Kate Chappell, who was Executive Member for the Environment from late 2013 to mid-2016, is stepping down from Manchester City Council.

Manchester City Council announce a by-election in Rusholme Ward on 4th May as Kate Chappell @chappellKate steps down as a councilor.

— BBC Radio Manchester (@BBCRadioManc) March 20, 2017

Readers may recall that in early 2014, in response to a series of practical suggestions by environmental activists,  Councillor Chappell committed to creating a blog on which she would be able to communicate all the wonderful things that the Council was doing about climate change and other environmental matters.

They may also recall that Councillor Chappell, without explanation or apology, chose not to actually kept that promise.   She did not enact the alternatives that were suggested to her by the council’s officers for non-Council website to which the Council would link.

The Council was asked to reveal the legal correspondence via FoIA, and did not keep to its legal commitment to do so in 20 working days.  The finally released correspondence that the Council officers argued that a blog would be ‘too political’.

We could go on and on about the record of escalating failure on climate change during the period 2013 to 2016 (a failure that has escalated further since, of course).  But simply can’t be bothered.  People will have to answer to their children about what they did and didn’t do when it mattered.