From the Canal to Sevenways

Author: Mike Cordingley

  • Weekly Update 4th April 2011

    Nomination in – Campaigning begins

    As we enter the election period, council meetings will become less frequent. So it’ll be a time to compare the records of the various parties in Trafford and give a verdict on this Conservative Government. I enjoy elections. Too many  issues affecting our day to day lives are taken by the non elected bureaucrats. Elections are an opportunity to challenge and empower. They  allow residents to make a statement on key issues affecting Trafford:

    • Should we be giving away £21m to the cricket club from the sale of land owned in the common good and as a consequence allow a Tesco to be built which by general and judicial agreement, is vastly oversized for the location?
    • And perhaps just as pertinently, even if the council sincerely believed the Tescos was appropriate, should it  have allowed itself to be so under the thumb of the cricket club, that any possibility of improvements  to community facilities were never in the frame?
    • Shouldn’t the residents of Gorse Hill be right to expect improvements to the increasingly forlorn Stretford Sports Centre to come out of this “sports-led project” at the very least.Isn’t it an insult to suggest that the community will benefit, when all they’re getting as a direct improvement is school-access to the cricket outfield when convenient to the club.Has the cricket club been allowed too much lead in determining all aspects of the project? Did they have a track record of investing wisely and project control when they were one of most affluent clubs, for the council to play such a subservient role?

    Trafford Council has an increasingly poor record in its major projects. Consider Urmston Town Centre (major delays and still not complete 5 years behind schedule), Altrincham Town Centre (one U-turn after another), Partington (shops closed  ready for development but no sign of further progress). Compare this record to Labour’s in Trafford – Imperial War Museum (world renown), Sale Waterside (bringing vitality to Sale) not to mention the regeneration projects, school improvements that enhanced Trafford during Labour’s terms of office. The contrast is damning of the Tories in Trafford.  If they can’t look after the underpinning structure of our towns, no amount of tickbox service measurements will ensure future generations a place to be proud of.

    Monday (and Friday)

    Attendance at days 2 and 3 of a five day training course in Manchester on councillors in the community. The course has come at useful time, giving a perfect opportunity to look at things I’ve done well in my first term of office and others that could be done better. It’s a non-political course and there’s members from the two main parties from Trafford and other boroughs in the region. Monday looked at leadership and empowerment, Friday covered negotiation, small scale projects and organisation.

    Tuesday

    Nomination papers submitted. And in the evening it was the West area Community Panel of Trafford Housing Trust. Not a great attendance for this meeting at Flixton House but it wasn’t a bad evening. We learned that estate walkabouts are now ‘on demand’ rather than a regular event as they have been up to now. In some ways this is better as we can focus on particular pertinent issues and ensure the right officers are there. We will also need to produce a needs assessment for the various neighbourhoods within West area (which includes most of Lostock, but stretches out to Partington).

    Wednesday

    The turn of the Stretford Community Panel which includes Gorse Hill and the Stretford parts of the ward. Very similar to previous night’s meeting, although better attended and we received a presentation from  iCAN - Trafford Consumer Alert Network Logo Trafford’s Trading Standards.

    iCAN (Consumer Alert Network) is a facility to alert members of the community to variouss scamsthat are taking place. It’s particularly useful in relation to non genuine doorstep callers. Anyone can sign up to it and it’s entirely free. You can choose how you want to be alerted. Text, email or telephone message.

    Learn more by clicking  on the iCAN logo. The service is provided by Trafford.

    Friday, Saturday and Sunday

    Campaigning in earnest. Knocking on doors and talking to residents. And I went to see City v Sunderland. We’re waiting for delivery of semi final tickets but it’s looking increasingly likely we’re two of the unlucky ones to have them pinched from the post van. Ah well

    . ..and for the record I don’t think Rooney should be suspended for swearing into the camera.

  • Labour in Trafford just showing that we can make a difference

    This is a video from colleagues in Altrincham. It just shows we can make a difference. I’ve been out with them a couple of times now in Broadheath and I’ve just been so impressed. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from them; they are showing us all the way. Well done to Andrew, Sam and all the team

  • Weekly Update 28th March 2011

    Computers!

