This below is a press release from the Breathe Clean Air Group.
Members of the Breathe Clean Air Group raising funds at Urmston Christmas Market
Trafford Council’s challenge against the Barton Renewable Energy Plant, located in Davyhulme, Greater Manchester, is to take place in February.
The High Court hearing will be open to the public and will take place on 10th and 11th February at the Civil Justice Courts, Spinningfield, Manchester.
“This could be our last chance to stop this dirty, waste incinerator within the conventional process,” said Pete Kilvert, Chairman of the Breathe Clean Air Group. “Although the plant poses as an electricity generating power station, its real purpose is to incinerate the Peel Group’s waste from the Trafford Shopping Centre and other Peel developments. The term biomass is misleading in order to acquire massive grants of taxpayers’ money from the Government”.
The Breathe Clean Air Group has been campaigning for over three years to prevent the incinerator being built. They say that its out-dated technology, its inadequate filtration system and its very short chimney stack will not be able to prevent dangerous particles and heavy metals from polluting the neighbourhood, resulting in serious health impacts on local people in the short and long-term future.
“We are extremely grateful that a united Trafford Council has had the courage and the tenacity to take on the Government and this multi-billion pound corporation,” said Pete Kilvert. “The BCAG campaign has clearly shown that the people of Trafford do not want this 40 metre high monstrosity dominating the skyline and polluting our community for the next 25 years.”
Members of the public wishing to attend the Hearing should keep an eye on BCAG’s website, www.BreatheCleanAirGroup.co.uk for starting times and any last minute changes.
So, Thursdays are hereby proclaimed to be 3 Questions* Thursdays.
Every Thursday we will put up a short video of a Mancunian answering the following –
1. “Who are you?” (Name, where you live, and – if you want to say – what you “do”)
2. “What does Manchester need to become more sustainable?”
3. “What knowledge and skills do you want to acquire in 2014?”
Why this? Because we need to celebrate what is happening, imagine what could happen and also connect people who have skills with people who want them. #movementbuilding.
So, watch out. If I see you before you see me, and I’ve got my video camera handy (I will), you might be in the frame…
* And an optional 4. – “Anything else you’d like to say?”
Here’s the full interview. It’s worth watching – or at least listening to – the whole lot; there’s refreshing candour and clarity in it. If I were being all tabloid and combative (quoi, moi?) there’d be a splash about the death of the Stakeholder Conference (one less thing for me to be excluded from). That’s all in there from 10 mins to 14 mins…
And here’s the last question, where Gavin talks about the tensions between carbon emissions, economic growth, Jevons’ Paradox and squaring the circle…
It’s a long interview – here are the questions Gavin was asked!
0 min 00 secs When not chair of BDP or Steering Group, what do you do?
1 min 40 secs Why did you take on the role of chair as the Steering Group?
2 mins 45 When did you first become aware of Manchester A Certain Future. Was it back in 2009 when the whole thing was being stitched together?
4 mins On the Stakeholder Conference. Reading from page 6 of the Certain Future. “A Stakeholder Conference will be held every year to oversee the delivery of projects” and later on it talks about sharing progress and ideas. Is there going to be a Stakeholder Conference in 2014?
06 mins 40 Will there be a budget for these events, will they be in the daytime or the evening. How will you ensure there will be a broad cross-section who come, not just the usual suspects.
08 mins 24. On the monthly meetings of the Steering Group – When the Council holds its meetings, they’re in public. Is any portion of the monthly steering group metings that you’re doing going to be held in public?
10 mins 00 It says in the plan that there is an Annual Stakeholder Conference, and I am a little confused as to how such a fundamental element of the plan can be done away with on the say-so of one person who has been appointed by a two or three member interview panel, who has not been elected. How can a core element of Manchester A Certain Future just be swept away by fiat?
13mins 20 There are lots of groups doing “engagement work”.. the Unique Selling Proposition of the Steering Group was that it was the one group that had the legitimacy to bring everyone to the table. Do you have any comment on that?
14 mins 20 I think most viewers of this would say that you’re legitimate either by being effective and making lots of stuff happen or by elections, or ideally by both. And I want to read you something very quickly from the minutes of a meeting that you did not attend. This was in March 2012, which is basically two years ago.
