Environment

Sustainable travel grants

Travel Choices is offering grants to businesses for schemes which encourage employees to make sustainable travel choices.

Whether you want to build bike storage facilities at your premises so staff can cycle to work, put in an electric vehicle charging point or run an event to promote sustainable travel to staff, you can apply for up to £10,000 to make it happen.

Lobbying and Transparency Bill

At our Spirit of Manchester awards event last month one of the categories was for Most Successful Campaign. We wanted to acknowledge campaigning work because we’ve always believed that it’s the job of charities not just to meet needs but to drive change for the longer term. The history of social change in this country has been driven by the campaigning efforts of groups for centuries.

Macc wins Council Infrastructure Contract

As you may be aware, earlier this year the City Council launched a competitive tendering process for the contract to provide support to the city's voluntary and community sector for the next three years.

We are delighted to announce that Macc has been awarded this contract.

Public Consultation now launched! Have your say HS2 West Midlands to Manchester, Leeds and beyond....

Public Consultation now launched!

Have your say HS2 West Midlands to Manchester, Leeds and beyond....
High Speed Rail – Formal Public Consultation on the proposed route from the West Midlands to Manchester, Leeds and beyond has now been launched (closes on 1700 on 31 January 2014)

Topics

Cooking for Everyone - Free Sessions

Cooking for Everyone

Do you want to learn how to cook improve your baking skills, make dishes from scratch live better and spend less?

Then check out these FREE sessions at:

Trinity Methodist Hall, Butler Street, Miles Platting, M4 7JE

Garden visit and healthy snacks – Tuesday 3 September 10-12 noon
Bread Making – Tuesday 10 September 12 – 3:00pm
Making Scones and Jam – Tuesday 17 September 12-3:00pm
Storing and Preserving – Tuesday 24 September 12-3:00pm
Autumn Treats – Tuesday 1 October 10-12 noon

Topics

Surviving the Recovery

During the recent bout of hot weather, I somehow managed to come down with a cold. I not only felt ill, I also felt ridiculous: I mean who gets a cold in the middle of a heatwave? As I write this, figures have just been released showing that the country’s economy is slowly starting to grow again after the recession. It’s a similar feeling: I’m being told it’s lovely out there but it feels dreadful. No matter what the economic analysis says, when I look around I see incomes reducing, prices rising, services closing and life generally becoming more difficult.

Spirit of Manchester

I've mentioned previously that there's a danger that this blog becomes a series of rants about things I'm angry about. Well not today, at least!

Our State of the Voluntary Sector report shows there are over 3000 voluntary and community groups in Manchester. I don't know them all but I do know a lot of them and one of the great pleasures of my job is that I get to see some of the amazing things happening in groups across Manchester and meet some fantastic people.