The meeting to "endorse" the development plans were cancelled just days before because the agenda was rumbled? So the too long leader of MCC has conveniently "cancelled" next Wednesday's "Executive" meeting for the "Portland Village" aka "Portland Street and the Gay Village" development plans. This would be considered a minor Shield victory, but we are wary of what lays ahead. Like noticing the multile mentions of "Portland Village", we noticed this sudden agenda on the Executives meeting on Wednesday and made contact with many groups. However, the unchanged planning application for a substandard hotel will still be held on Thursday for Portland Street, which has not changed since the SRF and is another broken promise by Leese. Let's be under no illusion. The masterplan is probably agreed and the hope was no-one would notice. But this is still NOT transparent, it is still NOT involving multiple communities & stakeholders! Businesses have still NOT been consulted properly & there is NO real research. The Friends of Manchester Gay Village group formed after our ignored petition had a private meeting others were not privy to earlier in the week. They write "at this meeting, we secured an in-principle agreement from those present for a much wider consultation on the future of the gay village as a whole, this consultation will be lead by an external company and the subsequent report will form part of the council's strategic plan". We would advise them to not believe what they are told until it has come to pass. We find it hard to trust our leader's word which has proved meaningless time and time again. He also works as a Director of Manchester Life Development Company, which is a UAE luxury property partner, who oppress liberty, minorities and are involved in torture including of LGBTQ (see https://medium.com/@NcGeehan/the-men-behind-man-city-a-documentary-not-coming-soon-to-a-cinema-near-you-14bc8e393e06). There are many aspects of this leadership which deserve scrutiny and questioning. "In principle" promises made to one group, whilst excluding many groups, residents, businesses and people in a failing approach to the area, will not suffice as a promise, especially when more dishonesty has been shown, in trying to force through premature plans. Other deserve a real approach not the usual lies and MCC shambles. How many long-term groups and organisations are being ignored? The failure in approach to the city continues, but nowhere with more hostility than here. We hope "in principle" promises are honoured, as are full consultations with the LGBTQ community, with explanations as to why promises have been broken already. It is time to demand transparency honesty and better from Manchester leaders who have let us down for too long. We need to see evidence and a commitment to an area that has been drastically let down for too long. Watch this space.