“Item 6 Elections and Governance of MACF” .. under the existing Terms of Reference the Steering Group would elect three members at the Annual Conference” which is not going to happen any more. But it has no formal election process and needs to have democratic accountability. The Group needs to decide who its electorate is and how the election process will take place in November 2012.” A subgroup was going to produce a substantive report into this at the August 2012 meeting.
Now, you and I have had discussions about elections and the mechanics of them. If the Steering Group can’t even, almost two years after it said it would, come up with a “good enough” election process, why should anyone believe it is capable of helping Manchester to do a really big thing like creating a low carbon culture?
19 mins 30. Tell us what you’re going to say in May of 2014 – assuming we are still talking – when I come and interview you, and I ask you “what’s the Steering Group done in the last six months?” What will your answer be, you hope?
21 mins 30. Let’s take the two headline goals of the Climate Change Action Plan The 41% by 2020. Is BDP signed up to a Certain Future? Does it have an implementation plan?
22 mins 10. Do you [BDP] have a plan that addresses goal two, which is the creation of a low carbon culture?
23 mins 15 As you know, the goal for sign up to the Climate Plan was 1000 organisations. And the last numbers I saw were 220. So is this a goal for the Steering Group – to try to get more organisations signed up to the Manchester Climate Change Action Plan.
23 mins 55 So is there going to be an analysis of those 220 organisations – some of whom no longer exist, because of the natural order of things. Is there going to be a process where they’re gone back to and it’s said “well, you signed this, are you in or out?” Is that going to happen?
24 mins 40 And is that going to be the responsibility of one specific person on the Steering Group, charged with re-engaging with those who have already signed up?
25 mins 20. Goal number two of the Certain Future document – it’s worth quoting a little bit. “To engage all individuals, neighbourhoods and organisations in Manchester in a process of cultural change that embeds “low carbon thinking” into the lifestyles and operations of the city. To create a low-carbon culture… I ask everyone this, and I’ve yet to have an answer that makes me think “yeah”. What is a low carbon culture?
27 mins 50. You mentioned the City Council there, so I’ll make this an easy question. Should we expect the Steering Group to perform any type of watch-dog scrutiny function on Manchester City Council and its … sometimes questionable… actions or should we go on relying on Manchester Climate Monthly to perform that scrutiny function?
29 mins 45 Going back to the Certain Future document. I was having a read of it too. Page 37 “Promotion and Education” “Organise an annual climate change conference for young people so they can discuss future scenarios. This was written in 2009. An annual conference we’d be up to number 4 by now… Is it going to happen?
30 mins 40. I don’t think ideas is our problem. I think delivery is our problem. Which comes back to… money. So, what are we going to do?
32 mins 56 Is it not the case that Action for Sustainable Living got £15,000 to perform the secretariat function?
32 mins 25 What events have they supported/done?
35 mins 35 What do you think the “unknown unknowns” are? In 3 years, what will the Steering Group regret not having done?
I know, life is short, and the last thing you need to read is another wafflethon by another green biz guru.
But wait, this one is different – it’s a corker. It’s by some guy called Brendon May “the founder of the Robertsbridge Group, a leading sustainability consultancy formed in 2010 by a number of prominent environmental thinkers.”
From a movement to a racket?
Out there (by which I mean away form the sustainability business circuit) no one’s really listening. Consumers want things done simply for them, making the best environmental choice easy to identify. “Consumer behavior change,” that loathesome half-baked concept, won’t persuade the pension funds invested in Shell to get out. It won’t stop companies destroying Africa for new palm oil development or alter the flow of Chinese finance that is altering the world’s resource ownership. It also won’t stem the race for middle-class status that is well underway in emerging giant powerhouses such as Indonesia. It won’t stop temperature rises, and it won’t even elect governments that are vaguely interested in the future, except by accident, occasionally. We should bin it and banish it from our “narrative” (oops).
We’d do better to focus on where the big impacts lie — in the huge business-to-business transactions, the trading and commodities world, the financial institutions that must bear responsibility not just for economic collapse but ecological ruin, and the giant conglomerates that are slow to change, but vastly important when they do. I don’t hear much of this on Twitter or at conferences. What I hear is new terminology, new phrases for things that are blindingly obvious. I hear about how brands have great power and can make all the difference. They certainly have power: quite often a consumer boycott campaign leads to sales of whatever is being boycotted going up. Where does that leave your behavior change, eh?
Hat-tip to Gavin Elliott, the chair of the Stakeholder Steering Group. The interview with him conducted in December will finally get posted tomorrow….
