When: Sat 29th February, 1-4pm Where: Cross Street Chapel, Cross St, Manchester M2 1NL Registration essential! Sign up here. Childcare available if booked in advance.         Facebook event link – please share widely! The dust has settled after the General Election and we face five more years of a brutal Conservative government. …

By Jack Chadwick (@jckchd)   Town Hall has sent inspectors into the Gay Village, questioning the legality of several well-loved bars and parties to ‘consider’ their compliance with licensing laws. The targeted spaces are staples of the Village and therefore at the centre of the social and sexual lives of many gay and bisexual men …

By Trees Not Cars (@treesnotcars)   On Thursday 17th, Manchester City Council’s planning committee voted through controversial plans to use a former retail park in Ancoats as a temporary 440-space car park for up to two years.   The decision has provoked shock and outrage from ‘Trees Not Cars’ campaigners who have been holding protests …

By Greater Manchester Law Centre (@gmlawcentre)   After months of waiting for the Council’s proposals following their “consultation”, the current plans as reported in the Manchester Evening News yesterday amount to no real change.   Manchester City Council still believes that enabling council officers to issue £100 fines and issue criminal proceedings of homeless people is a …

By Cllr Sam Wheeler   In the planning meetings I attend one argument is continuously put forward in favour of luxury developments when all others fall. That is the argument they bring in more council tax that can supposedly counteract the council’s continuing cuts under austerity.   Bluntly, the sums simply do not add up. …

By GMHA (@gmhousingaction)   You may be aware that at the June meeting of Manchester City Council's Planning & Highways Committee, there was a shock defeat for local councillors and residents who have been opposing the erection of a glass shard of luxury housing on the corner of Shudehill and Back Turner Street. It was …

Redbricks residents (@redbricksonline)   Manchester is gridlocked with road redevelopments and high rise building sites bringing our city to a standstill. This is all meant to bring business, money, development into the city. Yet who is actually benefiting, who is making these decisions and who inevitably suffers? What place does local democracy and accountability have …

By Greater Manchester Law Centre (@gmlawcentre)     What is the PSPO? Manchester City Council are proposing to give themselves new powers using a PSPO. Under these powers any “authorised person” including a council officer can issue a person suspected of breaching the PSPO with a fixed penalty notice and fine of £100. Proposed breaches …

By Dr Richard Goulding and Dr Jonathon Silver   We’re at a critical time in Manchester’s urban development, with its city centre boom continuing since 2014 at the same time as the city’s model of property-led regeneration is coming under challenge both inside and outside the town hall. Building on GMHA’s previous research into financialisation, …

By Cllr Suzanne Richards (@CllrSuzanne)     Along with most other cities in the UK, Manchester has seen a rapid growth in short-term lets (AirBnB being one of the most common) from virtually no listings in 2013 to over 2,600 listings in 2019.   Only last week, Amsterdam, Barcelona, ​​Berlin, Bordeaux, Brussels, Krakow, Munich, Paris, …