Manchester Climate Fortnightly can exclusively reveal that Manchester City Council paid the London-based consultancy 'Beyond Green' a whopping ₤28,000 plus VAT and expenses for the 50-page Call to Action report, published last week. With VAT, this brings the total to ₤32,900 and we have no idea how much this 'eco-consultancy' has claimed for expenses- the Council's information did not include these figures. All in all this means that the council has paid- hopefully not from the ₤1 million Carbon Reduction Innovation and Investment Fund- over ₤650 per page.
The climate change report has been widely criticized for advocating a 'Green Airport' and has been described by local climate activists as 'very disappointing' and even 'ridiculous'. Considering the amount of money spent on it, 'ridiculous' fits the bill...

This story originally appeared at  http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/01/beyond-belief.html. See  http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/ and  http://www.manchesterclimatefortnightly.info/ for more news and analysis on the 'Call to Action' and Manchester City Council's 'environmental' activities.