Information is power. If you want to stop stupid things happening to your neighbourhood, city or planet, one of the things you need is accurate facts about who owns what, who is planning what. This very interactive training day will help you get research skills so you can investigate what local authorities, government and corporations have planned for your area.
It is free to attend, and will be held in Central Manchester on Saturday 15th March from 10.30am to 4pm.
The event is being organised by Manchester Climate Monthly and Manchester Citizenship, but IS open to people from all over the country (we are especially interested in for a good turn out from the North West).
Because we want the day to be genuinely interactive and useful to all, we are capping numbers at twenty-five. Please only apply if you can definitely come!
No prior experience is necessary, but we do want you to do some homework before you come (see below).
To apply, please send an email to mcmonthly@gmail.com with “Research Training” in the subject header, with your name and mobile phone number(s). You do NOT have to tell us who you are interested in researching. It would however help us if you would tell us
a) have you ever used the Freedom of Information Act?
b) have you ever done research on a company using Companies House?
c) have you ever done further research using other databases?
We will confirm receipt of your application within 48 hours.
What you need to do
Before
Commit to watching the short videos we put up in the weeks leading up to the training day. These will be “how to” and “about” videos, with Nick Hildyard of The Cornerhouse, and other people. We will send you the links!
On the day
Bring a laptop if you can
Bring a list of things you want to try to find out (the more specific the better)
Bring your own lunch (we provide tea and biscuits!). We may be providing a veggie curry on the day, but do NOT depend on this!
We will ask you to fill in a short and anonymous feedback form on the day. Anything short of brutal honesty will be frowned upon (but it’s anonymous, so we won’t know who to frown at…)
Afterwards
Try to pass on your newly-acquired skills to fellow activists in your neck of the woods. One of the themes of the day will be how to do this!
Reply to a three-month-after email about whether the day was helpful or not, how it could have been better.
Film Showing On the Eigth Day Central Manchester
January 17 @ 17:00 – 19:00
“Join us for a Northern Gas Gala event in Central Manchester for an evening of informative and inspirational films, friends, speakers and solidarity. Do you want to know what all the fracking fuss is about? Come with an open mind and a couple of quid donation.. Watch some films, listen to the speakers, eat and drink and make up your own mind about this fracking nightmare.”
So, having put up posts from Carbon Coop, Climate Survivors, Madlab and Kindling Trust (twice!), it’s MCFly’s turn to face its own music.
What was your biggest achievement in 2013?
We* kept the website going – heaps of content. Ten issues of MCFly came out, and only the last was not within deadline.
We made a bunch of videos, conducted a bunch of interviews. Erm…
If you could go back to the beginning of the year and give yourself one warning/piece of advice, what would it be?
Logistics logistics logistics. Forget strategy, that’s for amateurs. If you’re trying to build a social movement (or rather, do the Right Things during the abeyance of a social movement) then even if there are things that you “should” be doing – like contesting the farcical ineptitude and downright falsehoods of Manchester City Council and its stab-vest Steering Group – then you should only do these things if you can do them in ways that build your side’s capacity. And doing that requires internal logistics – staff, discipline, focus etc. And those are very hard things to sustain.
What have you got planned for 2014, and how can people get involved in what you do?
Logistics!!
That is, a renewed focus on ‘capacity-building’ of individuals and groups.
We’re going to return to some old regulars – and some new regulars- as of January 19th or so.
Mondays will be McNuggets of upcoming news and reading
Wednesdays will be “Practical McMonthly Task” (PMT)
Thursdays will be “Three Question Thursday”, where we post a short video interview with an environmental/social justice activist.
Fridays will be “something for the weekend”
Saturdays will be “good news”
Alongside all of this, interviews, videos, event reports. A new regular column “how to” (write a press release, do an interview, write a letter to the editor) and much more.
Wanna get involved? Email mcmonthly@gmail.com
* Since July MCFly has been Marc Hudson – Arwa Aburawa got a gig with Al-Jazeera!
Chair of Manchester Green Party Deyika Nzeribe talks to MCFly about the year gone and the year ahead. For the councillors who ‘read’ MCFly – read the disclaimer, ok?
What was your biggest achievement in 2013?
2013 was a year of firsts for Manchester Green Party but I suppose our biggest public achievement was our ‘Green Economy, Green Jobs’ public event in March. The keynote speakers were Natalie Bennett (the national Green party Leader) and Neil McIlroy (Chief Executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies). Over 140 people attended and the event ‘trended’ on Twitter.
