From the Canal to Sevenways

Author: Mike Cordingley

  • Poisonous to say; but I thought Tony Blair was pretty good on 'Marr' this morning.

  • Flixton Fields Council Meeting – Don’t let them tell you it’s about houses

    Flixton Fields Council Meeting – Don’t let them tell you it’s about houses

    On 21st December, Trafford Labour’s Council Meeting we’d called to oppose fields in Flixton being designated for development.

    It was a vital meeting. The submission by Trafford of these fields at Flixton for inclusion within the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework has not been adequately explained. Residents are outraged that something so intrinsically part of Flixton and central to their village is being sacrificed for development.

    A council keeping its residents in the dark

    We need houses and business development. We all agree on that.

    This is not about housing though. We are still not getting the full picture about the Flixton Fields submission. I find it abhorrent that even after the full Council meeting we’re still being strung along. I’ve never heard such specious argument in favour of a proposal. If there is an argument for including Flixton Fields, it certainly is not the one that the Tories are putting forward.

    The insertion of Flixton Fields into the proposal has been blind-side operation by Trafford from the off. Less than two months ago the Greater Manchester Combined Authority published (31st October) the results of its ‘Call for Sites’. As you can see below, the extent to which developers had ambitions on Flixton was minimal.

    Land adjacent to Flixton Station
    Land adjacent to Flixton Station

    At the exact same time this is being published, we also have the Draft Spatial Framework. So the narrative is this:

    We’ve asked you and the Developer Industry to point to sites you think should be built upon,
    and you gave us this.
    But, we don’t want to give you that, we want to give you this;
    and its for your own protection!

    Listen to Sean Anstee on the video of the council meeting (about 12mins in). The amount of times he talks in terms of doing this to control the insatiable hunger of developers, to make sure we get the infrastructure, schools, highways, public transport in place first etc. You need to remind yourself that this hasn’t been put forward by developers, then remind yourself who the landowner is. Nothing can happen unless the council chooses to sell, but it’s the council who is both the proposer and the landowner. Quite clearly the primary threat to the Flixton Greenbelt is from Trafford Conservatives.

    It’s ridiculous

    Frankly, some of the Tory subterfuge has been pathetic. Who on earth came up with the plan to continue to describe the site as ‘Land adjacent to Flixton Station’? Did they really think we wouldn’t notice?

    It’s also irresponsible

    We desperately need the homes earmarked for Carrington, Trafford Waters, Pomona, Timperley. By including Flixton fields, we’re delaying the recovery and ultimately the development of Brownfield sites. This isn’t about houses, I would suggest it’s got more to do with the council’s financial predicament than anything else. This is about a land-sale. It’s about the council tax receipts. We know the Council is in a mess financially. Most metropolitan councils are in a mess. The Government has taken away half their income at a time of increasing demand on their services. We know all this. The solution should never be selling parks and common land. At best it gets the council through a few years, if they’re clever with the money.

    Two days before the full council, we had the Council’s Executive with a small item at the back of the agenda, “The Council’s approach to Investment Opportunities”. My suspicion is that Flixton Fields has more to do with the Investment Opportunities report than any of the spatial framework documents.

    The Bottom Line

    Flixton Fields were bought for health and recreation of that neighbourhood. They effectively provide a village green or common land at the centre of the town. They are are surrounded on all sides by residential development as the framework makes clear. They are like Clapham Common and no one would dream of selling Clapham Common. Trafford Tories should withdraw Flixton Fields from the plan and stop giving us the bulls__t about it being a consultation outside their control. They should get on with trying to get houses built where there’s already planning permission granted instead of trying to get in on the act one way or another from the capital receipt they gain from selling off commonly owned land.

  • Councillor’s Diary – Week Commencing 12th December

    Monday

    Last of the exam support sessions I'd volunteered for. Thoroughly rewarding.

