From the Canal to Sevenways

Author: Mike Cordingley

  • Weekly Update 14th March 2011

    Local Issues predominate

    Monday

    The week started with attendance at Lostock Tenants and Residents Association. The state of roads predominated with Selby Road in particular drawing attention. The Humphrey Park station approach was also criticised as overgrown, unkempt with subway becoming increasingly smelly and forbidding. And dog poo is an increasing issue. We also discussed the deteriorating state of the shop forecourt at Lostock Parade.

    There was some discussion as to the future for the tenants and residents association given the retirement of the chair. The residents were clear that it should continue; they valued its focus on the neighbourhood to the south of Barton Road and offered access to Trafford Housing Trust’s community panels. The alternative was to fall under the Lostock Partnership but it was felt that there was room for both associations. The challenge is to ensure we have officers in place to continue the good work.

    In the evening it was Stretford’s Neighbourhood Forum, interestingly with less residents present than the morning’s Lostock meeting despite covering a much greater area. The two main agenda items were Trafford Link and Sustainable Living.

    Trafford Link is the Local Involvement Network for Trafford – a dreadful name and one that belies a truly important statutory role. Thankfully the Government is changing their name to Healthwatch. Trafford Link is effectively the citizen’s voice on local health issues. With that ‘voice’ comes certain statutory rights to inspect providers whether it be hospitals or service providers and make a meaninful contribution to setting priorities. Ann Day, chair of Trafford Link (and coincidentally, acting chair of Lostock Residents – see above) gave an update on the changing shape of Trafford Healthcare Trust. The trust is looking to be taken over by a larger trust as it is not financially sustainable in its current form. The services currently provided at Trafford General will change – some services will inevitably be withdrawn but others could be added as the new trust develops the provision. The role of Link /Healthwatch will be crucial

    The presentation raised interesting questions from residents and it’s clear that there’s a lack of awareness over the changes as many were learning about the scope for the first time.

    Trafford’s sustainability officer then gave a talk on the borough’s approach to carbon reduction. The focus of points made by residents was on the lack of clarity over what plastics are recyclable. Plastic bottles are ok but what about those containing yoghurt drinks when yoghurt cartons themselves were not recylable? Residents are still confused and wanted guidance on the website.

    Tuesday

    Attended Lostock Youth club to hear (with officers) of the concerns of young people about changes to the accommodation to be allocated to them in Lostock College to replace their current delapidated premises. With the cuts agenda, I suppose we should be grateful that the provision is going to continue but you can’t help feeling that we really underprovide for our youth generally, but in Trafford particularly. The Lostock youth club is the only such council provided provision in the ward and many Trafford wards don’t have any youth clubs. At the same time we complain whenever youths gather round a bench or garden wall. It’s so frustrating that we put so much resources into countering anti-social behaviour and so little into providing diversionary activities. Still £120,000 being put into Lostock Youth Club is welcomed, even if I have reservations about locating it within the parameters of a secondary school. The lesson from Tuesday’s meeting was that the young people want to have ‘ownership’ of the plans, and a provision that matches their existing facilities.

    Thursday

    Day dominsated by the High Court ruling on Gorse Hill Tescos. Disappointing verdict; we all support a successful Cricket Club but the price of that success mustn’t fall upon residents either in cash terms or in the imposition of developments that wouldn’t otherwise be allowed. This proposal breaches both. It’s rich for Jim Cumbes to complain that his development has alreay passed enough hurdles and must be allowed to proceed when the Tesco on its own was rejected at just as many hurdles.

    Friday

    Attended GMITA Bus Network Committee as an observer. The main item on the agenda was the bus network changes. Predominately the changes were based in the Wigan area but the 290/291 service between Flixton, Trafford Centre, Trafford Park and Manchester is proposed to be foreshortened so that it will be Flixton to Trafford Park only. The changes to the 23/23A made temporarily last summmer whereby they alternate in the evening are to be made permanent.