Aside from that I’ve been impressed by Green Party members campaigning involvement this year including, Alexandra Park, saving local services (particularly libraries and day centres), the NHS and the Barton Moss anti-fracking protests.
If you could go back to the beginning of the year and give yourself one warning/piece of advice, what would it be?
It would probably be not to over-stretch. We did a huge amount last year but because of the amount of negative policies and actions coming from national and local government, it never felt like it was enough.
So yes, don’t over-stretch, partner-up where possible, tell people what you are doing, ask for help, and give people the opportunity to help.
What have you got planned for 2014, and how can people get involved in what you do.
Manchester Green Party will be fighting both local and European Elections. We have an excellent chance of gaining and MEP this year.
We will be continuing to campaign to save services to the people of Manchester.
We will also press for more and urgent action on the environment. The recent extended storms are an indication of weather patterns to come and frankly, with Britain being an island nation on the Atlantic, its distressing. We will work with any organisation on this.
People can get involved with city-wide and local activity; contact can be made through the MGP website http://www.manchestergreenparty.org.uk/.
That Disclaimer: MCFly is edited by Marc Hudson (former co-editor Arwa Aburawa has been demoted to working for Al-Jazeera). Marc Hudson is NOT a member of the Green Party. Or the Lib Dems. Or Labour. Or the Tories. Or the People’s Front of Judea. Never has been a member of any party. i.e. not a party animal.
Job Description for the role of Steering Group Communications Bod
version 1.0
Marc Hudson January 2014
Background
The Steering Group has no public profile. After three and a half years of existence, it has no communications plan (as admitted by Manchester City Council’s illustrious Environmental Strategy Manager at a meeting in November 2013).
“He said the Manchester – A Certain Future steering group was aware of this and trying to get a robust communications plan in place.”
It bears repeating; What on earth has it been doing for the last three and a half years then? Just sayin’.
Role
Co-ordinate/lead the creation and implementation of an effective (or “robust”, if that makes you sound more serious) communications plan with SMART goals, milestones and all that stuff. And maybe even a website that isn’t a joke?
Be the public face of the Steering Group (alongside the Chair), responding to and creating media requests for Steering Group involvement.
Help create and implement the stakeholder engagement plan for the Steering Group.
Pe(rs)on specification
The successful candidate will need the oratory and wisdom of Nelson Mandela, the intelligence of Noam Chomsky, the credibility of Wangari Maatthai, the courage of Chico Mendez, and the class analysis of Judi Bari.
Therefore, it may need to be a job-share.
No, but seriously. If the head of comms is the one and the same person who is going to be doing most of the media interviews, they will need, at a minimum;
good knowledge of the basics of climate science
excellent knowledge of the direct and indirect impacts that Manchester will face in the coming decades
excellent knowledge of the mitigation opportunities and requirements for Manchester
good knowledge of the standard and advanced lines of attack that denialist and delayer individuals and organisations use and how to cope with these without re-enforcing them in people’s minds
fair knowledge of national climate policy and how it affects (Greater) Manchester
fair knowledge of international climate policy processes (especially in the lead up to COP 21 in Paris, Nov/Dec 2015).
excellent skills at being interviewed by journalists (radio, print, television)
excellent skills at being a panelist during climate events in (Greater) Manchester, fielding questions from attendees without boring everyone to death or being so slippery and vague as to undermine the credibility of the organisation
excellent meeting facilitation skills, to ensure that meetings do not become static ego-foddering for the sage on the stage.
excellent presentation skills
excellent writing skills, able to quickly and effectively write articles of different lengths and sophistication for different audiences
good knowledge and experience of social media (at an absolute minimum facebook, twitter, youtube, blogs) and the benefits and pitfalls of each
project management skills up the wazoo
FWIW, I don’t think you could pay me enough money to throw away my reputation for independence and truth-telling by becoming a paid shill for a moribund reputation black hole like the Steering Group. But I may be wrong.
Our "leaders" are going to keep making empty promises. It makes them feel good. It gets the activists to act like zombie kittens. If you want to have some self-respect and perhaps make a difference (actual facts may vary), then find a functioning group that cares about your skills and knowledge - what you have, what you want.
One useful group might be www.climateemergencymanchester.net - you can email them on contact@climateemergencymanchester.net
manchester climate monthly 