Canal27ways

Author: Mike C

  • Weekly Update

    Weekly Update

    Quite a light week for meetings. Planning committee met on Thursday with a comparatively light agenda, but that was my only obligatory meeting.

    We had our monthly advice surgery on the 5th. Since I won’t be standing for re-election next May (2026), potential replacements are proactively getting involved now, ahead of the selection process. I feel awkward. I want to separate myself from choosing a successor. Candidates to replace me had been invited to come along to the advice surgery. I didn’t know in advance. I was very uncomfortable. It’s an odd position to be in.

    I hasten to underline that this is just for the Labour candidacy. I never take the voters for granted. The Labour candidate will be selected 31st May. I continue to be a Labour Councillor until 7th May 2026.

    In terms of significant casework, I followed up on social media complaints about NHS lists at Revive Dental at Nags Head Circle. NHS patients had been informed they needed to sign up for private provision to remain on a dentist’s roll. We’re seeing this a lot throughout Trafford, but I’ve been asking questions of both Public Health and the Integrated Care Board (NHS).

    I was pleased to see clearance of the bike lanes on Barton Dock Road together with some lovely planting of flowers on the verge.

    That’s what I call a cycle lane!

    They even watered the flowers the following week, so they’ve done a really good job.

    Stretford Town Centre

    I know the town centre is not Lostock and Barton Ward, but many residents here (including myself) consider themselves proud Stretfordians, and we’re passionately interested in how the regeneration of Stretford meets our needs.

    The last vestiges of the Mall close at the end of August. Some businesses, such as Heron and Aldi retain their premises; others will have new premises in the new layout, and others will sadly depart.

    I’m particularly sad to see Uplift go. It’s no exaggeration to say that the Uplift café has personified the spirit of Stretford since before Covid. They’ve kept going, they’ve delivered art, craft, music and energy to the community when it’s been most needed.

    If you’ve not been following the co-owner Georgie’s video’d walks to work each Saturday on Facebook, you really should dip in and watch a few while they’re online.

    The Uplift Collection

    Frustratingly, we still don’t have a firm grasp of the grand design for Stretford. We have themes of longer hours and an increase in the night-time economy. There’s an aspiration for independent retail, but at the same time, there’s an expectation of corporate uniformity in terms of operating hours. I know there’s a tension there for some smaller operators who are being asked to commit to the project.

    Hopefully, we’ll hear exciting news soon about who’s coming. I think those existing traders need to hear it too.

    There’s been good news that Stretford Beach has won an award. It needs café seating and trade, but I like how it might evolve.

  • Creating a Buzz

    Creating a Buzz

    Carolyn Mason is a resident in Lostock. She’s working on a project to repopulate wild bees in urban areas.

    Planbees.co.uk supplies small boxes of ‘bloom bombs’ that are filled with UK wildflower seeds which are all especially attractive and useful specifically to wild bees.

    Carolyn is hoping to provide samples of these boxes for free – on request – to the local community and asking in return that they upload a video of the planting and post up on their preferred social media, tagging Planbee in the process.  They can also be bought online for £4 a box.

    She also hopes to provide local schools with bags of wildflower scatter seeds for the same purpose.

    Please contact Carolyn carolynmason.mcr@gmail.com

  • Scrutinised: Highway Spend

    Scrutinised: Highway Spend

    A notable scrutiny meeting took place on the 12th March looking at some of the issues that most exercise residents:

    • How highway interventions such as crossings, yellow lines etc. are prioritised
    • Pothole repairs and pavement maintenance
    • Leaf and Gully Clearance
    • Preventing Accidents

    It was the Scrutiny Committee’s attempt at clarity and transparency in the prioritisation of interventions on a limited budget. I think the scrutiny committee made some progress.

    The video of the meeting is worth watching.

    Link to Youtube Recording

    Summary of Meeting

    Matrix Prioritisation

    There was considerable focus from the committee on why certain projects get to the top of the list and others are held back. The example pursued by the committee was ‘double yellow lines’, something that requires a traffic regulation order (TRO). The presentation included a couple of matrices (shown above), but the officers hadn’t submitted all of them and they promised to follow up by submitting the TRO matrix.

    Even without the relevant matrix I think we can get a picture of how proposals are scored. But then it got slightly more complicated.

    • Sometimes opportunities arose to attach the job to another funding stream (examples included Active Travel and the Sale West and Altrincham Network Infrastructure project (Swani)). This could work both ways, bringing forward some projects but holding back others where a cross benefit project might be ‘anticipated’.
    • Finance – I’m hoping they score cost v benefit in all cases, but the nature of yearly budgeting means it is sometimes only possible to do smaller works

    There followed a degree of interogation on whether other interventions could push a project up to the top of the list, a senior councillor’s intervention or a popular petition heard in council.