    Meeting in the afternoon on an Over 50s Worklessness Pilot we're scoping for Gorse Hill. It's a Greater Manchester initiative and we've been chosen for Trafford. I'd be hugely interested in hearing resident's experiences of jobseeking, returning to employment or access to training from within this generation.

    Tuesday

    Personal Development plan meeting at town hall. We identified time management and speed reading as areas to work upon. I also want to some job shadowing within areas of work.

    Meeting regarding public service reform and the proof of concept pilot work going on in our patch. I'm going to a larger meeting next week and it's a subject that's going to resurface.

    Labour meeting in the evening at the Robin Hood.

    Wednesday

    Cycle over to the Ecology Park. It's looking superb. A lot of improvement work has taken place. Mike Ormerod, the CE of Greater Manchester Groundwork, raised a couple of issues. The brown road signs to the Ecology Park are looking tired. Totally support better signage to it, and really quite a lot more of it. The Trafford Park Metrolink will put more people in the area. The park is an absolute haven.

    An issue not as pleasant is the overnight parking and driver behaviour near to the park. It's not appropriate that our streets are used as an open sewer. We need to put a stop to this. I'm sure the appropriate places like Truckstop do charge an amount some of the drivers would prefer to avoid.Trafford needs to get on top of it.

    Quick stop off at the Ravenswood gardens for the lantern parade. Couldn't stay for the kids singing, a real shame. Wednesday was a lovely day though.

    Also had meetings at the town hall re scrutiny.

    Thursday

    But more work on the website. Think it'll largely do for now.

    Library volunteering in the afternoon.

    Friday

    Kate Green coffee morning. Great community spirit is abroad in Stretford and it coalesced in the public hall. Afternoon, catching up on casework plus visit to library. Things have come to a head over leaf clearing on some of our streets. Took a trip out on bike to check out. The idea that you can keep cutting and not see a detrimental impact. Frankly, austerity isn't working. It was fantasy economics abetted and applauded by the Lib Dems. At some point there'll be recognition that the way to revive the economy is not too suck every last prop of social scaffolding from the village in which we live. I'm going to nag officers to get those streets swept but it's just a sticking plaster. It'll be somewhere else next week.

    Saturday

    Set off at half-ten to deliver newsletters in Flixton about the party's position on the Flixton Fields that are under threat of development. Ended up staying in Flixton all day.

    These fields mean a lot to me. I've never lived in Flixton but so many of my school friends came from that way, it's a place I know well. Flixton doesn't really have formal parks but the fields do the job pretty well. Given I've never lived there and my teenage years are forty years gone, it's incredible that the informal cut-throughs are still so familiar and unchanged, linking one side of Flixton with the other. That's why I'm so determined that the fields should be preserved just as Urmston Council intended when it purchased them before the war.

    I'm no NIMBY, we desperately need houses. In fact generally, I'm perhaps more relaxed than most about building on the greenbelt. My passion is keeping the parks and fields that exist within the urban environment. We've lost too many. Here in this bit of Stretford we lost Kendal Road, we lost Urmston Grammar just up the road, we lost the fields to the Trafford Centre.

    I see why we protect greenbelt but it's easy to get the balance wrong if we're so obsessive in protecting it, we make the urban environment totally devoid of space to breathe. We've got to a point where scrubland classed as greenbelt by its location but offering none of the benefits, is given more protection than valued fields within an urban setting.

    I think it's vital we protect Flixton's fields. I'm delighted that Trafford's Labour Group agree with me. In fact Andrew Western, our leader has really made this battle a priority. So it was an easy decision to stay all day in Flixton to support Andrew. He's called an extraordinary meeting of council for Wednesday. It would be great if we can get unanimity across the parties on this. I think it's one we can win. I certainly hope so.

  • Councillor’s Diary – Week Commencing 5th December

    Councillor’s Diary – Week Commencing 5th December

    Monday

    Start day at Lostock College being a ‘reader’ for a pupil on a maths paper. Surprisingly intense, you’re so keen that you don’t confuse or get in the way. Emotionally rewarding though, very much rooting for the pupil.

