For years Manchester Climate Monthly pushed for the Council to produce monthly updates of its “progress” on climate change.  Eventually a councillor managed to get them to promise quarterly reports.  MCFly then had to push the Council to keep the promise, which had nothing to do with the then Exec Member for the Environment also being a parliamentary candidate, no siree.  But, eventually, the reports – which take ten hours of officer time to collate – started to be produced.

Now, given how important climate change is, and how seriously we all know the Council takes the issue, and how they want everyone to be informed, engaged and involved, you’d expect there to be a Really Big Effort to disseminate the quarterly reports.  Wouldn’t you? Sure you would.

So – now, are you sitting down? Do you have a reliable friend to hand? – the truth is out there.  So out there that when MCFly got the FoIA, well, we fainted…

In the FoIA we requested “a copy of the distribution list for these reports – which members and officers do they go to? Which other “stakeholders” are they sent to?”

And the answer?  You’re SURE you’re ready??

No, really. Are you sure?

 
Oh, alright then.

 
“The reports are uploaded to the Council’s website. There is no distribution list for
these reports.”