We have to take climate change more seriously ‘Awful lot of work to do to meet target’ – chief
Contact theatre kicks off
ROCHDALE’S climate change chief has warned the council still has an ‘awful lot of work to do’ if it is to meet its goals – and suggested some people in the organisation were not taking the issue seriously enough.
The authority declared a climate emergency in July 2019 and has set an ‘ambitious target’ for both the council and the borough to be carbon neutral by 2038.
But Councillor Sara Rowbotham spoke of her frustrations with the progress being made at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday night.
Addressing council directors present at the meeting, she said: “We have a steering group every two weeks to discuss climate change and I have a climate emergency working group of which there are people from all directorates supposed to attend.
“I would appreciate it, from this meeting, chief executive, if you could ensure those people actually turn up to those meetings.
“Because it’s one thing, as a council, if we adopt a climate emergency, it’s something else to get everyone round the table and start to activate what that actually means.”
Her comments came during a discussion on Streets for All, a regionwide strategy to design ‘more welcoming and greener streets’ which are safer, cleaner and allow people to be more active.
Part of the Greater Manchester Transport Strategy 2040, local leaders say it offers a ‘long term approach’ which, in time, will see the needs of pedestrians and cyclists given priority over motorists on some streets.
‘Active Neighbourhood’ trials that work on this principle are already happening in part of Greater Manchester.
A report to Rochdale council’s cabinet stresses that ‘the city-region needs to be much easier to get around by walking, cycling and using public transport.
And it adds that ‘political leadership’ will be crucial to achieving ambitions for clean air and carbon neutrality, as well as its ‘ongoing commitment to improving public health’.
Coun Rowbotham said the challenge of getting people on board with the council’s green ambitions had already become apparent to her.
She told the meeting: “I think what’s really important for members to realise, is this presents a significant change to our highways.
“It will also present all kinds of issues for our residents – some of whom will really not be comfortable about not being able to park their car immediately outside a school or immediately outside their house.”
Coun Rowbotham added that a recent public meeting to discuss a ‘very short’ walking and cycling ‘Beeline’ near shops in Castleton had been ‘incredibly difficult’.
She said: “If we approve the strategy it is going to be incumbent on all of us to adopt it and adopt it with meaning – which means that as leaders we support and encourage people to change their behaviour.”
At a recent scrutiny meeting, councillors questioned whether an aspiration for half of all journeys to be taken by public transport by 2040 was ambitious enough.
Coun Rowbotham acknowledged this, but added: “There’s an awful lot of work to do before we achieve anything like the things we need to achieve by 2030.”
AS PREVIOUSLY reported in this column, Contact (Manchester Young People’s Theatre Ltd) has returned after a £6m building transformation.
Contact is where young people change their lives through the arts, and audiences of all ages experience exciting new shows.
They are the leading national theatre and arts venue to place young people at the decisionmaking heart of everything.
At Contact, young people aged 13-30 genuinely lead, working alongside staff in deciding the artistic programme, making staff appointments and act as full Board members.
Contact’s performance programme kicks off in
October with Contact Young Company’s Everything All of the Time, directed by Contact’s Artistic Director, Matt Fenton.
Everything All of the Time is a physical and visual journey through a new world, squashed into an hour of hedonism, love, anger, nostalgia, and hope.
Contact and Black Gold Arts will come together during Black History Month to deliver a line-up of outstanding, Black-led art, performance, and film, featuring the live world premiere of Mandla Rae’s stunning As British As A Watermelon, and films from Chanje Kunda and Mele Broomes.
Commissioned by Contact and Re:con (Contact Young Producer’s), ERGON Theatre present The Wicked Problem, where audiences act as the jury in the world’s first ecocide trial. Mika Onyx-johnson’s Pink Lemonade combines original beats, poetry and movement in an explosive autobiographical journey of sexuality, identity and self-discovery.
Dibby Theatre and HIV+ theatre-maker Nathaniel Hall – star of hit Channel 4 series It’s a Sin – present First Time, an awardwinning, hilarious, and heart-breaking autobiographical show about growing up positive in a negative world.
The Black Pride Manchester Vogue Ball presented by Contact and House of Ghetto will be hosted in December by the legendary Rikki BeadleBlair, featuring the fiercest QTIBIPOC vogue houses in the North at legendary Manchester venue Gorilla.
And Contact will be home to Dick Whittington and his Cat, EightFreestyle’s modern, upbeat telling of the classic ragsto-riches story.
Contact has returned with new and improved performance spaces; a purpose-built recording studio for young people’s music projects, a unique health and science development space created in partnership with Wellcome Trust, new offices for artists and cultural organisations to hire and work alongside Contact staff, a new and improved public bar, free work and social spaces, a new partnership with Manchester’s Indian street food heroes, Chaat Cart, and many other exciting new features.
Visit: www.contactmcr. com/
Contact is located on Oxford Road.