    Tea-time meeting with Trafford officers looking at the shaping of Trafford in the next few years. Came away not really the wiser. There was a feeling that the Mersey Valley was less valued than it should be which  is something I actually agree with, but there was also an evangelical fervour that the Mersey Valley could be used to create a unifying Trafford identity.

    I’ve got to be honest, I’ve lived within the current boundaries of Trafford for pretty much all my life, but I don’t self define as a Traffordian. I’m a Manc and the part of Manchester I come from is Stretford. Trafford has no real meaning to me except as the name of those current administrative boundaries.

    I don’t know what the motivation is for officers seeing the lack  of a Trafford identity as a bad thing. I look across at Salford, a place with which I have numerous connections. Salford has a self identity that is almost too obsessive; and its tendency to frame everything in terms of its relationship with Manchester in my view holds it back.

    I want to see greater use of the Mersey Valley just because it’s a beautiful space and far more accessible than a lot of people realise. If I shop in Altrincham, it won’t be out of a fabricated construct that my ‘Trafford identity’ locks me in to choosing there rather than choosing Manchester.

    Labour group next meeting in the evening. The big political issue is the Flixton Village green area scheduled by Greater Manchester for building upon. We’re fully behind residents who want to protect this as their village green. And it’s interesting to compare our support for a genuine connection and relationship between Flixton and the fields at the centre of their town, to the marketing candy floss I encountered from officers at the earlier meeting.

    Tuesday

    Regular Meeting with Corporate Team for Economic Growth

    Budget scrutiny – risk assessments superficial and impact vague. Some of these measures seem to be suck it and see. For example, the garden waste charge – no idea of take up or impact on fly tipping.

    Wednesday

    Scribing at Lostock College for another maths exam.

    Locality partnership enabling groups review. A big proportion of my time is spent on the locality partnership. I’m not sure I know whether it’s productive as it could be.

    Budget scrutiny day2

    Looking at reablement. There’s insufficient funding. It’s a national problem. These are genuinely scary times.

    Thursday

    Volunteering Lostock Library

    Spatial framework Q&A at Urmston Grammar. This is the big meeting about Flixton Village Green. Packed meeting-I don’t know whether the meeting really captured the extent to which these fields are valued and loved by the townsfolk of Flixton. I know those fields from my own schooldays and those fields truly are part of the Flixton identity. It would be tragic for the fields to be lost to housing. Questions and answers tend towards a more adversarial contest. I would have preferred simply making the case that the fields are walked and loved and de-stress the folk of Flixton just as they have done for a hundred years or so.

    Friday

    Transport for Greater Manchester Committee

    Sunday

    Trip with Laurence around the United game. I’m always struck by the paucity of the collective offer we make to United fans. They’re expected to eat over-priced takeaway junk, with nowhere to sit or perch their food. I’ve been to Second Division grounds where the town makes more of an effort. It’s squalid, there’s no imagination employed and we expect United fans to treat our neighbourhoods with respect. The only improvement I saw was that United had put out some pionic tables. It’s a start, but there’s so much more United could do, so much more the council could do and so much more the businesses could do.

  • Councillor’s Diary – Week Commencing 13th November

    Councillor’s Diary – Week Commencing 13th November

    Monday 13th November

    Update Meeting on Stretford Public Realm

    What can I say? I don’t want to lose the subways, I use them. I do want the speed limit reduced in Stretford, so that’s something, but I’m more than underwhelmed. It still feels like an 8-2 win for the car driver. Perhaps it’s the best that can be achieved. I better not say any more. I’ve signed the petition though…..

    Tuesday 14th November

    Budget ExecutiveSchool Crossing Patrol’s scrapped, Garden Waste collections scrapped unless you’re willing to pay and we’re still £2m quid short, even after we’ve hiked up council tax.

    We’ve been saying this has been coming, we’ve known about the Graph of Doom for 6 years or so. Next year will be even worse than this year.

