Meeting Manchester City Council

We recently linked up with Manchester Friends of the Earth to meet representatives of Manchester City Council to remind them who we are and who does what at GMCC.

We talked about the need for a more strategic approach to promoting cycling in Manchester, rather than the somewhat piecemeal approach at the moment. One barrier to achieving this is that there’s no single “controlling mind” in the council joining up the various activities of all the different functions. A cycling officer could be very useful for this, effectively ‘project managing’ cycling promotion and development and making sure that various individuals and departments are following through on pledges.

The need for Manchester Cycle Forum to look at the bigger picture (more bums on saddles) rather than obsessing over the details of specific cycle lanes was also raised.

This approach of informal meetings, which helps each side to understand where the other is coming from, could be adopted as way of developing stronger links with other metropolitan boroughs, and shaping their thinking on cycling.