    Saturday

    Attended the Trafford Local Elections Campaign Launch with Andy Burnham as special guest. This was a really positive event. Labour is turning up the heat on this discredited Government. The Government have set on a course so damaging to the economy and our services. Andy told us about how the Tories were undermining the principles of the NHS:

    • They were removing the cap on private practice so hospitals could deliver as much private care as they wanted.
    • They were insisting that all Trusts remained within budget, rather than allow the surplus of one trust balance the deficit of another
    • They had removed the 18 week time-limit on seeing a consultant

    Essentially they were encouraging trusts to deliver more and more services privately to balance the budget and it didn’t matter how long those who couldn’t afford to pay had to wait. I cannot understand Lib Dems such as Chris Huhne saying that the reforms adhere to Lib Dem principles. I haven’t forgotten marching with Lib Dems against the Iraq war, I even supported Vince Cable’s mansion tax, but what they’re doing now is beyond the pale. Beveridge was a Liberal; he wouldn’t be now! They seem to have sold their souls. It’s just incredible.

    Dave Acton gave a tremendous speech at the meeting, the best I’ve heard him give. He denounced the pretence of Tory Trafford for portraying the local cuts as almost painless when in fact they were hitting the most vulnerable.

    Sunday

    Really good doorstep conversations in Altrincham. Quite a few former Tory voters are switching to Labour arguing the Conservatives are just going too deep too fast. Former Lib Dem voters are deserting them en masse. So it’s going to interesting in the local elections

  • Tesco Verdict continued

    We have now seen the full ruling.  Here it is.

    Derwent v Trafford

  • Tesco Planning verdict

    Application for Judicial Review from Derwent Holdings (owners of White City) rejected

    Tesco gets the go ahead from the High Court. We’re still awaiting the details of the ruling but it seems clear that the controversial super sized Tesco Megastore planned for Gorse Hill is going ahead. All the press attention and there’s plenty of interest in the story, is focused on the Lancashire Cricket Club development partnered with the store. However, the bottom line is that we’re getting a store twice the size of one previously rejected as too big for the area and damaging to our town centre. The fact the decision to reject this earlier smaller store was endorsed both by the Planning Inspectorate and an earlier High Court ruling makes it harder to understand how the position has changed.

    We know what changed Trafford Council’s mind and that was the Cricket Ground development being part-financed by Tesco; the Council has been upfront about it. But given that it’s well established in planning terms that the Tesco is too big and not acceptable on it’s own merit, should the £21m going to the Cricket Club make a difference? How can we make a moral case that the planning process is an objective examination of the impact on the community, the roads and the town centre when all it takes to shift those criteria is wads of cash going to a preferred beneficiary?

    I see Jonathan Schofield editor of Manchester confidential welcomes the decision, arguing that:

    As we’ve said previously: Will a successful destination supermarket and a revitalised cricket ground be better long-term for Stretford, Gorse Hill and Old Trafford, than the crumbling edifices of the Stretford Mall and the present LCCC? Would they increase prestige, boost image and bring in more jobs? What’s the big picture in an age where we’ve, as a country, already allowed scores of ridiculously sized stores from various companies, not just Tesco, to be built all over the place?

    At Confidential the answer is obvious. Build the store, improve LCCC, give the residents the excitement change brings whilst ensuring the city region maintains all its international sporting choices.”

    Jonathan is entitled to that view but he misses the point that it was already determined six years ago that a smaller Tesco was not appropriate to that particular site. He may disagree with that view, but it was endorsed through three tiers of the planning process. The High Court has simply ruled that planning gain (wads of dosh) can reverse all planning determinsations however objective. And I am not sure that leaves us in a good place. I hold no torch for Derwent and I’m not clear that White City provides a benign alternative location for a superstore, but I do worry that once again ordinary folk have been ignored.

