Ms. Kirsty Styles

[FOI #39177 email]

Date: 19^th August 2010

Our Ref: COR/86PEGN

Dear Ms Styles

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by Manchester City Council on 22^nd June 2010 and has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

You asked: “I would like to know how much money is spent on bottled water per year”.

The table below shows a comparison between our 2007/8 and 2009/10 spend, plus a forecast for 2010/11. During this period we have achieved a reduction in the usage of bottled water through a programmed removal of cooling machines requiring bottles, and the installation of mains water cooling units in communal areas. As part of this process, the Council's catering unit,[Author ID1: at Thu Aug 19 09:29:00 2010 ] Manchester Fayre, installed a sterilising unit to enable the re-use of glass bottles which are now refilled with filtered tap water to cater for meetings and events.

We anticipate that the overall reduction will continue in 2010/11, falling to a usage of 60 bottles per week for areas where it is not possible to install mains units due to the fabric of the building, as compared with 480 bottles per week in 2007/8.[Author ID1: at Thu Aug 19 09:29:00 2010 ]

This information may be subject to copyright. Freedom of Information does not give you an automatic right to re-use this information in a way that would infringe copyright, for example, by publishing the information or making multiple copies.

Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an internal review.  If you wish to complain you should contact me in the first instance.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Paul Murphy

Deputy Head of Corporate Procurement