Your chance to scale Manchester Town Hall clocktower

Mancunians are being given the chance to be among the first to visit Manchester’s the town hall clock tower,from next week.

Although it is a prominent feature of Manchester’s most iconic building, the 134-year old clock tower has only been open to the public on a handful of previous occasions.

Now visitors will be able to accompany official tour guides up the iconic 280-foot (85m) high bell tower from which they will be able to see a spectacular panorama of the city and beyond to the Pennines and Cheshire Plain.

The fascinating tour will also offer the opportunity to get a close look at the mighty Great Abel, the town hall’s eight tonne clock bell, as well as the tower’s mechanical and bellringing rooms while learning about the history of the Grade I-listed town hall, considered one of the finest achievements of Victorian architecture.

Tours will initially run from Thursday 17 November through to 22 December, coinciding with the dates of Manchester’s famous Christmas Markets and giving visitors the chance to have a bird’s eye view of them. It is hoped that clock tower tours will then become a permanent fixture which will be on the ‘must do’ list for any visitor to Manchester.

They will take place at 1pm, 2.30pm, 4pm, 5.30pm and 7pm Monday to Sunday. Children aged under 12 are not permitted.

Manchester Lib Dems slam Leese over £4,000 Town Hall banquet

Manchester's Lib Dems are accussing Council leader Sir Richard Leese of hyprocracy for celebrating a new staff appointment by personally inviting 270 people to a £4,000 Town Hall banquet, just days before implementing cuts to services for Manchester's vulnerable older people.

According to the website of Chorlton councillor Victor Chamberlain,those invited to the freebie included 4 Labour MPs, 9 Labour Councillors, a Labour peer, 20 University staff, and numerous Council and quango staff.

The Leader of the Opposition was invited but declined to attend. The banquet took place a week before Labour agreed to cut services for older people.

Senior Manchester Liberal Democrat Councillor Paul Shannon said:"Manchester Lib Dems fully support our excellent museums, galleries and the City's vibrant cultural life. But this is a gross error of judgement from Labour's leadership.""In these hard-pressed times, when every penny counts, it's incredible that Labour still haven't got the message.

He added that the Leader of the Council should know better. There is much deprivation in Manchester. It's wrong to spend public money wining and dining the cultural elite when ordinary people are suffering. "

"One day everyone else is to blame for cuts Sir Richard is implementing, and the next his snout is deep in the trough hosting this lavish banquet. Sir Richard has failed to lead by example. These are the actions of a hypocrite. Lib Dems want to see him working for growth, jobs and investment, not wasting public money on excessive hospitality."

Wythenshawe scheme helps jobseekers into interviews

Manchester City Council are reporting that a pioneering scheme to help jobseekers get to interviews has already helped 900 Wythenshawe residents in its first year.

Since July 2010 to August this year almost a thousand pre-paid tickets for public transport have been issued to jobseekers so that they can afford to go to job interviews.

Of that number, a third (330) who were successful in gaining a job, were also issued with a bus pass to cover them until they received their first wage packet.

Councillor Sue Murphy, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, with responsibility for employment and skills said: "This scheme is a lifeline for people who want to find work, but can’t afford to keep going to interviews. From our research we know that 80% of the people who had the travel passes have said that they would not have been able to attend an interview or fund the first month’s travel without it.

"These are tough times and helping people into jobs is a Council priority. We can’t allow transport to be a barrier to work, otherwise applicants will only be limited to small geographic areas and less opportunity. "

One person, who has benefitted from the scheme is 29-year-old Mark Hughes from Northern Moor.

Mark had been unemployed for a year before he got a job at McDonald's in central Manchester. He’d previously had retail experience and his last job had been as a bar manager at a pub which had been forced to close down.

During his 12 months of signing on he’d become despondent about the number of interviews he’d attended, how much it had cost and the rejections that followed. After he got his new job he was issued with a bus pass via the job centre, which tided him over until his first pay packet.

Mark says: "Having that pass meant that I didn’t have to worry about finding the money to get to work and it meant that I could start the right way, on time for each of my shifts. It also meant that I could afford to get to the training course before I started my new job. It made a really big difference to me when I needed it."

Mark is now on a permanent contract with McDonald's and is currently working on deliveries, though this position is due to expand and develop. He is relishing the camaraderie with new colleagues and the sheer relief of breaking a cycle of unemployment.

"I can’t tell you how relieved I am to have this job,” he says. "It’s a fresh start and it’s my time to grasp an opportunity. This is one of the best jobs I’ve had. I got really down while I was signing on. All my friends and family kept believing in me, but I just wanted to stand on my own two feet. Last Christmas, the only present I could afford to buy was for my Mum.”

But, this year’s Christmas is set to be a completely different prospect for Mark.