    We’re going to get a massive Tesco opposite PC World. As councillors we’re obviously going to have to work with the company to ensure Chester Road is not brought to a standstill and the neighbourhood is not grid-locked in. And we’ll be looking to ensure that promises are kept as far as local employment is concerned. At the end of the day, we want it to be a success. It can’t be in Tesco’s interest to sieze-up the area, but the sheer scale of it leaves you wondering how the road network can deliver sufficient customers, when it’s already congested – exactly the points that led to its rejection in the first place. If Jonathan Schofield has any solution to this, I’d welcome his input.

    Mike Cordingley

     

  • Weekly update 7th March 2011

    Now the Budget’s through – we have the calm before the cuts bite

    An unusually Quiet week

    For once, I was able to get to a cup match at City without it clashing with a meeting. The only busy day was Friday which I’ll come on to shortly.

    On Thursday with Councillor Walsh, I attended the on site community liaison meeting at the Nash Road Composting Facility. The development is nearing completion and should be coming on stream soon. The facility is designed to take green waste and household slops.

    Video of the In-Vessel Composting Process

    The impression I get is that it will pong quite bit inside the plant but because they’re keen to keep the heat in, we have to be hopeful that the smells will not travel far. We’re certainly keen to keep the site under scrutiny.

    Perhaps just as pertinently, residents might be interested in the affect this plant might have on the disposal of household waste. You’ll see from the video that the process takes in the scraps/slops that we’ve been putting up to now in the grey bins (to go to landfill). My understanding is that this will mean putting the slops from the plates and pans into degradeable plastic bags provided for the purpose. What are the issues associated with this? I think ideally you’d want a bin or caddy to collect a reasonable amount before going to the bin, so does that mean an extra bin in the kitchen? Interestingly, it was clear at a recent neighbourhood forum that residents are getting more confused as to what plastics are recycleable and were looking for more guidance. I think the same will apply to this slop collection. Will bones be included? I can forsee lots of confusion unless there’s clarity.

    Friday

    All day meeting of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (Capital Projects Committee followed by separate presentations on Victoria Station renewal and Local Transport Plans

    Capital Project Meeting – Reports

    Technically, I’m not yet a member of the successor authority but it made sense to attend the remaining meetings of GMITA before it’s replaced by the new TfGMC of which I’m to be member. Surprisingly Trafford doesn’t have any members on the Capital Projects Committee. We’ve a few capital projects under development in the borough – primarily the Metrolink extension to Manchester Airport which will link Trafford Bar to Chorlton and beyond. Hopefully we’ll one day see a tram to the Trafford Centre but overall the picture is depressing. Until central Government addresses the absolutely shocking imbalance between London and the rest of England for capital investment, we’re not providing the Northern Economy with the basic transport infrastucture that it needs to grow. And I’m not going to shy away from criticising my Labour Government in its failure to deliver the investment that the regions needed. Its ironic that as we approach the 2012 Olympics, we’ve still not got the Metrolink to serve the Commonwealth Games. Bluntly, it feels like the North is a different country compared to London. But let’s be honest, Manchester is not even holding its own against other regional centres as far as transport is concerned. Metrolink is a recognisable success but we’re never going to reach a position where most Mancunians are within convenient distance of a Metrolink station. We need to fully integrate our transport infrastructure as far as the passenger is concerned. We may have to make do with second hand trams with poor reliability for a bit longer, but its outrageous that we haven’t been able to provide a ticketing system to get from one side of Manchester to the other.

    There’s nothing new in what I’m saying about transport here; Labour’s members of the transport authority have been pulling their hair out for years over this and it could be argued that the Congestion Charge was a sign of desparation.

    Local Transport Plan Consultation Pages

    A key component of any improvements to Trafford’s transport will be the Northern Hub improvements. These include building additional lines to allow express trains to overtake the slower commuter services. If these were ever built we’d at last have the opportunity to make optimum use of the railway linking all of Trafford’s northern neighbourhoods. At present Manchester is a problem for all the lines across the north and it would be great to see us progress this. At present we’re hearing positive noises from Government but we’ve had positive noises before. I hope they put as much energy into this as the high-speed rail link. I believe it to be far more important.