    I suppose you could argue that people are not going to march on the gates of the palace over the issue of garden waste collections, but it seems to me that we’re heading to a point where councils have withdrawn from many ordinary people’s lives.

    In Bury they’ve gone to three weekly collections. On the current trajectory we’ll have to do the same before too many years. Bury now have private companies touting for the trade. So those that can pay, get a better service than those that can’t in a basic service like waste collection. Before long those that pay will be wondering why they have to pay council tax, why can’t they just pay for the services they use? The fact that I can even imagine the question being asked shows how far we’ve descended.

    busybins

    Wednesday 15th November

    Scrutiny Meeting

    First item Budget, Second item Trafford Leisure…We took a long time over the budget. The main theme was the importance of growth in housing and business to the council’s income. On the whole, I am largely in agreement with the need to build. I am wholly opposed to building on greenspace central and core to a neighbourhood, such as Station Road Green (referred to last week in the diary) and the large Flixton Village Greens area, but given that the need for housing is the major source of my weekly casework, I have to make the case for housing in places that are not so core, such as Pomona and Trafford Waters. People will disagree, but they need to show me where they will build.

    Trafford Leisure, big issue – we could lose George Carnall Sports Centre. We’re suffering as a nation from inactivity and obesity … talk of being cleverer … targetting… getting people active … social prescribing … yet we’re making the journeys to school less safe and prioritising the car whenever we’re given the option.

    I’m being a bit bleak tonight aren’t I?

    Thursday 17th November

    Library volunteering and more housing casework

    Friday 18th November

    Signing off for a few days as daughter and son in law due to visit from America

  • Councillor’s Diary – Week Commencing 7th November

    Councillor’s Diary – Week Commencing 7th November

    Monday 7th November

    Labour Group Meeting – Anti Social Behaviour Report
    Then quite a long meeting preparing for the budget.

    Tuesday 8th November

    Listened to Kwame Anthony Appiah’s lecture on Radio 4, or to be really honest, the radio was on in the background, while I did some work; that’s how it started anyway. Every now again, magic happens on Radio 4 and it casts a spell on you. (Listen Again – Very Recommended)
    Popped over for a visit to a number of Gorgeous Gorse Hill sites with officers and Ruth from the group. The progress this group’ has made in opening up neglected patches is nothing short of phenomenal. Today’s meeting was primarily to make sure litter bins were installed and upkeep regimes were sensitive to work the community were doing – no more inappropriate use of herbicides.

    Then over to the town hall for three meetings:
    the first with Helen Jones Corporate Director for Economic Growth Environment and Infrastructure and her deputy Richard Roe. These are two genuine stars of Trafford’s corporate team, but too often and it’s the same across the board, these shadow meetings are more a test of our questioning than a directorate briefing. The primary question I want answering each month is the directorate challenges keeping them awake at night?

    A handful of Tory councillors defecting and it would be a totally different game, but instead we have to chip away at the issues we know about. In my judgement it’s always more important to be informed about the issues we don’t know about. It’s clearly not the best preparation for any incoming governing party, but it seems to be the way we do things in councils, all councils. We’re not unique, I know that.

    Second meeting was with Iain Minto from the Mall. Amongst the issues discussed was the forthcoming business rates reduction. It’s infuriating that the Government is giving so much transitional protection to the South East and making the rest of the country pay, They are ignoring the disparity that has already caused overheating in the capital whilst suffocating the North. The current Mall owners have been a breath of fresh air compared to previous owners but it would be good to see Government working on the side of those making investment and taking risks.

    Yes, there’ll still be a reduction in May in the business rates for the Mall, but it won’t be as big a reduction as even the Government admits it should be.

    When there’s actually a moral case for a punitive rate increase in the City of London in order to provide reparations for the damage it’s done to the rest of us, instead we see the opposite. We were promised a rebalancing, yet businesses in the Mall will still be subsidising the business rates of Harrods. If that’s rebalancing, it’s Tory rebalancing and it stinks.

