Canal27ways

Author: Mike C

  • Impressions of a council that’s not sleeping well

    Impressions of a council that’s not sleeping well

    Happening at the Council

    The Care Quality Commission visited Trafford for its inspection of Adult Social Services last week. This is a big moment for Trafford.

    Council Meeting last week

    Political Motions to council (5)

    Link to the Motions section on the Council meeting agenda

    What can I say?

    I did as I was told. I kept my mouth shut as instructed. I voted as whipped. 

    Ultimately, it was a mix of posturing and moral scolding. The more we are removed from the neighbourhoods we represent, the more we inhabit an alternate universe. Nobody wins and you won’t hear of these motions again. It’s just hierarchies reinforcing themselves. The people sat on the council dais win. That is all. 

    We’ve got to find new ways of highlighting serious issues.

    Council Finances

    The period from October to December is typically the time when the next year’s budget comes together. Assumptions are made about the Government’s settlement and other unknowns such as pay settlements. 

    I notice my old friend, former Councillor Jonathan Coupe, has been raising the absence of a draft budget.

    Screenshot

    I was scheduled to be a member of a scrutiny committee from late summer. It never met and meetings scheduled for December have now been cancelled. Jonathan is right to question where we are.

    I think this tells you how much depends on the final Local Government Settlement. We are never given the actual date, but it was the 18th December, which triggered our application for Exceptional Financial Support from the Government in 2024. Given that £9.6m of that financial support was not consolidated, but was actually a borrowing facility that will have to be paid back over time,  I would have preferred a worst case budget for 2026/27. I hope the Government understands the financial precipice I suspect we’re standing over.

    The monitoring report for the current year is to be presented at tonight’s executive.  It looks like we’re on course to spend that £9.6m capitalisation. All things being equal, that would leave us needing to make up that £9.6m just to stand still without any increases in costs. 

    The government has recently published its fair funding review. We won’t know the full impact until the settlement is published, but prioritising support for the most deprived councils won’t necessarily help Trafford. 

    Executive Meeting 8th December

    Apart from the current in-year budget position there’s a couple of other items on the agenda;

    • Potential compulsory purchase New Street Altrincham – L&Q have a development there.
    • Memorandum of Understanding with L&Q on future working collaboration

    I would have preferred this memorandum of understanding to have undergone pre-decision scrutiny. Were L&Q working collaboratively when they emptied Circle Court?

    • Corporate Performance 13 indicators rated Green, 16 rated amber/red
    • Activation of Trafford’s Cultural Strategy – go ahead for Trafford Is… platform
    • Urmston Plan – all councils do this type of thing and you’re left feeling wouldn’t it have been better to just do some implementation. We knew that the Urmston Market site was frustrating residents. Has this ‘plan’ brought about any resolution?
    • Advanced Manufacturing Skills Programme – our contribution to a GM wide programme.

    Planning Committee applications

    None within the ward, but Stretford Town Centre is important to many of our residents. This will be heard on Thursday evening.

    • Lacy Street – Residential development (use class C3) of 53 dwellings with associated amenity space, access, car and cycle parking, external landscaping, drainage and other associated works.

      The recommendation is for members of the committee to grant this application from Trafford Council. I’m on record as opposing it as an unsuitable use of this prime location.

    It’s hard to imagine a less walking/cycling friendly junction. Just as the Urmston plan is advocating raised crossings, Stretford proposes fast corners to the junctions in the centre of Stretford. Front doors and gardens onto Chester Road are brave at best.

  • Switching off from Politics and playing the music loud.

    Switching off from Politics and playing the music loud.

    Following one of the worst council meetings I can remember and there’s been some bad ones, it was nice to confirm I’ve got tickets for Neil Young / Elvis Costello in the summer.

    Music is important to me. I’m still searching for a radio feed that gives me a perfect mix and no talk. BBC 6 music is closest in my tastes, but they hardly ever shut up.

    ……and the same goes for council! – 😊

    I sometimes listen to Radio Paradise from the states. And I’ve been playing Fip Monde from France for (+15) years since it was featured on the Today programme – it’s world music and it’s rare to hear anything I’ve heard before. Still more often than not I just ask Alexa to play a particular song and let the algorithm take over.

    Regardless of this December is the time for the music streamers to tell listeners what they’ve been listening to the most and I can never resist checking it.

    This is mine. I’d love hear yours. I don’t know how accessible they are if you’re not signed up. I know I can still play somethings on Spotify despite not being with them for a long time.

