The Sustainable Neighbourhoods Pool is a way for communities to feed in their views on housing, regeneration and environmental issues in Manchester. It is part of a wider structure which links into the ‘Manchester Partnership’.

The Manchester Partnership is the city’s Local Strategic Partnership - bringing together people who represent health, police, education, jobs training, transport, community, voluntary and other agencies with the aim of finding new ways of solving difficult and complex issues that affect the lives of Manchester residents and making sure that change happens.

The partnership has 5 themed partnerships feeding into it including a Sustainable Neighbourhoods Partnership. This partnership includes participants from voluntary and community groups as well as council departments, elected members and agencies (e.g. Environment Agency). Each partnership has a ‘Pool’, which acts as a forum which then feeds into this partnership. In this way more community views can be taken forward.

The pool discusses issues that the Sustainable Neighbourhoods Partnership is responsible for, though it can also feed in new issues it feels the partnership should be addressing. These issues are linked into the main themes of:

- Environment - climate, energy, waste, water, habitat and biodiversity;
- Neighbourhoods of Choice - cleaner, safer, well designed with good services.
- Housing - affordable, accessible and comfortable.
- Open Spaces - parks, allotments, playgrounds, outdoor recreation, streets and squares.

The pool is facilitated through the Environment Network for Manchester but works closely with other networks who are part of the Community Network for Manchester (CN4M), Manchester’s Community Empowerment Network.

For further information visit: http://sustainableneighbourhoodspool.wordpress.com/