a bully boy who wants to get his own way no matter what others think. 

It is a pity this video from the European Environmental Agency was not available to show them.  Though, I doubt it would make much difference to the likes of Richard Leese

Manchester City Council to axe head of planning post

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

This article from Planning, is about the shake of the highly paid jobs in Manchester City Council.  It is a pity, this was not done the other year, instead of axing funding for Youth Services and Sure-Start.

Manchester City Council to axe head of planning post.

Manchester City Council is to abolish its £70,002 a year head of planning post, one of a host of high-ranking roles that the local authority says will save more than £1 million a year.

Peter Babb, head of planning and building control, is to take early retirement, the council said. The role will be discontinued.

The council said that further cuts to its planning services would also be made. In a report published last week, the council said it anticipated “further management changes” to its planning services that would result in “further savings”. These proposals are expected to be debated by the council’s personnel committee, made up of six officers and headed by chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein, in June. Further details were not available at the time of writing.

Steve Mycio, the £138,066 a year deputy chief executive (regeneration), is to also leave as part of a shake-up of the local authority’s planning and regeneration services. The post is to be abolished. Responsibility for economic development and regeneration, will fall under the remit of the assistant chief executive (regeneration), who will report directly to the chief executive.

The £120,894 a year post of strategic director of transformation, currently held by Elaine Bowker, is also being discontinued. The strategic director of transformation’s functions will be integrated into the role of deputy chief executive (performance).

The council said that the new “corporate core” of the council, comprised of the chief executive, city treasurer, city solicitor, director of communications and deputy chief executive (performance), would be in place from 12 April. Planning understands that the incumbent deputy chief executive Geoff Little will continue in this role.

Last month the council published its proposed budget for 2011/12, setting out how it intended to make £109 million of cuts over the next financial year, rising to £170 million in 2012/13.

 

Biogas, the Forgotten Free Renewable Energy | ecogreen4us

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

I have mentioned over the years the benefits of Bio-digesters, the fact they produce methane whilst also providing nitrogen rich fertiliser.  Other countries have embraced this technology, even in the poorest parts of South America.  There, households are providing themselves with cheap energy from their own organic waste.

But in the UK, they prefer to invest in incineration of waste and biomass (mostly from imported wood), which emits CO2, particulates (dust).  Addition waste incineration emits dioxins,  furans and other pollutants.

I have put forward several options for bio-digester plants to Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Councillor for the Environment.  But, I am always rebuffed with why the council will not invest in bio-digesters.  One of the reasons is the Viridor, who took over the waste management services were supposed to incorporate Anaerobic Digester plants at their waste treatment plants for organic waste.  But I have not heard or found any evidence that these plants are operational.

I did alert Nigel Murphy to a project in Glasgow where the residents food waste went into In-Vessel composting units.  Thus avoiding CO2 from transportation of the waste and providing compost for a community garden.  I mentioned that instead of just composting the food waste, use it to produce energy as well.  But the Council does not seem to be interested in investing for the long term future, but only in the short term profits of developers.

Biogas, the Forgotten Free Renewable Energy | ecogreen4us.

Is Manchester’s future going to follow that of Catalonia

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester City Council has pushed his dreams of turning Manchester into another Barcelona unceasingly.  This is despite the fact that Manchester has high unemployment and a number of children in poverty.  He has continued with his policies which only benefit multi-national companies and starve the City of any real inward investment.  I wonder if he has bothered visiting Barcelona again, to see the unfinished buildings and the blight the City is now suffering from?  Has he not noticed the unfinished buildings here in Manchester, the empty office blocks and empty retail units.  Then there is the EU grants which cannot be fully accounted for and the EU may want to claw back.  Reading an article about Catalan, of which Barcelona is the capital City on the Share Centres web-site.  I started to wonder if we were heading the same way as Catalonia? 

But then there is the problem of local government debt. Catalonia is a wealthy region. Perhaps you could say that the region is to Spain, what California is to the US. And it has one other thing in common with California – it carries enormous debts. Its President Artur Mas displays all the hallmarks of a troubled man. On Friday, he said at a press conference: “We don’t care how they do it, but we need to make payments at the end of the month. Your economy can’t recover if you can’t pay your bills.” This year the region has to refinance 13 billion worth of euros. But how? The citizens of Catalonia do their bit, but, according to Reuters, a quarter of their savings are already in patriot bonds, and that source of funding is now dry. The region could turn to the banks, but, again using Reuters as the source, the region next door Valencia paid out 7 per cent interest on a six month bank loan recently. And that is not really affordable – or so we are being told.

But Catalonia is just one of 17 regions. Last week Moody’s downgraded the rating for Catalonia, but also downgraded three other regions: Murcia, Andalucia and Extremadura. In all, the regions that make up Spain have to re-finance around 36 billion euros of debt this year.

Mr Mas wants to see central government underwrite loans to the regions.

But this is the scary thing. It is generally agreed that Spanish house prices have further to fall. And with unemployment running at nearly 25 per cent of Spain’s labour supply, how can further falls in Spanish house prices not result in more defaults, more bad debts, more bank losses, and the need for even more bail-outs?

How can Spain possibly manage such a situation?

Only through getting many more of its work force into productive jobs can this problem begin to be fixed. But too high a proportion of the workforce only has experience working in construction, and the Spanish construction industry is not likely to recover for a very long time.

 

Interview: Mary Heaney of MMU

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

My thoughts on Manchester Climate Monthly’s recent article on Manchester Metropolitan University.

manchesterclimatemonthly's avatarmanchester climate monthly

MCFly co-editor Arwa Aburawa interviews Mary Heaney, Director of Services at Manchester Metropolitan University, whose responsibilities include the environmental sustainability agenda

Besides saving money, what are the reasons MMU is taking green action?

Money isn’t actually the top priority for us in terms of sustainability – it’s our corporate social responsibility. We are an organisation that devotes it self to the next generation and we think it’s absolutely incumbent upon us to be responsible in the way we operate and look at the way that we function from everything from the amount of chemicals the cleaners use to me pulling down the blinds when I leave that this room is bearable the next day to the way we operate our labs. It’s about being part of the solution, I guess.

Another top motivator that MMU talk about is that preparing students for new realities and embedding green thinking makes them…

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