The Steering Group, the group that has received roughly £100k from Manchester City Council, has broken a promise to inform stakeholders of how they can be involved in making the next strategic plan.  The promise was made in its 2015 Annual Report (see below) This is bigger, much bigger than promises to produce a newsletter, or update a website (more on that soon).

“The process for its publication will be published by early 2016, including opportunities for

2016-2020 Plan

• Since the commitment to develop the 2016-20 plan (in the Annual Report 2015) we have been working with the Town Hall policy-makers and politicians to include ‘zero carbon by 2050’ as a commitment in the Manchester Strategy.

• We’re currently working on the draft strategy setting out how the 2050 target will be achieved and will be consulting on it publicly during May/June.

• The 2016-20 plan will now therefore sit in the context of the strategy and will be the first of a series of 5-year ‘implementation plans’.

• It is intended that the strategy and plan will be ‘published’ at the AGM in July, alongside the Annual Report

So, instead of “opportunities” announced “by early 2016” what we actually get is

“consulting in it publicly during May/June”

That they can’t – or won’t – see the yawning chasm between those two statements tells you everything you need to know about their sense of urgency, and their competence.

The days when the Council would listen to the people outside the charmed circle (i.e. May-September 2009) are long long gone.  They only happened because Richard Leese had committed to going to a big climate meeting of mayors, and he knew that the normal mechanisms of policy-making could not deliver what he needed.  So they latched onto the Call to Real Action process, while it suited them, and then dropped it like a gun as soon as they could.