    Third Meeting was a scrutiny session on the One Trafford – Amey contract.
    Really good scrutiny is rare in Local Government. In my experience the best scrutiny is in topic areas where either there’s an acknowledged issue to resolve, or just an area where there’s little political capital to protect. The One Trafford – Amey contract is not such an area.

    There is too much of a divide on the One Trafford Contract for it to be effectively scrutinised by a cross party committee.

    I’ve spoken to Conservative Councillors who admit they wanted to outscource from the moment they took control of the council in 2004. They simply believe that in everything the pursuit of profit is a more efficient model of working than an ethic of public service. I disagree, but it doesn’t matter how much tangible proof you present counter to their belief. They are zealots, it’s an article of faith. We may as well be speaking in tongues.

    Leaving the political dogma aside, it remains transparently clear that the Cabinet Member with responsibility for environmental operations is either not willing or not capable of holding the service to account. It’s a default position of denial and impatience with any suggestion that things need to improve, that we want them to improve, that we want to help them improve. A reputation for closed eyes and ears was not improved by this session.

    The bottom line is that every £ we spend on cleaning up litter and fly-tipping or paying unneccesary landfill costs on recyclable waste is money that we can’t spend on surestart, youth clubs or parks. Regardless of whether it’s outsourced or an in-house service, it’s clear that unless we engage better with the public and give the impression we want to work with them and listen to their concerns, we’re not going to improve things. That listening has to start at the top.

    Home – to watch the Presidential election.
    I’d begun to trust the polls were right. Usually a bad idea.
    It was always clear that there was very little enthusiasm for elite insider politics that Hilary Clinton was offering.
    However, it seems in the immeditate aftermath everyone is able to extract something from the entrails of this election that provides an inarguable case for their preferred path to power, whether it be Corbyn, Boris, Farage etc. The only thing certain is that they won’t all get what they want.

    Wednesday 9th November

    Another scrutiny meeting – this time it’s a task group on the Educational Health & Care Plans (EHCP). These had been in disarray during the summer – in a really bad state; and they’re vital for a child with special needs’ transition to a new school. We’ll pursue this task further but, whilst it’s not an issue I’ve been leading on, I came away from the meeting feeling that the new officer they’d recruited after the debacle, was someone that would make a real difference.

    Thursday 10th November

    Library volunteering.
    No meetings so I stop smoking – seems a nice symmetry to it. Only started again in the aftermath of brexit, so if I stop because of Trump….it seems right. I don’t know what this all means, but if I can convince myself it was the right time to stop, it helps.

    Friday 11th November

    Transport for Greater Manchester Committee in the morning. The big issue was choice of new routes for when the Deansgate route begins. I suppose the plum route for areas is whether their tram goes to Piccadilly Station or not. It was easier when Bury and Altrincham were the only two ends of the lines. But Metrolink is a network, it’s not designed so that the tram you begin your journey on is the tram that you stay on for the whole journey. So the meeting was more fractious than usual. Our Metrolink will continue to link with Bury and Piccadilly Stn, so we’re considered to be winners in this.

    In the afternoon I draft a council motion on lobbying government not to outllaw new publicly owned bus companies. I hope it’s a motion that gets submitted by the Labour Group. It’s competing with other worthy motions so we’ll see. Then drafted another leaflet/letter and had it printed. This one on the Station Road planning application. Really believe the loss of this green strip in a densely built environment would be probably more damaging than many places that receive full protection of countryside acts etc.

    Station Road Green
    Proposed site for 10 apartments
    opp Trafford Park Station

    Saturday 12th November

    I spend lunchtime delivering the leaflets and talking to residents, then finally get some time on the allotment

    Sunday 13th November

    Remembrance Sunday. Still thinking about the poor lad who fainted. I was prone to similar episodes in my teens. Luckily I tended to crumple, but that lad went down with such a thud.

    poppy