  • Council goes Kafka

    Council goes Kafka

    Council has been cancelling meetings during by-elections. They’ve always done it. It’s always been a problem, but we’ve worked around it. Having two consecutive by-elections has broken the system in my view, we’ve had no budget scrutiny, we’ve a huge backlog in performance reports. I have tried to identify the constitutional basis for this suspension. I’ve looked at the government advice and LGA. The advice is actually to carry on business as normal. So there’s no basis for this suspension. I tried to raise this as a point of order.

    I was not allowed to raise an unconstitutional act as unconstitutional, since the act wasn’t in the constitution. My head is spinning.

  • Pee, Poo and Paper Rules and a trip to Davyhulme Works.

    Pee, Poo and Paper Rules and a trip to Davyhulme Works.

    A treat to visit the treatment works.

    Davyhulme Sewage Works is a fascinating place. I was one of three Trafford councillors to take up a guided tour provided by United Utilities. It’s a place I’ve always been aware of; famously because of its smells, but also because of the space it takes up alongside the ship canal. As a youngster I used to cycle over to Barton Airport to watch the planes and we’d take short-cuts over water courses and outflows to get to the locks. It’s a huge site.

    The pong associated with the sewage works has noticeably receded. I’m not going to pretend it’s a become a canal-side idyll, but there’s no doubt there’s been significant improvement. It was also apparent that the technology is also improving even if the basic infrastructure still has components of the original 1894 works.

    Davyhulme is long associated with technological innovation and we really don’t give enough attention to the development here in 1914. Searching the web just throws up the odd burst of enthusiastic exaltation popping up anywhere in the world.

    Examples from the web

    En 1914, les chercheurs anglais Ardern et Lockett découvrent que la dépollution est beaucoup plus rapide lorsque l’eau usée à traiter est mise en contact avec une biomasse épuratrice [4] déjà formée. Ils déposent ainsi le premier brevet sur le procédé d’épuration qui sera dénommé procédé à boues activées.

    A Call for Recognition of Ardern and Lockett in Trafford

    How did we come to miss celebrating the centenary in 2014? Ardern and Lockett are celebrated by sewage engineers all over the world. Why no statues, no streets named after them? Are we ashamed of poo?

    Where are we now?

    The process Ardern and Lockett developed is still in use all over the world. The demand on it has never been greater. Of course it’s been improved and there are new investments coming through.

    Davyhulme wastewater treatment works is set to undergo an initial investment of around £350m over the next five years to ensure it meets the needs of a growing population and higher environmental standards that will improve water quality in the Manchester Ship Canal.

    Link to press release

    But…

    Clearly, I welcome this investment. However, it is long overdue.

    I don’t believe that water should be privatised. It is to the everlasting shame of the Conservative Party that we allowed our infrastructure to deteriorate to such an extent that processes I’m so proud of at Davyhulme and each and every other treatment works have to by-passed when the capacity can’t cope with sewage discharged directly into the rivers and canals.

    We are where we are and whilst I abhor the use of rivers, I’ve got to recognise that the infrastructure that first receives the rain water as it comes down on us in ever increasing downpours is under the council control.

    We’ve got to keep our drains and sewers clear. We’ve got to encourage each other to respect the drains and toilet flushes. Wipes should never go down the loo. Even if the manufacturers claim their product to be bio-degradable, the wipes never degrade quick enough not to contribute to the giant fat-balls that block the sewars. And even when the wipes make it through the system, they’ve still got to be removed and taken to landfill.

    Mea Culpa

    It’s not just wet wipes. I might not be guilty of disposing of those in the system, but I saw the amount of grit and small pebbles that make it through to Davyhulme, which is but a small proportion of the amount building up in our drains.

    It was impossible to avoid thinking of ‘Stretford Beach’ and the amount of pebbles building up from there in the drains. Should we ever be using pebble and grit in ways that it’s impossible to avoid large amounts entering the drains?

    Let’s keep the drains flowing.

    Finally,

    Strongly recommend a visit to Davyhulme Sewage Works. It’s absolutely fascinating.

    In which a visit to Davyhulme Sewage works becomes a cause of local historical pride; and a rethink in terms of what what we're putting in our drains.
    Edward Ardern smoking and William Lockett sat front right (photographer unknown)

    Resources

    A Visit to Cassington Sewage Treatment Works – 12-29-2021 in Oxford, UK

    Davyhulme Sewage Works – Wikipedia

    Call for Nominations for MEWE SG Awards: Ardern-Lockett Award 2025, Early and Mid-Career Awards 2025 – International Water Association

    A historical appraisal of the significance of Ardern and Lockett by Nigel Horan, reader in civil engineering

    Featured image at top of post is copyright of United Utilities and is published under legitimate interest use.