    I can’t believe how much problems I’m having with computers at the moment. I’m hit with a perfect storm of old PC packing up, new PC failing after a week and being returned to manufacturer, Virgin Media revamping their webmail and hiding all my emails; and now the PC is returned from its maker having all the appearance of having been sat on by an elephant. What was a square is now more like a kite. A keen salesman might try to describe it as having a go-faster shape, except it is completely dead – like the parrot.

    You don’t realise how much the modern councillor relies on computers until you try living without one or making do with a tiny laptop. Still life goes on, even if I’m struggling to pass on emails and updates to the wider membership (one of my roles). And I’m unable to print anything. Still that’s enough complaining.

    Monday

    Meeting of Gorse Hill Action Group – They are preparing for the Gorse Hill funday on 1st May. This is a double bank holiday weekend with the Royal Wedding on the Friday. They’ve collared me to be a marshall at the fun day. Glad to help

    Apologies to colleagues on the shadow executive as unable to attend the council’s executive that night due to prior-commitment to Gorse Hill. The main item was the funding formula. Government cuts are going to reduce the amount going to schools. It’s an absolutely barmy decision from the government – unless we can encourage growth and creativity we’ll be entering a downward spiral of slowing economy and the debt taking up an ever bigger proportion of a reducing GDP. Schools, universities and colleges should be the last to be cut. The more this Government gets it wrong, the more stubborn Cameron, Osborne and Clegg become.

    The damage that these ‘ex-special advisors’ are doing has to raise the question as to whether the public will tolerate this route to Government any longer.

    Wednesday

    Budget Day – see earlier post

    Barton Bio Mass Presentation -Very interesting talk over the existing air quality around the motorway. This to me is the most powerful argument against the proposed incinerator. We’re already subjected to excessive pollution and we should be reducing that before we allow further emissions.

    Friday

    Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority Meeting

    The item taking up most time was the Trans Pennine Trail between Stretford and Stockport. The Didsbury section is having to be diverted over an embankment via steps. As this is a cycling /walking route, this solution is not appropriate. The ‘Love your Bike’ group have proposed an alternative route via the banks of the Mersey and this may be feasible. The Labour councillors rightly called upon the costs of the local path on the original route to be reviewed as the report suggested £800,000 for ramps. None of us were convinced that this was the lowest cost of giving local people an accessible route through Parrs Wood. It’s too easy for costs to inflate unless there’s a will to drive them down.

  • Well worth listening to – Councillor Tim Cheetham

    Tim Cheetham is a councillor in Barnsley. He’s been at the forefront of using social media (Twitter, Facebook etc.) but primarily he’s just a damn good councillor.
    I noticed this short interview with him on the LGA website and felt it deserved a bigger airing. He talks about increasing transparency and involvement in the work that councils do. And he was ‘blown away’ by the work that Greater Manchester Police did in their 24hr tweetathon where teams across Greater Manchester tweeted what they were doing across Greater Manchester.
    Needless to say I agree with everyword on the tweetathon. In fact I agree with every word in the interview. I appreciate he’s talking about a conference day but that doesn’t detract (I wasn’t there either).

  • The Budget

    Let’s start with the positive

    George Osborne signalled two themes in his budget.

    The need for a Budget for Growth

    The need for a Balanced Economy (North v South, Manufactoring v Financial/Service Sector)

    He’s right that these are the immediate requirements. We won’t be able to shift the debt unless we deliver real growth in the economy. The UK economy is failing to re-emerge out of the trough created by the wanton indulgences of the global banking sector. This is because we allowed Nigel Lawson, Maggie Thatcher, Norman Lamont, John Major and yes, Gordon Brown, to put the short term flattery and fawning from the cretins in the City of London ahead of the fact that no nation can thrive if it doesn’t make anything. Where’s our aircraft industry, our car-makers, our ship-builders, camera-makers, tram-makers? The lessons from our current plight are not new, we’ve known for centuries that reliance on a couple of sectors will catch up with you in the end. The fact that the banking crisis is a global phenomenon shouldn’t blinker us to the fact that countries with strong diverse economies are going to pull clear out of this quicker than nations made up of supermarkets, bankers and social workers. Look at how quickly Germany is reemerging..