"I’m looking at starting an NVQ at work which means I will be able to do different jobs at McDonald's. And this year, I’ll be able to buy all my family a present. That’s the best gift anyone could have given me.”

Manchester City Council meets tomorrow

It is the first time that the full council has net since the August riots,a topic which will no doubt be dwelt on at great length.

There are a number of motions that have been submitted

1.that the rioting that took place in Manchester city centre on Tuesday 9 August
2011 as unjustified acts of criminality from the Lib Dem opposition and one on a similar subject from Labour with the Council gives a wholehearted vote of thanks to the men and women who protected our City and restored order to Manchester during and following the criminal disturbances in August. .

2.Also from the Lib Dems on the state of Manchester's bin collections and the litter on the streets

The Lib Dems are also putting forward the following motion no doubt to embarras the ruling Labour side

Council notes the complete failure of the previous Government's policy of
forced regionalisation of England's Fire Control Centres, closing 46 local
centres to be replaced by 9 super-centres. Nearly £500 million has been
wasted without answering a single emergency call nor mobilising a single fire
engine

and from Labour

3. a motion noting and welcoming the UK-wide campaign to end ‘legal loan sharking’.

You can read the full agenda HERE-the meeting gets under way at 10.00am at the Town Hall

Manchester declares itself an age-friendly city

This is the City Council's Press Release

Manchester has signed a declaration of intent that pledges the city’s commitment to becoming an age-friendly city.

The declaration was signed in Dublin by city representatives from across the globe at the First International Conference on Age-Friendly Cities co-ordinated by the World Health Organisation, Ireland’s Age-Friendly County Programme and the International Federation on Ageing.

In 2010, Manchester was the first UK city to be accepted into the World Health Organisation's Global Network of Age-friendly Cities in recognition of the work carried out by the Valuing Older People partnership. Manchester signed the declaration alongside cities such as New York, Lyons and Tai Pei in Taiwan.

The conference met to discuss the importance of creating "age-friendly” cities to address the two major global challenges: the ageing population and wide-scale urbanisation.

An age-friendly city is one that recognises the challenges of an ageing population and appreciates the great diversity among older people; providing facilities and support to their ageing needs.

Life expectancy is increasing at the rate of over two years per decade, and the percentage of the population over 65 years is projected to double over the next forty years.

By 2030, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities and 25% of this population will be aged 60 and over.

Facts like this highlight the importance of preparing for these changes urgently and will require a major shift in the way older people are supported – and could mean the difference between independence and dependence for the elderly.

Councillor Sue Cooley, Manchester City Council’s Older People's Champion, said: "It was a great pleasure to sign the Age-Friendly City and Older People Declaration on behalf of Manchester. Every city around the world will face major challenges in the near future due to their ageing populations and we need to be prepared.

"It is estimated that a quarter of the urban population will be over 60 in a matter of decades and so planning for these changes is no mean feat – but it is imperative that we act now so we can look forward to our old age, not worry about it.”

Sir Howard in a bullish mood over stadium criticism

Manchester City Council's chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein has hit back at the news earlier in the week that he had sold the rights to Manchester City's Etihad stadium down the river.

According to the Business Desk he told Chris Barrie its editor

that critics should instead be looking at the amount of money the Olympics and Wembley Stadium have received from the public purse,and the fact that neither had generated "a single penny in return."

He said: "The stadium that we built for the Commonwealth Games cost around £120m, and we have generated, and continue to generate a significant return from that investment.

"The question should not be about whether Howard should've got an extra thirty or forty grand,but that not one other sports-led investment project has generated a single penny.

Sir Howard is accused over giving the richest football club in the world,naming rights to the East Manchester development which will cost it just £4m a year for the next 10 years.

According to Sir Howard,the media coverage of this is borne out of jealousy.

Lib Dems accuse Manchester City Council of Twitter bias

This press release has just dropped into my inbox.

I have copied it in full.You can decide what to make of it's accusations

Chorlton Lib Dem Councillor Victor Chamberlain has accused Manchester’s Labour Council of showing inappropriate and blatant party political bias through their use of the official twitter account (@ManCityCouncil).

The 'official' account follows 168 people; which include six Labour City Councillors, the account for Manchester Labour (@ManchesterRose) and Manchester’s Labour MEP, Arlene McCarthy. The official account does not follow a single Liberal Democrat Councillor or politician despite many having twitter accounts.

Last year Manchester’s Liberal Democrat opposition criticised the Labour Council for hiring a £38k Twitter tsar while axing 1500 jobs.

Councillor Chamberlain said: “The City Council is legally required to be neutral and non-partisan; however their ‘public face’ on twitter has been anything but. The Council’s resources should be used to benefit all Mancunians and not to promote the Labour Party. ”

“I have suggested the Council either adopt a policy of not following any politicians or follow all Manchester Councillors and elected representatives on twitter.