  • MFT gets fit for the future

    MFT gets fit for the future

    I’m a member of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) council of governors. I’m nominated by Trafford Council. Their briefings for governors are always interesting.

    The main item last week was the trust’s review of its five year strategy: Where excellence meets compassion

    I don’t like the title of it, but I do like the content. MFT is held in high regard within the NHS and its easy to see why. MFT’s strategy anticipates much that is in the brand new FIT FOR THE FUTURE – 10 Year Health Plan for England, published in the summer by Wes Streeting. That 10 year national plan for England allows the trust to accelerate and get ready for the changes in NHS structure that are so badly needed.

    Neighbourhood Health Service

    Too often, using the NHS means navigating a complex web of services;  being forced to constantly repeat yourself to professionals who have not talked to each other, or had proper access to your medical records.

    Hospitals have become distanced from many local communities – embedding a model where ‘you come to care’, rather than one where ‘care comes to you’.

    The neighbourhood health service is Labour’s alternative. It will bring care into local communities; convene professionals into patient-centred teams; end fragmentation and abolish the NHS default of ‘one size fits all’ care.

    The neighbourhood health service is a very exciting concept. It brings accountability for whole neighbourhoods rather than just the patients admitted via urgent care or GP referral.

    We saw during the pandemic shocking disparities of health provision within Trafford. Accountability for our more deprived neighbourhoods was non-existent.

    I sense that MFT medical staff are really keen to take this forward. They know for example that offering hospital support to patients remaining at home provides better outcomes at lower cost.

    Apps are becoming mainstream. Wes Streeting sees the NHS app allowing patients to see who is involved in their care, to communicate with professionals directly, draft and view their
    care plans, book and hold appointments and leave feedback. For many people, this will mean they can access all they need from their neighbourhood team. This will include both booking and holding appointments with health professionals through their phone.

    MFT are already well advanced in using the MyMFT App. Being ‘off the shelf’ will be advantage in that it is a platform used by so many health providers.

    Nevertheless, delivering the NHS app functionality will be a substantial piece of work for all trusts so it’s right that the work begins.

    There are many organisational changes incumbent on bringing in a new operating model. We’ll have to keep a close eye on how these develop. The key thing for me that it makes equality of outcome a genuine focus rather than a platitude.

  • August update

    August update

    Most council committees avoid August dates for obvious reasons. However, casework never rests. And it’s an opportunity to trigger some of our own.

    Circle Court

    Circle Court Lostock, Stretford

    L&Q disposed of the empty block in Spring, once they’d rehoused the last residents.

    Residents are understandably contacting us to find out what’s happening to the block. I am trying to engage with the new owners and will update here.

    Lack of upkeep on our streets

    Our streets are in an appalling condition. Lostock and Barton was officially recorded as having its weed-spraying complete in May.

    Derbyshire Lane West

    I have not seen evidence of ANY weed-spraying in the ward, although I’m told by residents there was some.

    It seems to apply from Flixton to Old Trafford. It is deplorable. The fact that I’ve been raising it with those responsible since May doesn’t vindicate me.

    We’ve still got a minimum of just under five years on the Amey contract. There’s clearly a need for changes in political oversight.

    As ward councillor, I can only apologise.

    The intention now is to do a deep clean of the area. You may (I hope) receive letters asking you to keep the street as clear of vehicles as possible ahead of this happening.

    Development Sites

    Apart from Circle Court, we’ve got a number of additional sites in the area that are fenced off either for, or in anticipation of, active development/renovation.

    • Former Funeral Directors Barton Road, Lostock
    • Moss Vale Hotel
    • Therme
    • Surf City on Barton Dock Road – former container base (P&O)
    • Trafford Waters

    I know a lot of our residents would also highlight The Robin Hood pub in Stretford as being of concern to them.

    I’m actively trying to engage with Council Officers and directly with the developers where this is known.

    Parks

    Lostock Park

    I was delighted that yet again Lostock Park was awarded its Green Flag. It’s easy to underestimate what an achievement this is. Big Congratulations to Maureen and the team of volunteers there.

    Kingsway Park

    My colleague Councillors, Jill Axford, Shirley Procter together with our community champion, Mark Tobin, who is selected to be Labour’s candidate for next May have been working on Kingsway Park.

    They’ve been pursuing action to initiate improvements in the park and engagement by the community.

    Lookout for details of a meeting to get going together on bringing in improvement.

    Highway Trees

    I love tree-lined roads. I think they’re something that defines Trafford. However, even I am beginning to back calls in some places for some cutting back. I’ve been particularly engaged with Canterbury Road. And I’m awaiting review.

    These are two very big trees.

    Featured image: Photo by lil artsy from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-orange-pen-1925536/

    All other photos my own