    Overall on Traffic Matrices

    Essentially, we’re arguing over crumbs. The allocated budgets are so small that it’s hard to see some worthwhile schemes ever happening. We ought to have transparency regardless of the budget. These decisions are far less complex than officers and lead councillors protest. I don’t have a problem that political imperative might play a part in decisions as long as we can see that it has been applied.

    The public are seeing comparatively vast amounts put into active travel. Whilst that is an entirely separate budget, I think the public want to see objectivity and prudence applied to those schemes too.

    I would like to see all the various matrices and projects published on the council’s website. We’re going to have seek solutions to this growing backlog of work and the more we can be upfront about it, the better.

    Two thirds of our footpaths are functionally impaired

    Footways v Highways

    “Footways are obviously a big priority for us, but we have to first and foremost , go with the safety issue and where we can have the most impact on safety. So, the fast majority goes on the ABC network and not on the U class network.” – Chris Morris

    Generally, this is fair. If it was just four-wheeled motor vehicles, I could argue that damaged urban roads reduce speed and improve safety, but the effect of a pothole on two-wheeled vehicles can have fatal repercussions.

    Nevertheless, our footways are in an unacceptable condition. This is a critical element of our activity supporting infrastructure that’s unusable for a lot of people and it’s getting worse.

    Pothole repairs

    My colleague, Cllr Simon Thomas, raised the quality of pothole repairs. He said he was astounded that we were not sealing the potholes and argued that we should also cutting the hole square for a better fix.

    Cllr Thomas on Potholes

    I’m not sure I understand the response from officers in terms of the specific question, but I do get that the underlying condition of the road is the primary concern of the road engineers since the pothole is only the visible manifestation of a larger condition deterioration. That said, if pothole repairs are disintegrating within a short space of time, we need to know.

    Vision Zero / Road Safety

    Greater Manchester has talked a good talk on reducing serious injury on our roads, but I really haven’t seen proactive responses. I thought the most interesting comment was that Trafford officers described the Vision Zero team as being ‘resourced’ (as Trafford sees when they regularly meet). My take is that we need to see output from ‘Vision Zero.

    Resources:

    Presentations submitted to the Scrutiny Committee

    Presentation PDF
    Traffic Regulation Order Scrutiny Jan 24

    I’ve only skimmed the surface of the information submitted to Scrutiny Committee, but I’ve tried to pick out the key elements that are of concern to residents. It’s well worth watching the whole exchange. By all means add your comments below and I’ll try and respond.

  • This is not the way to do it! (welfare reform)

    This is not the way to do it! (welfare reform)

    Reform is needed. The number of people on benefits due to ill health has increased exponentially. Long waiting times within the NHS are contributing to this, but they aren’t the whole story.

    The government has clearly determined that financial incentives to be ‘on the sick’ rather than unemployed contribute to this. If this was all they were looking at, I think there would be room for useful reform, but only at the edges.

    The government has instead chosen a stark change to Personal Independence Payments. Applicants will need to achieve a single 4-point score in the daily living assessments.

    Daily Living Activities

    The Resolution Foundation think tank said the tightening of PIP eligibility would mean between 800,000 and 1.2 million people losing support of between £4,200 and £6,300 per year by the end of the decade. That’s a big change. My colleague, Cllr James Wright has pointed out that Pip often enables work rather than compensating the lack of it.

    James is a passionate Wolves fan*.

    I am worried that Rachel Reeves is relying on the wrong advisers. There are welfare changes that would make sense, bringing prescription charges in line with state pension age, for example. She seems to have bought into the line that we can solve the economy by removing welfare rather than reforming work, which is what is really needed.

    Rachel would benefit from listening to Sean Farrington of the BBC. His radio programme ‘Payslip Britain’ highlights the extent to which work and lack of control within it is damaging our wellbeing. Nine million people not in work and not looking for work is a mindblowing figure. I remember the UK reaching a million unemployed in the seventies. It was considered a seismic change. If work is negatively affecting our well-being, I’m not sure that being cruel to disabled people is going to motivate people back into work.

    Sean Farrington is a passionate Wolves Fan*

    Listen to Payslip Britain

    For the avoidance of doubt, were I to be given a vote, I would vote against the changes to PIP.

    *I only mention the Wolves allegiances, so that both could be reassured that they weren’t alone in this world or Manchester. 😊But this radio programme is a must listen!

  • Sad Passing – John Reilly

    Sad Passing – John Reilly

    He always told me that signing off the installation of cycle lanes and ‘wands’ on Talbot Road went against his better judgement. Whatever the truth of this, he had a habit of installing cycling infrastructure that has stood the test of time.

    I always enjoyed working with John. We sat on a number of committees together and we carried on tweeting intermittently to each other after he retired as a councillor. I’m sorry that he has passed away. He made a significant contribution to Trafford.

    I’ll always be grateful for the cycleway. In terms of increasing active travel which is the true test of new infrastructure, it’s probably the most successful of all Trafford’s initiatives. I think he knew it would be and that’s why he gave it the go-ahead.