CANDIDATES running to be the next Mayor of Greater Manchester have agreed that more must be done to protect the area from wildfires.
It comes as blazes at Dove Stone Reservoir, in Greenfield, and Tintwistle Moor in Derbyshire enter their third week, with firefighters, gamekeepers, and local volunteers still fighting to contain the blaze.
A 20-year-old woman has been charged with aggravated arson and dangerous driving in relation to the Dove Stone fire, and is scheduled to appear at Manchester Crown Court on August 18.
And a Greater Manchester Mayoral hustings event held in the lead-up to the Thursday, July 30 vote saw four out of the seven candidates join together to answer audience questions.
It was attended by the Conservative’s Phil Eckersley – who has visited Saddleworth, Labour’s Bev Craig, the Green Party’s Geraldine Coggins and the Liberal Democrats’ Richard Kilpatrick.
Marlon Scott West, for Restore Britain, did not attend the hustings.
Independent candidate Marcus Farmer did not respond to repeated requests to join the panel until 10am that morning, and had thus not been accounted for in the event’s plans.
Reform UK’s Sian Astley joined him as he attempted to enter just moments before the event – then refused to participate herself when he was denied entry, despite being scheduled.
During the hustings, those in attendance were asked what they would due to make the Manchester area more resilient to climate change in the context of the recent wildfires.
Geraldine Coggins said she believed the climate crisis was one of “the biggest jobs” the future mayor would have to do their part to tackle.
She accused the other parties – as well as previous Labour governments – of not taking global warming seriously and said it was the main reason she had joined the Green Party in the first place.
As a Green Mayor, she would place a strong emphasis on cutting emissions across the city region, and build more green spaces across all boroughs of Greater Manchester.
She would expand the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum – which oversees and co-ordinates responses to climate-related issues in the region – to create a “more strategic long-term view” for the future.
“I’ve got plans for free bus passes for everyone under 22 so we can get around our region safely, pleasantly, and for free while cutting down our emissions,” she said.
“I want to focus on our green spaces, particularly in places that are most deprives, because everybody deserves some shade and a nice warm green space to help their physical and mental health – not just the wealthy.
“We’ve had three heat waves already this summer. In just one of the fires, there are 1,250 football pitches [worth of land] that are still on fire now. We will be fighting these fires for weeks, the fire service said.”
However, Mr Kilpatrick – who is also a councillor for Didsbury East on Stockport Council – said that wildfires were not the only climate problem that a future mayor would have to tackle.
On New Year’s Day, the town suffered major flooding as a result of burst rivers and ‘overwhelmed’ local drainage systems, leading hundreds to be evacuated from their homes across the borough.
After a year-long investigation, Stockport Council said they believed they would have received government aid if it were located in the South.
In light of the incidents in his own home borough, Mr Kilpatrick said that an emphasis should be placed on stronger relationships with the government, as well as more collaboration between neighbouring councils.
“We have to actually be really honest with ourselves, because there’s still a lot to be done here,” he said. “We’ve just seen a lot of fires, and believe it or not, we’ve just been underwater.
“We need to understand that this will require a national legislation change, but we do need to standardise the way that councils work with each other to understand that the infrastructure that they’re putting in place has a direct impact on flood resilience, direct impact on urban heat, and a direct impact on the loss of drainage across our city region.
“We need the power for local authorities to say no when what [other councils] are doing actually has a direct impact on our communities.”
It was a point shared by Phil Eckersley, who agreed that flooding would also be a major issue in the borough – but said the best way to tackle it would be take a stronger stance against building on green belt land.
“One of my key pledges is not building on the green belt,” he said. “Where I’m a representative, in Trafford, there are issues around flooding, but also of building on the green belt as well.
“The issue that we’ve had over the year is that we’ve built a lot of properties and bilt a lot of structures that prevent drainage from happening.
“There are hundreds of thousands of square feet of brown field sites – unused shops, unused offices, old heritage buildings – that are a bit awkward to develop.
“We have to encourage the development of this land and stop building on green field sites.”
However, Labour’s Bev Craig said that the issue of climate resilience was not one which should be politicised.
“I think we live in an era where people are trying to make simple science into a cultural war,” she said, “I simply don’t subscribe to this notion from other people that we’ve been trying to create dividing tactics in our communities.”
Among her plans for a more climate resilient city is more provision of green spaces to all residents, including ‘sponge parks’ to help areas which deal with high amount of flooding.
Sponge parks are a type of park whose ground is engineered to absorb rainwater, before slowly releasing it over a longer period of time to prevent flooding.
She also said more action needed to be taken on measuring air quality in the city in light of the recent wildfires, which saw smoke spread as far as Salford Quays – approximately 12 miles away from Saddleworth.
“I would also expand retrofit beyond just what we’re doing in council housing and public buildings, and work with the government for new funding packages,” she added.
“I want Greater Manchester that will look forth on both climate adaption and resilience, and also the evolution of schools and jobs that can retrofit homes and create new opportunities for residents across the city region.”
A full breakdown of each candidate’s policy is available here. Polls are open on Thursday, July 30, with results announced the following day.
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