Manchester Promise - Environment

The past twelve months have seen enormous progress to a greener,cleaner Manchester. A Climate Change Action plan that commits the city to a 41% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, a plan only possible because of Manchester labour's willingness to work with the whole range of stakeholders, environmental activists,academics, the private sector, communities, on this vital issue.

We now recycle more and more materials, the most recent addition being food waste, with collections arranged in ways to suit our residents.

we are building the first new Council Housing in the city for over twenty years, designed to the highest environmental standards, and it looks good too.

Money was made available immediately to tackle the damage done to our roads by the severe winter.

We yet again increased the number of Green Flag parks, with more than any other local authority area in the country.

We have taken more action to tackle fly-tipping, graffitti, and are working hard to keep our streets clean. Manchester Labour will build on this.

* We promise to do our utmost to reduce the City Council's CO2 emissions by 10% in 2010

* We promise to increas recycling and reduce waste,maintain weekly refuse collections & keep free bulky waste collections

* We promise to invest to eliminate potholes and improve our roads and pavements

* We promise that all Council & Housing Association homes will meet the decent homes standard by 2012

* We promise to continue taking tough action to tackle bad private landlords

* We promise to maintain the appearance of our streets & public spaces to the highest standards

Manchester Promise - Education, Children & Young People

Manchester Labour passionately believes that education is the route to fulfilling the potential of all our young people. Year on year standards are improving and through the most ambitious school building programme certainly since the second world war we are ensuring our children are taught in the best environment possible. Pupil numbers are growing and we have taken urgent action to increase the number of places available. SureStart is one of Labour's biggest successes and have spread all over the city to give our youngest children and their families the best start in life. We want our young people to be confident about their future which is why we have been working with our sixth forms, the Manchester College, our Universities, employers and other agencies to ensure that every student leaving school can go into high quality training or education or into a job with training that gives recognised qualifications. we are rapidly increasing the number of apprenticeships available. We are also concerned with what young people do in their leisure time which is why we have reorganised our services to young people with the aim of providing every young person with the offer of at least five hours a week high quality sport, leisure or cultural activity.

* We promise to protect, extend and run more services from our SureStart Centres

* We promise to continue improving our schools until every child has an outstanding education available locally

* We promise to continue investing in our schools until every school is new or totally modernised

* We promise to ensure every young person leaving school has a place in training or education or a job with training

* We promise that every young person will have a minimum offer of sports,arts or other leisure activity

* We promise to work with parents/carers so that our children attend school everyday to make the most of their opportunities