Manchester is getting a much-needed People’s Environmental Scrutiny Committee.  The first meeting is next week, on Tuesday 26th August, from 7pm at the Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St.  (If you can’t come, please see the jobs list.)  The second meeting is on Monday 22nd September, at the Moss Side Community Allotment, Bowes St, also from 7pm. They are free, no booking required and open to anyone who wants to meet other people who give a damn, and who wants to make Manchester a greener place, more ready for the daunting challenges that lie ahead

Each meeting is a meeting, not a “listening”-  about sharing and learning skills, brainstorming and networking, rather than being sat in rows and lectured.

There will also be time to discuss reports that have been produced by and for the committee.  In September, there will be a report about the “Total Carbon Footprint” approach to looking at carbon dioxide emissions. This was a radical approach that Manchester City Council committed to implementing… and then didn’t. We think it should be back on the “to do” list.

The People’s Environmental Scrutiny Committee reports will be;

• about important local issues that have fallen off – or never made it onto – the agenda

• focused on what can be done in the short-to-medium term with tiny/non-existent budgets

• specific in their recommendations to both Manchester City Council and “civil society”

• written in the plain English (and, where appropriate and possible, translated into other languages, and into short videos.)

• short. (Twelve A4 pages is a ceiling, not a target.)

• circulated widely, (not just to councillors and the usual suspects.)

Future reports will (well, ‘may’) include – “community-based resilience”, “what is a low-carbon culture and how do we get it”, “carbon literacy and beyond”, “digital skills for a green city”, “green and blue spaces”, “veganism”.

The first report, which makes the case for the creation of a formal Environmental Scrutiny Committee, is available for download.