Seem to be developing regular transport slots in my diary at the moment. Last week I was speaking at a conference in London on transport and sustainability. Next week I'm speaking at a conference here in Manchester when I will be talking largely about transport investment needs in Greater Manchester and across the north.
The morning starts with a meeting of the shadow Local Enterprise Partnership ( LEP ), government's new take on public/private partnerships to promote economic growth.
I came across these slides yesterday that had been prepared for the English Core Cities Group. I think they speak for themselves.
First meeting this morning was with the Greater Manchester Business Leadership Council. The BLC was set up a couple of years ago to give independent advice to AGMA on what we needed to do to promote business growth.
Back to yesterday and thought I would mention the airport and not just to see if Marc Hudson is still tuning in from the Antipodes but mainly because I was at an airport board meeting yesterday. Mostly when I mention the airport I get at least a couple of irate posts from people complaining about our plans for airport growth. Not sure they've noticed but for the last few years passenger numbers ( at airports across the UK , not just Manchester ) have been going down.
That's the word used by the Manchester Evening News today to describe cuts proposals the City Council published this morning - and they're not exaggerating.
Lovely to go to something brimming with positivity this afternoon. It's a special session of the Innovation Manchester Boardroom, one of a series of events, all around different themes, but all bringing people together from a wide range of backgrounds to encourage innovation and invention in the Manchester economy.
The eight weekly meeting of Full Council today. There is an anti-cuts lobby at the side entrance to the Town Hall and I have an interesting conversation with one of the lobbyists who puts forward the proposal that I and presumably other Councillors should go to jail rather than vote for cuts.
The blog of the leader of Manchester City Council, Councillor Richard Leese.