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

Sun shines on Longsight Market Labour Stall

Sir Gerald Kaufman, Aftab Ahmed, Rabnawaz Akbar and Longsight Councillors Abid Chohan and Luthfur Rahman and I (Suzanne Richards) spent a very sunny afternoon on Longsight Market on Saturday meeting with local voters.

In many ways Longsight Market is the centre of our community and the warm welcome we received from shoppers and market stall holders alike was great.

Manchester people aren’t fooled by the Tories empty promises and the Liberal Democrats style over substance. They know that it is Manchester Labour who has delivered for them and it is Manchester Labour who will continue to deliver for them.

Manchester Promise - Jobs

Labour nationally are showing that in Brown, Darling and Mandelson, we have the right team to tackle the global downturn. The UK economy is now growing in line with the Chancellor’s predictions, outpacing our international competitors, and producing the biggest increase in employment for 12 years.

Manchester Labour, working with our many partners, has also ensured that our city has survived the worst ravages of the recession in far better shape than other UK cities.

But damage has been done. People have lost jobs. And even before the recession, too many Manchester people weren’t in work when they could and should have been.

Manchester Labour will do everything it can to make sure Manchester is working. Already we are well on the way to a thousand unemployed residents being employed through the Future Jobs Fund. We have supported hundreds of long-term unemployed families into work. The Council now has over 500 apprentices, but we will do more.

* We promise to continue bringing new investment, new jobs to the city. Green investment for sustainable jobs!

* We promise to prioritise Manchester residents for all entry-level jobs at the City Council.

* We promise to continue putting apprenticeships and the skills pledge at the heart of the Council’s employment practice.

* We promise to give unemployed Manchester residents the skills and support they need to get back into work.