    So George Osborne is right to identify growth in a balanced economy is imperative but he doesn’t do enough.

    • 1p cut in fuel duty and postponement of April’s Fuel escalator – I agree with this. There’s an argument that the VAT increase should not be applied to fuel. I don’t buy George Osborne’s explanation that this would take 6 years to get through EU regulations. Given we’re baling out Portugal, given we are in a position of negotiating strength, it could have been sorted in days. Osborne is clutching at straws with that one, but in any event, I’m not sure that we should be removing the various levies on fuel. The 1p cut is probably right at this time. But the reality is the fuel price has to increase, we’ve got to reduce our over-reliance on the car for all sorts of reasons. Politicians are not coming clean about this. Both the Conservatives and Labour Front benches are allowing the price at the pump to increase whilst positioning themselves as the friend of the motorist. It’s unpopular but if we’re to compete, we have to reduce unnecessary fuel use; it’s a scarce commodity with a price to match and it’s about time we accepted that..
    • Corporation Tax reduced by 1p – I agree with this – We do have to encourage business. It’s not going to do much on its own. I’d really like to see an end to employers national insurance. We should not be taxing jobs. I’m not suggesting that companies and employers should not be contributing to our shared responsibilites (defence, health service etc.) but I’d argue that we should be focussing on the capital in the company rather than the numbers in its labour-force. The labour-intensive industries should not be contributing more than those with one man and a nuclear reactor. We want those jobs.

    And that’s about it for growth. He’s made it easier for developers with a presumption in favour of planning applications. A fact lost on Conservative Councillor Michael Cornes at last night’s presentation from the Breathe Clean Air Group. Just as he was claiming that localism will make it easier for people to oppose developments, his Chancellor was pulling the rug from under his feet and saying developers can pretty much build what they like.

    He’s also given the go-ahead for the northern hub linking Manchester Victoria and Piccadilly. As this potentially could improve the regularity of trains on our line in Gorse Hill, we have to welcome it.

    But there’s the rub. At a time of recession we should be stimulating the economy through more investment. The northern hub is welcome but it’ll take too long to get started. The investments that would make an immediate difference are the Building Schools for the Future projects, Sheffield Forgemasters, Affordable House Building,

    The supply of land needs to increase. Too much of it is held as a speculative hedge-fund by investors and the aristocracy. We tax jobs and the poor but land gets EU grants. And before Tories start saying Mike Cordingley would like to tax your gardens, I’m talking hectares not patios. There would be an argument over legitimate farming but I’m sure a sophisticated land tax could be constructed. The important thing is that we are able to build the houses, schools and hospitals needed by our people, stimulate our economy and at the same time ensure the most priviliged in our country share the burden that’s being placed by the Tories on our poorest and most vulnerable.

    What you do in a recession has implications for years. It provides opportunities as well as challenges. Osborne has set all his focus on 2015, the next General Election. There’s a possibility that we might just might be reducing the deficit then (and the Tories might just reap the benefit). The problem is that we will still be relying on the same bogeymen, the bankers that got us into this mess in the first place and the economy will be as unbalanced as ever and far further behind our competitors than it is now.

  • Wood St Mission and Manchester Twestival 2011

    I caught this tweet requesting the donation of a blog post to publicise the Manchester Twestival 2011 which is supporting the Wood St Mission as its charity this year. The Twestival takes place tomorrow Thursday 24th March. To be honest I’ve no idea what a Twestival is but I’m sure it’s good fun. However I do know of the enormous impact that Wood St Mission has had on the poor of Manchester and you can read more here.
    They’ve been going for nearly 150 years and sadly there’s still a pressing need for them today. I hope you will take part.
    Wood St