    Northern Hub Brochure

    Final thought: you may notice that network rail are pointing to the fact that 70% of all rail journeys start or finish in London. There was a time when 100% of all rail journeys started or finished in Manchester. If feels like we need to pull our weight again.

  • Data Breach affects 1300 Trafford Children at most stressful time

    Drastic cuts in key education services by the controlling Tory group on Trafford Council are being blamed by the Labour opposition for a serious breach of the Data Protection Act affecting 1,300 children and infuriating their parents.

    Due to what the Council calls “a processing error” parents who received details by e-mail of the secondary schools to which their children  were assigned 12 months ago received another e-mail on Tuesday this week. This one provided information on the new schools which children would be attending from this September. The trouble is they weren’t their children.

    Meanwhile the real parents of this year’s cohort of 1,300 children, who were expecting e-mails at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, were left waiting anxiously for information about which school their child had been  allocated – and so, no doubt, were the children.

    The Council is now having to prepare letters of apology to go out to both sets of parents and will be reporting the matter to the data protection commissioner. It is also investigating how the mistake was made by its Corporate IT department.

    Trafford Council has already had a small number of calls from parents concerned that information about their children has gone to the incorrect e-mail address and more are expected over the next few days.

    “I am horrified that this could have happened, “ Councillor David Acton, leader of the Labour Group on the Council, said. “Parent and children confidentiality has been seriously breached. There has been a monumental systems failure by Trafford Council and I’ve no doubt the Tories will be looking for someone to blame.”

    “The fact is that the significant cuts made by them in school support and school admission services must have played a part. Council staff are becoming totally demoralised.

    “We raised our concerns about these cuts at a budget scrutiny meeting a few weeks ago and more recently at the Council’s budget setting meeting but the Tories simply ploughed on regardless.

    “The fact is that Trafford’s Conservative controlled Council has been sailing very close to the wind with their £21 million budget cuts, no doubt hoping to please the Tory-led Government. We believe this will lead to further significant service failures and deep service inefficiencies which will affect Trafford’s ratepayers.

    “The Tories have tried to dupe people into thinking that slashing service budgets will not affect front line services. This incident, which is an extremely serious breach of the data protection act, shows that they are wrong.”

    Press Release from Dave Acton on behalf of Trafford Labour Group

  • Tesco, The Cricket Club, The neighbouring Developer, The Council and lots of lawyers

    Trafford is at the High Court this week in the latest instalment of the legal squabble over the disputed right to build us a supermarket. Tesco wants to build us a giant megastore opposite PC World, but Derwent Holdings want to build us a large one at their White City retail park.

    It would be nice to think that these two filthily wealthy corporate hordes could be allowed to sort out their differences as Harry Hill would have them do, but unfortunately its going to cost us. Yes we’re probably going to have to pay the lawyers to determine who’s going to build their supermarket for us. We’ll pay but no one’s interested in which supermarket residents want, how big or how small, or where to put it, if we want one at all.

    The media are desperate for the reactions of Jim Cumbes, Chief Executive of Lancashire Cricket Club and his running commentary on the court case and the ‘righteousness’ of the Tesco plan. It’s easy to see why that is the story; Jim wants his £21m and who can blame him? The club gets the £21m from Tesco in exchange for the land it’s getting from the cricket club the school. But not to worry, the community gets a sports led regeneration doesn’t it? Well no actually the community doesn’t get any facilities out of this deal (sports or otherwise). It would have at least been interesting if there had been something at stake for the community; a revamped sports centre for instance. But no, this is about Lancashire Cricket Club in their belated attempts to catch up with the other County Grounds.

    On Friday we’ll get to learn who’s going to build the supermarket. Hopefully, the legal bill will be modest.  And then we can start working on the consequences.